Almost two months after Helene caused devastating floods in the North Carolina mountains, the community of Swannanoa is still working to recover. 

Swannanoa is just east of Asheville, along Interstate 40. The Swannanoa River crested at more than 26 feet near Asheville, destroying homes, businesses and roads in its way.

“And ever since it started, we’ve had so many blessings. There’s so much tragedy and so much destruction, but the people have come through. And there are so many good people in the world,” Jason A. Ward with Valley Strong Relief said.

Valley Strong Relief is run by an army of volunteers working to clean up Swannanoa and help rebuild the community. They’ve set up a supply hub at Old Silverado’s Music Venue near Black Mountain to collect donations and bring them into Swannanoa.

“How many miles do you think you’ve walked over the last few weeks? He was just saying yesterday that he was getting 16 miles a day,” said Ward, who has lived his entire life in this area. His family owns a hemp farm nearby. 

People brought supplies from all over to the distribution hub. They also came to help however they could. 

“Everything we ask for, it’s here. A lot of people are even in each other’s way sometimes. And that’s a good problem to have, but they don’t care. People will go and say they need something or somebody will say they need something and then someone will go and it’s already covered,” Ward said. 

But people here are still suffering, and Ward and the other volunteers keep working. 

“You never know how much you love your town, you never know how much you love your town until something like this happens. And it’s a gut punch. That’s the way you can put it, but I don’t know. We’ve just been digging ourselves out,” he said. 

Ward said their next big project will be to prepare Thanksgiving dinner for hundreds of people in the area next week.