Community Helene and Climate Stories Last updated or reviewed on April 24, 2025 Helene Neighborhood Leadership Reflections Asheville residents’ resilience and creative talents shone brightly in the dark days and weeks following Tropical Storm Helene. Neighbors united to share information and life-saving resources across neighborhoods. Existing relationships grew into networks of community care resulting in unprecedented action and incredible innovation. In the weeks following the storm, Asheville received support from around the country. Community leaders rose to the occasion to manage this wellspring of generosity by activating volunteers and distributing resources to people who needed them the most. At the forefront of this effort were neighborhood and community organizations, faith leaders, and everyday humans turned heroes. People dedicated their time, energy and expertise to share food and water, stack diapers, drive forklifts, check on neighbors and chart a path out of the darkness together. Here are reflections from a few of the countless leaders who stepped up to support action and connection in the wake of Helene. Humans Turned Heroes Asheville Dream Center and Revol Church - Pastor Matthew and Michelle Coleman and Diana Kuzmich “I’ve been in ministry for over 20 years. I’ve never seen anything like this in my life. We met people that we wouldn’t have met any other way. And those relationships that have come through are just gold. We have such an incredible ability to move forward now because we’ve got greater connectivity to each other. It’s going to take the community.” – Pastor Matthew Coleman “Resilience is being able to take that long-term. And so right now, we’re thinking, ‘How can we help next?’” – Diana Kuzmich Burton Street Community and St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church - Margaret Fuller, Yvette Jives and Pastor Charles Martin “We were able to network outside of our community with different organizations like CoThinkk, Ms. Renee at East End, Andrea at Emma and ABIPA, we got supplies from them to serve our community and were able to go door to door and identify what the people in this community needed.” -Yvette Jives “Let’s not wait till the next storm. You see it on people’s face when they are hurting. So let’s not wait till the next storm. Let’s be in tune with our neighbors and say, hey, do you need something?” – Pastor Charles Martin East End/Valley Street Community and St. James AME Church - Renee White and Reverend Douglas Bynum “We set up block captains; this was part of our plan. They went door to door to find out what the needs were. For elderly and disabled people in the neighborhood, they couldn’t get to us, but we could get to them. We now know who our neighbors are.” – Renee White “It was an eye opening experience both in terms of witnessing what we’ve always believed to be there in the goodness of people. The resilience, the cooperation, the love.” – Revered Douglas Bynum Emma Community, Poder Emma and Colaborativa La Milpa - Alan Luis Ramirez and Jonathan Palma “You share the food, be clear with the community, and be honest. That’s one of those things we really did, be honest with everybody and share whatever we have.”- Jonathan Palma “We already had really strong relationships. In the time of the hurricane we came together to respond. It was really helpful to have one place where we brought all the donations, and from that place, we were able to distribute them to all. It was our basin.” – Alan Luis Ramirez Shiloh Neighborhood Association and Friendship Center - Sophie Dixon, Norma Baynes, Laura Lee Petritz, Shaniqua Simuel and Kimmy Hunter ”People trusted us. Shiloh neighborhood association has been around for 25 years. We have a rapport in the community. People were able to get what they needed and go. Even gas, insulin, toiletries, anything… I mean, down to fruit rollups. But we built trust in the community so they knew where they could come. They knew they could be vulnerable with us.” – Shaniqua Simuel “That’s how this community is. And I was so grateful that they just took care of me like I was their mom or their grandma. So it was a nice feeling.” – Norma Baynes Southside Community and Arthur Edington Education & Career Center - Philip Cooper and Shaunda Jackson “People were at it from sun up to sundown, making sure that people had what they need. So we needed to be able to lean on each other. And the only way to truly make that happen is to already have that relationship. We told them, meet at the center. And this was the hub. So everybody knew to be here.” – Shaunda Jackson “It definitely took a village and we made it happen.” – Philip Cooper Community Member Spotlights Matt Balance, Asheville Fire Station 1 “We have several areas here in the city that we consider wildland-urban interface. We have to educate individuals on creating defensible space around their homes. We have to make sure that people are landscaping and protecting homes so that, if we get a wildland fire, you’ve already done your part to help firefighters protect your home and to keep you safe.” DeWayne Barton, Burton Street Community “The environment has a universal way of bringing people together, like music. When the water flows and the neighborhood floods everybody out, everybody comes together, as they have all been impacted. “As a neighborhood, we’re doing a time, talent, and treasure mapping, where we’re asking everybody what’s their time, treasure and talent that they can give back to the neighborhood. And from that, we’ll create an emergency response team – even a neighborhood tool share.” Tom Burnet, Hall Fletcher Looking at this as an opportunity -not a crisis- to think more deeply about how we live our lives, be more creative individually and ask, ‘How can we improve our lives, communities, and our climate at the same time?’ Catherine Mitchell, East End Valley Street “Climate change is a topic that I raise often with my friends because their homes-their neighborhoods-are at risk. Whether they recognize it or see it coming, it’s there. “You can’t build resilience unless you have information. Once you receive that information, you can do protective measures.” Trumie Treece, Middle School Student Climate change is impacting our generation more than the last, and it’s only going to get worse. If I have kids one day, their world won’t be safe—even in North Carolina. The weather, flooding, hurricanes, and even tornadoes will become more intense. I’ve become more aware of how much one person can make a difference, but no one has to do it all alone. If everyone walked to school or work just once a week, it could really help reduce climate change.
