I don’t often think about helicopters. Unless I hear them overhead or I see one on TV, these marvelous machines don’t enter my mind. I remember from childhood thinking airplanes were like mechanical birds but helicopters are more like dragonflies.
Living only two hours from Asheville and very near the chain of dams along the Catawba River, surrounded by Nascar race teams, we are in the flight path of many race team volunteer copters and Fort Liberty (formerly known as Fort Bragg). For over a week, we have listened to the regular (about five trips per day for a number of pilots) thrum their whirlybirds over our house. We hear them less now, but still active.
I have never been so grateful for the willingness of helicopter volunteers and our National Guardsmen. These people dropped everything to go to the aid of desperate and displaced citizens in one of the most beautiful and classic rural areas of our country. Unlike anything experienced in the mountains, Hurricane Helene plowed through with anywhere from 13-28 inches of rain, accompanied by massive winds. The volunteer help is not discriminating for people of the land and the mountains, workers in industry, small businesses, the artists, construction, professionals such as engineers, doctors, lawyers, and emergency workers. Survivors from every walk of life have lost everything but one critical possession. The stories of neighbor helping neighbor, of horses and mules being brought from hundreds of miles to rescue people no one else can reach-these are the people bring hope and encouraging resilience. And this help comes from equally diverse walks of life.
This is the country I love so much. Billionaires are stepping up with huge donations and some are even going there to encourage as well. If we think the rich should be taxed more because they have more, think again. Publicity doesn’t lean toward those stories. And if you think people who are less fortunate financially can’t give, think again. These folks are often the ones who volunteer to go and shovel mud, wash belongings, share food, and hold babies for others. One thing seldom publicized is the ways so many people give.
Middle class folks filled the aisles of Costco, BJs, and other big box stores, filling one or two baskets with the kinds of foods and supplies so greatly needed in disaster areas. They found ways to get the supplies delivered through churches and fire and rescue avenues. I know people out of work who showed up transporting heavy equipment and rebuilt driveways and others who shoveled all day till exhausted, keeping a smile on their faces.
Thank God for the Jesus way: sacrificial giving, compassion, comfort, and hope for the future. If you want to know what to do, look around you. Check the internet. Countless churches and fire departments are acting as staging areas for donations. Samaritans Purse has a volunteer tab on its website.
Buncombe County, North Carolina
Billy Graham Training Center at The Cove
1 Porters Cove Road
Asheville, NC 28805
(includes Asheville, Swannanoa, Montreat, Black Mountain)
Mother Factors 