Hi, I'm Holly and I'm Haley. Welcome to Mountain Mysteries Tales from Appalachia. Hi friends, this is Haley. This week's a little bit different.
We are just kind of recording some voice messages to get out to you guys. We are still dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. I just wanted to hop on and let you all know that. This is my message in Holly's will play right after her, so don't worry I'll be here in both of us this week.
But I am okay, and my home is okay. We were really, really lucky in my area of western North Carolina. We only lost power. My house for maybe 36 hours, a few trees down here and there, but nothing like some other parts of either the county that I live in and are surrounding counties.
I have been working pretty much since this started. First off with my local church and then switched gears to the school that I work in, which you guys knew that I work with high school students. We actually became a distribution site like so many other schools. So we were a distribution site for the community.
So I've been learning new skills like how to manage, it felt like how to manage a Walmart with the amount of donations and supplies and things that were coming in. We were getting truckload after truckload of supplies to give out to our community. We actually just, as you guys are hearing this on Thursday, recording this Wednesday night, we actually just closed our distribution site at our school as the community centers and churches in my area are able to take over so we can hopefully get students back in school here in the next few days, weeks, whatever it might look like. There's a lot of logistic things that have to happen before students can come back.
But that's kind of where my brain has been. It's been crisis mode, it's been exhaustion, just from making a lot of decisions very quickly. I told people I was like, I'm just making this up as I go pretty much because we've never experienced anything like this in this area. We're not used to this amount of wind and rain and hurricanes don't happen in the mountains.
We're used to snow and that kind of thing. We're not used to hurricanes. So it's been really, really difficult to see areas of our community and surrounding communities just completely destroyed. I'm currently running on just a few hours of sleep and have worked a full day at the distribution sites.
I'm not 100% sure how much since I'm making, but I just wanted to be able to hop on and at least give you guys an update and let you hear from both myself and Holly. We have been so, so blessed and overwhelmed by the amount of support from all over the country and our little towns. Both of my parents and I've talked about that. They're both paramedics have been working throughout this whole thing in different locations in Western North Carolina helping out, doing what they can while doing their regular jobs.
So it's definitely a family affair and a team effort in all things. We have had such a great team that I've been working with day in and day out and I can't imagine trying to do anything without that incredible group of people and if you're listening I'll know who you are. Yeah, there have been moments this week that I've been absolutely speechless that I have cried. I have cried a lot.
I've sat in a dark room with members of my team. We just kind of sat together and cried. I've cried with strangers. I've hugged strangers.
I've talked with people who've lost everything. I've talked with people who've lost a little bit. I've talked with people who have been struggling financially before this started and now even more so just are absolutely devastated. I've seen destruction of there's parts of there's places that I've been to deliver supplies or to check on families and things like that.
That literally looks like a bomb and off in some of these places. The roads are destroyed and it's one of those things that you can't really wrap your head around it until you see it and talking with folks that are experiencing such loss and are still out helping people and serving people and that's just kind of what we do and Appalachia that's our thing. We're really, really good at helping each other. We're a resilient group of people.
There is some darkness in that but there's so much light and so much good that I've seen and just overwhelms any negativity and any any darkness that comes out of something like this but just wanted to let you all know that we are safe. I'm safe. My family is safe. We are very, very lucky, very blessed and I think as we kind of go through the next couple weeks we're hoping to kind of do a episode where we kind of are able to sit down together and kind of discuss you know what the heck just happened and get that out to you guys but for this week I just kind of wanted to give you a little update into kind of what we've been doing the past couple of weeks where our heads are.
The biggest thing that I have dealt with a lot personally is gilts both you know gilt that I fared better than others. A gilt that I had electricity back after 36 hours when I had friends who were and I had friends who were still with electricity that I have water and I have you know people I love and care about that don't and won't have water for the foreseeable future. Gilt that I'm tired because I'm not the one out there you know doing rescue operations or body recoveries or that kind of thing. I'm just you know helping people get the supplies that they need and you know no job is I would tell somebody and that you know no job is too small and a time like this but that's kind of hard that's hard to tell yourself I've learned but dealing with guilt dealing with anger dealing with frustration dealing with sadness it's very much like going through the stages grief I've learned I kind of hollanded and raged today which I think it was needed I needed to do that.
My main project today was I have a family that I work with and they have not been able to laundry since this happened so I had them drop their laundry off to me and I use our schools washer and dryer and I did laundry today for a family and any break that I had I went go and switch it over and hop right back out and worked on things I've unloaded two pallets of MREs and tossed them through a window into our building so that we have them for you know later as we need them but it's just the amount of overwhelming support and all of you guys who have reached out and sent emails and you know messages and checked in on both of us I can never you know I never imagined that kind of response but also I'm so so thankful and grateful and I'm hoping that maybe next week we can have a little bit more of a normal episode and hopefully Holly and I can get back together and and kind of record what what just happened to episode didn't get that out to you guys as well but I am again so so grateful if you have stuck with me through all of my rambling I can't just begin to describe how incredibly thankful and grateful and blessed that I feel being able to serve my community during this time but also just seeing the overwhelming amount of support coming in from across the country for us so um y'all don't forget Appalachia we are our hearts are with Florida right now as well they're preparing for a pretty massive hurricane and you know we're we're doing okay and we're gonna make it and you know this area is we're we're a strong group of people so I have no doubt that we'll be back and stronger than ever and hopefully talk with you guys more next week bye y'all hi everyone in lieu of an episode this week Haley and I wanted to send you all a personal message from each of us as many of you are aware hurricane helene ravaged western north carolina a place where Haley and I both call home it's hard to put into words what it's like to see such devastation all around you and to feel absolutely powerless to do anything about it I was admittedly ill prepared for this storm as so many others were hurricanes are not common in this area sure we've experienced hard rain in the past but nothing to this degree there are things I've seen that I can't unsee the magnitude of what helene left in her wake will stay with us for generations to come communities have been wiped off the map families have lost their homes and nearly 100 people have perished summer still missing the impact of the storm has changed perspectives we are not merely humans traveling this earth alone we find strength and the love and support of others who help us in times of need I personally have learned a great deal of patience I have been humbled and I have learned that through it all most people are good this is seemingly contrary to our podcast filled with crimes and murder it's really nice to have your belief in the human spirit restored we become so cynical I have had moments in the last almost two weeks that I cry daily I cry for those who are missing I cry for those who have perished I cry for the families I cry for the homes that have been lost I cry for the children and I cry for my own child who has had their witness to the tragedy around him and yes if I'm being honest I've cried to the lack of power water and basic items that I've gotten so accustomed to in sorrow however there are glimmers of hope individuals across our state the US and Canada have rallied behind us and brought in food water and much needed supplies I am so grateful for our neighbors friends colleagues strangers lineman firefighters counselors and EMS as well as police who have gone above and beyond to help us in our darkest hour the light of their love has given us all hope to our listeners your gifts and the impact of your thoughts and prayers are felt so greatly and they are appreciated we love y'all and we promise that next week we will air a new episode with that being said I want to use this platform to take a moment of silence to pay honor and respect to those that we have lost those who are missing and the thousands of individuals who are hurting please join me in this moment of silence again I want to let you know that Hayley and I are both safe and well while every day brings its own set of new challenges we are truly grateful be alive and have had such a wonderful audience supporting us through the years and now I'm happy to report that amidst it all our faith and humanity is stronger than ever like I said most people are good God bless you all and thank you Hawley