What it's Like Trying to Help with the WNC Floods | Mountain Towns are Destroyed

To help the victims, this is a local organization that I saw out there helping in the mountains: You can donate here to Samaratin's Purse: https://www.samaritanspurse.org

I made this video to raise awareness & donations for the local organizations. I will be donating the proceeds of this video to the local organizations. I did not show the 200+ vehicles I searched in the rivers downstream of towns or the locals I spoke with about needing help, so the video had a lot of driving & May come across as just driving around , but it is important to me to show.

I was not able to get to an area where I was trying to search for someone that had been swept away in their house into a canyon I used to kayak that I knew well. I grew up in these Appalachian mountains and spent half my life here, it was devastating to so many mountain towns and communities.

Hurricane Helene has absolutely destroyed the Western North Carolina (and Eastern Tennessee) communities. Towns are obliterated, homes gone, people & pets missing, and the communities are in need of help in all manners. There are a lot of areas that are difficult to get into (that are in need of help) and access is for locals only in many areas, primarily because of the road damage.

If you'd like to help in person, contact one of the local volunteer and charity agencies (such as Samaratin's Purse) for more information and to show up in person to help. From what I saw, donations to small local community relief organizations are recommended over larger organizations.
Weather is supposed to start cooling off this week, so they are in need of jackets/propane/fuel/sleeping bags/headlamps and supplies to get locals through the cold weather to come.