ASHEVILLE, N.C. — For more than 15 years, BeLoved Asheville has helped its community. It connected with people on the street and handed out food to people who faced hunger. Now, its services are needed more than ever.
Ponkkho Bermejo, a volunteer of more than 15 years, said since Hurricane Helene hit and ravaged communities he has heard stories from people who lost their homes. He said those stories are followed by people who lost everything. More than 200 people lost their lives in the storm.
"What keeps us moving is all the love that we see, not the destruction that we saw in the river," he said. "You can hear people screaming, 'Help. Help.'"
He said around 500 volunteers showed up to help the community, and over the course of two days BeLoved Asheville has given services to around 10,000 people. Volunteers arrived from across the country. Yesenia Ramos arrived from South Carolina to help.
"I'm proud of being able to provide services to local Hispanic communities, just to be able to help," she said.
Another organization, Samaritan's Purse, is helping provide labor to clean up homes and deliver food. Some volunteers, like Jodie Yoder, are working to restore communication in areas without power.
"That catastrophic flooding, it took out roadways, took out the infrastructure here which makes it hard to communicate with anyone to get help, or to realize who actually needs the help," she said.
The groups aren't only helping people. Many are also factoring in animals, and Joe Gibson said he took action when his neighbor's farm flooded with three horses there. Now, he is taking care of them while his neighbor works to repair the farm.
"We'll all survive together, or we'll all lose together," he said.
That neighbor also went to work caring for other people's livestock, helping make sure animals are safe with the help of the Western North Carolina Livestock Center and Jennifer Ingle. They are collecting donations of hay, feed and other materials to help farmers whose land was damaged.
"I feel like, no matter how hard I prepared or how hard I tried, I failed. I failed my animals," she said. "It's a huge, huge weight has been lifted off our shoulders by folks just giving selflessly."
Bit by bit, the groups are helping put Asheville back together. They are taking different approaches and are focused on helping different parts of the community, but they're all working towards the same goal.
"We're going to stay until the need is no longer, whatever that looks like. We want to make sure that everyone gets the help that they need," said Yoder.