Healing Homes and Hearts After Hurricane Helene

The first enormous mighty oak crashed through the bathroom roof at 5 a.m., just moments after Laura had been standing nearby, holding one of her newborn twin granddaughters.  

The second massive tree dropped on the master bedroom about 8 a.m. – courtesy of the deluge Hurricane Helene left in the Asheville, N.C., landscape in late September – not long after Laura insisted that her daughter and two other young children resume hunkering down in the basement.  

It seemed the storm was chasing them, all around the once lovely home her family had lived in for decades ... a home that Laura had encouraged her daughter and young family to take shelter in while her husband was working in emergency communications for the City of Charlotte. She thought the basement would keep them safe, even though she’d never imagined what could happen. 

This story played out again and again across the Blue Ridge Mountain community, at the junction of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers. More than 100,000 homes were damaged or demolished in the previously inconceivable hurricane devastation, 650 miles from where the storm first came ashore. 

Now, three of those battered homes have Kahua’s stamp on them. 

Earlier this week, Kahua sent 10 of its employees as volunteers from across the U.S. – and one from Canada! – to pitch in with clean-up. What could those 20 hands accomplish in a few days in the face of such ruin? Perhaps more than we initially thought, even with one colleague wearing a walking boot after an unfortunate incident with a trailer hitch.  

The Kahua Ten signed up with a local disaster relief organization, which gave us bright orange shirts (so similar in color to the orange in the Kahua logo) and sent us to different homes each day. The type and depth of damage at each house varied, and it was never evident with just a quick glance at the home’s exterior. 

But if you ventured inside or into the back yard, the story was different. 

Cindy’s story was one of downed trees precariously perched on her doghouse and a neighbor’s fence, which created such a dangerous setting for her dogs and young children, she couldn’t let them play outside. Her neighbor Debbie was living in fear that as the trees were taken down, her home would be seriously damaged in the process. 

It took a few hours, but the trees were cut down and then cut up, and volunteers hauled branches and logs to the curb, where tons of other debris already sat.  

Debbie baked oatmeal raisin cookies (the best we’ve ever tasted) to share with us, and Cindy shared her thanks through tears. She said, her bright blue eyes brimming with gratitude, while it might’ve just looked like trees to us, “it meant everything to me, physically and emotionally.” Having to hire a professional would have been upwards of $10,000, and who knows when she could’ve booked the service. 

Now, she feels safe to host her son’s sixth birthday party. Now, she feels excited about inviting family over for Thanksgiving dinner.  

That my company displayed such generosity and compassion to help make this happen fills me with pride that I can’t adequately express. 

It’s extraordinary when people discover blessings in storms. Laura – who had the two trees come through her house with three grandbabies inside – is one of them. In between hugging volunteers, she said something we all likely believe but haven’t had the necessity to know: A house is a house, but a home is all about the people who live inside it. While her house won’t be livable for months, her home remained intact. 

“I can’t even tell you what it means to see all of these volunteers working on my house, cutting away trees and hauling out wet carpet and all of that nasty insulation,” Laura said. “But I can tell you that orange is my new favorite color.” 

***
This is the third time that the “Kahua Cares” initiative has sent employees to provide disaster assistance where colleagues were impacted; other locations were Houston, Texas, and Mexico Beach, Florida. Kahua Cares is also responsible for sending two Georgia youths on Make-A-Wish trips and employees compiling meal kits for third-world families.