It’s been more than a month since Helene wreaked havoc throughout western North Carolina and left more than 100 people dead in the aftermath. People might think the worst is over but more than 100,000 homes were damaged or destroyed and many thousands of people are still in shelters or camping out near their uninhabitable houses.
The Red Cross continues to seek volunteers and Michael DeCinti, communications director for the North Carolina Red Cross, says the need for help is ongoing. He talks to WFAE’s Gwendolyn Glenn from Asheville about the conditions in western North Carolina and the areas of need.
Michael DeCinti: These towns that were thriving four weeks ago look like they've been abandoned for decades. Shops ruined, houses off their foundations, mud piled up in feet, not inches. I was driving down the street the other day near the campus of A-B (Asheville-Buncombe) Tech College and saw debris up in a tree about 20 feet, which shows the height of the river above its banks. It's incredible when you see the power and the devastation of the storms that came through here.
Gwendolyn Glenn: And I would imagine a lot of homes are still not livable at this point.
Michael DeCinti: That is correct and the Red Cross still currently has eight shelters in the area. We have about 300 folks that we are taking care of and trying to find suitable transitional housing for them. Of course, we're feeding them as well and providing any sort of emergency supplies and services such as health care and mental health services.
Glenn: Describe what these shelters are like so people can get a better idea of the conditions that people are having to live under currently.
Michael DeCinti: Each shelter has a private area where those that are under our care get to sleep and be with their families in private, as well as an area where there are games, television and activities. We give them breakfast, lunch and dinner and snacks and drinks. We do have children and pets in some of our shelters.
Glenn: The Red Cross has said that it needs volunteers. What do you need volunteers for and what kinds of things would they be doing and how much time would you need these volunteers?
Michael DeCinti: We will gladly take as much time as they're willing to offer, whether it's hours or days. We have upwards of 800 volunteers on the ground in western North Carolina when things were at its worst. We still have over 500 volunteers in this area, but as you can imagine, those folks come from all over the country and they themselves may be a little bit tired and burned out and they need to go home to their families. So, we're always looking for new volunteers to come in if they have the opportunity to be a full-fledged volunteer where they can give us two weeks of their time, they can do a whole host of things, or if they just have a few hours or a few days, we can train them on something specific like we might train them on how to serve and distribute food out of one of our emergency response vehicles, how to keep a shelter clean so there's a wide variety of what folks can do if they want to volunteer. All of it is needed and all of it is welcome.
Glenn: Now, what are the most dire areas of need?
Michael DeCinti: Well, as you might guess, the sheltering aspect, it takes a lot of time. It's 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Our volunteers often stay in the shelters or they stay in a very close volunteer shelter nearby. So, as you can imagine, those shifts are a little bit harder and a little bit longer, but the feeding aspect is also a large component of our relief efforts. We load up our emergency response vehicles twice a day with food and we take them to either designated locations or we go into those hard-hit areas where roads are now just opening up and we provide hot meals to folks that may not have been able to have a hot meal in a long time.
Glenn: How is the blood supply there?
Michael DeCinti: So, early on we were struggling and the Asheville Blood Center closed as well as local drives were canceled. But the great news is now our Asheville Blood Center is open seven days a week and we have been filled from opening untill closing.
Glenn: You said you've been there a couple of weeks and I'm sure you've been all out in the area. Any person or any family kind of really touched you that you could tell us about?
Michael DeCinti: Just today, we were at one of our community care centers talking with a gentleman who was picking up lunch for himself, his kids and his grandparents, and he's currently staying in a shelter because he can't get back in his house. He's tired and exhausted, and I'm sure the family feels that way too but yet he had a smile on his face. He was excited about lunch and he was saying kind things about us. That's the kind of stuff that is so heartwarming.
