BURNSVILLE, N.C. — For more than a decade, real estate agent Stephanie Johnson has been winding through Yancey and Mitchell counties, showing potential buyers everything the rugged terrain has to offer.

“For 14 years I’ve talked about how incredible this place is,” Johnson said. “This land and these people healed my soul.”

But after Helene hit, the mountains and valleys she knew so well were changed forever.

What You Need To Know

  •  Stephanie Johnson has worked as a realtor for 14 years in Yancey and Mitchell counties

  •  After Helene, she saw how much help her neighbors needed

  •  She founded "Rebuilding Hollers," a nonprofit that helps residents rebuild their community

  • They are hosting a "Jeepin' to the Hollers" event May 31, which is a guided tour through the damaged communities to show how much help is still needed

“When the creek came, it just took out all of the back of this church up,” Johnson said. “There’s been significant cleanup back here.”

It inspired Johnson to start a new nonprofit called “Rebuilding Hollers,” allowing Johnson to get to work as a makeshift project manager for her neighbors as they rebuild.

“This is a family of four that lived here, a mom and dad and two little girls,” Johnson said. “So they can’t build back here because it was a small parcel. Depending on how they want to do it, if they want to stick build, they want a doublewide, we’ll just stand right there with them.”

But even through their foundation’s work, Johnson says it’s hard to explain to people outside western North Carolina how rocky the road is that still lies ahead.

“We are still very much living with devastation all around us,” Johnson said. “The only way we know, I know how to get help, is to continue showing people.”

On May 31, Johnson and her team will be taking people “Jeepin’ to the Hollers.” A guided tour through Yancey and Mitchell counties to show people from out of town some of the worst hit areas.

“You see where the garage was? There was a house there,” Johnson said. “You see where the porch is? There was a house there.”

Johnson hopes the event will show people how much damage still remains.

“Most people don’t know how bad it is, you know? And that is the point of this tour is to show people how bad it is,” Johnson said. “Because it is still very bad.”

While it may seem strange to drive through and to look at everything people have lost, Johnson says the attention is desperately needed for their community’s survival.

“All the small businesses are failing,” Johnson said. “Part of “Jeepin’ to the Hollers” is to get people here to see what’s going on, and then to come to our event downtown and buy things.”

Not only for businesses, but for the spirit of her neighbors. As Johnson says, the feeling of isolation for those in the mountains has slowly been creeping in.

“We did lose one community member to suicide early on,” Johnson said. “I feel like, so many of my projects have thought that when I’m talking to them, I’m worried that they’re thinking those things. And so, I just don’t let them. I just won’t let them. I just hug them up, and I say, ‘Look, this is what we’re going to do.’”

She hopes with every mile of road their tour covers, it will reassure neighbors in western North Carolina that they aren’t forgotten.

“The most important thing is to be positive with them,” Johnson said. “That’s what I’m always trying to pick their spirit up and let them know they’re not alone.”

And that help is not going away.

“If we keep them, keep them positive messages and stay with them as they rebuild, even in little pieces. It keeps them with hope that they know they’re going to be okay,” Johnson said.

The “Jeepin’ to the Hollers” event is set to take place on May 31.

Johnson says the event will take place in Burnsville, with rides starting at 9 a.m. and a festival with local businesses and shops will be set up in the Burnsville Town Square starting at 10 a.m.