THE VICTIMS OF HURRICANE HELENE STILL NEED YOUR HELP

Try and imagine, your family has lived in a small town in North or South Carolina or Eastern Tennessee. A hurricane is forcasted for the Gulf Coast of Florida. You know that this might mean some rain up your way but you never in a million years expected what came next. The rains came. Boy did they come! You might have stood on your porch watching the river rise then went back inside to get ready for bed. Next thing you know you're woke by a roar like you've never heard before. The river had rose fast and beyond anything like ever before. You go to get your family and gather a few things to get out and go to higher ground and in just that short time the water had risen up to your porch, your car is inaccessable and the road is flooded. You look out your window to see your neighbors houses washed away and you can only watch helplessly as you see your neighbors along with their pets, livestock and all their belongings stuggling in the raging waters. You and your family along with only what you can carry race out the back of your house and climb up the side of the mountain as fast as you can. Thankfully your path carried you off sideways a bit because now you hear a different roar and you look to see the side of the mountain just above your house come sliding down taking out everything in it's path including your house and all your belongings washing it all into the raging waters below. Reading this short synopsis sounds horrible but it doesn't even come close to what the people I asked you to imagine felt. Some things you just can't imagine unless you've lived through it yourself. Soon the skies clear but the land you see that had been so familiar all your life is gone. In it's place is miles of mud, sludge and rubble, complete carnage. For some the river now flows where their house once stood. Their homes not just damaged but for some their land is completely gone, leaving not even a place to rebuild. The only things remaining are bills for things that no longer exist. Worse yet, you probably didn't have property insurance as difficult as times have been the last few years. Or if you did it doesn't cover flood damange because you weren't allowed to purchase flood insurance, afterall you were no where near the flood plain. Now what? Surely help would be coming soon. Right? So you wait. If you're lucky you might have neighbors or family who came to check on you but for many not even that happened. IF they had cellphones, they were of no help as the storm had taken out towers when they already only provided scanty service in the mountains. Many of these people feel forgotten. FEMA has done little to nothing. The government has done little to nothing. It's been a little over 2 months and volunteers are still searching and finding bodies. Many may never be found and the families of those who remain forever missing cannot file for life insurance unless they have the funds to get caught up in probate for months. Winter is setting in and there are still families living in tents. If they are lucky they have been provided hot tents which include a wood burning stove. They have no clean water other than what volunteers have hauled in by foot for 4 wheelers. No sewers to use the bathroom or shower. The river is polluted with toxic waste. And Christmas is less than two weeks away. The mainstream media is offering little to no coverage now so donations and volunteers are becoming less and less while many haven't even begun to recover and others are just beginning. What little money the goverment gave for immediate needs such as hotels has ran out. I wish I was better at writing. I wish I could do a better job of emphasizing how badly these people still need our help. I'm asking that you share this so we can get the word out to as many people as possible. It's my undestanding that they still desperately need- Volunteers to come and help (feet on the ground). If you can get there they'll put you to work. Heavy machinery to demolish, flatten, haul you name it. Cadaver Dog teams and side by side 4x4's to help get them to where they are needed. 4 season campers to live in while they rebuild or figure out what they can do. Building materials and money. Now it's just beginning to come out that some of the volunteers who were helping manage the donations were scammers so I'm listing a couple organizations I know are legit. Samaritans Purse- www.Samaritan'sPurse.org Plum Church- www.PlumChurch.com and if you have building materials to donate- Spokes of hope- Connie@spokentogether.org