10-07-2024, 06:19 AM
Holly Ellege and I are fine. We still have no power or running water. We are using our generator to swap power between our refrigerator and deep freezer and for our Internet to get calls in and out as well as messages on social media.
Here is an update on everything:
The Homestead:
Holly is doing an amazing job feeding all of the babies in our house. 4 baby piglets born the night of the storm are doing amazingly with their bottle feeding every 4 hours. They are growing quick! All 12 puppies are in great health and their mother is producing enough milk for them all and Holly is making sure they are all rotated so they all get fed. The kittens are growing rapidly and will need to find their fur-ever homes soon. I was able to haul down almost 60 gallons of water to all the animals today by 5 gallon bucket, one by one, to make sure they are stocked up; especially the water foul as they use a lot of water to clean themselves, digest food, etc. The pigs and sheep are almost oblivious as to what is going on as are the rest of the animals because we are making sure they are taken care of as often as possible.
The Neighborhood:
Our mountain neighborhood has almost completely recovered from the aftermath of the storm with the exception of having no power or running water. The morning after the storm, Jeff Best and Josh were immediately outside cutting all of the trees off the road that fell across the road and made sure the road was clear. The linemen from Easley, SC brought up by our other neighbor Cory Bowman finished cutting up the wood several days later and stacked it on the side of the road for the community to use for firewood. We wouldn’t have a clear roadway if it weren’t for them. Today, Ronnie Kirby our neighbor, fixed all of the deep ruts made in the road made by water flow in the sections that needed it most and gathered the inactive power lines off the road so that vehicles wouldn’t come in contact with them. Thank you all so much for all of your help and hard work and making the road to all of our homes safe.
Everyone for the moment has enough fresh water and food thanks to the helicopter food drops coordinated by Heidi Selbee and Noah Swabe as well as the 16 foot supply trailer coordinated by Jennifer Lauren Rowe and the water brought to us by Jerry and Keira. These people were quite literally the lifeline to our nieghborhood and mountain. We cannot even begin to thank you enough for all you’ve done.
Hot meals have been provided to everyone in the neighborhood by our good friends: Amanda Birchfield, OBX Hillbilly Bigfoot bash where the Beach meets the Mountains and Rick Wisswell as well as them bringing some specialty essential supplies needed by several people on the mountain. Thank you for making sure all of us have been fed to have the strength to keep going!
For now, the neighborhood and the mountain is without power, but today the landlines on the mountain, for those who have them, were restored.
The Main Roads and Bridges:
As of today, all of the state maintained roads and bridges on our stretch of road leading to our neighborhood have been fixed. The NCDOT and county have absolutely busted their tails to repair all of the damages caused by the massive volume of water we saw. They have been bringing in dump truck after dump truck of gravel, road bond, rip rap and boulders packing in all of the huge holes, washouts and slides and using excavators to dig out the banks of the creek. From sun up to sundown, they’ve been here. Thank you all for allowing us to get off the mountain and venture out into “civilization”.
The Supply Location:
As of today, the supply location at Rock Springs Church is concluding picking up and dropping off of supplies. The church was gracious enough to let us use the location for 2 days, but the strain on the member volunteers is too much. Everyone in the Crabtree Community can still get supplies at the Crabtree Fire Department, the Methodist Church as well as several other locations; all within a 15 mile radius and all locations have an abundance of supplies.
As for the supplemental supplies, Jerry and Keira are helping me load them up and take them to a church in Asheville that has expressed a great need for supplies. This church in particular is not only providing hot meals every day, but also handing out food and supply boxes every day to the general public. We know that this supplemental delivery of supplies will be put to good use where there is a need and we are happy that we are doing what we can fill it.
During the time Rock Springs Church was used as the supply location, 3 people were there from beginning to end while I made deliveries of supplies to different parts of Crabtree. Those people are Debbie Jo Sapp and Jackie and Jerry Best. They have single handedly made sure everyone that walked in the door was given a box and was told to fill it with any and all supplies and food they needed. They have organized, unpacked, packed, cleaned every item and have fed everyone that visited the location. They are godsends and a testament to the strength and giving hearts of service that the residents of Crabtree have.
Supplies and Donations:
We have stopped taking supply donations, food donations and donations of essentials as the need in our area specifically at the location we were was deemed fulfilled. The fire department and several other locations in the area are still providing supplies and food to all that need it and we encourage everyone to please visit those locations. If you are looking for places to donate, we encourage you to please donate to a place that has expressed a definite and desperate need. Many locations are being inindated and overwhelmed with donations, which is a tremendous blessing, but there are many many places here in rural WNC that have unmet needs. I urge you to please seek them out and donate to them as you will know how to serve them best.
I want to take a moment to thank everyone for their donations to help get our community back on our feet and get people the things they needed. I personally want to thank Tyrell and the Crabtree Fire Department for doing welfare checks and doing coordination on all things at the highest level for our community and helping us with our donation location and making sure we had all we needed, the Haywood County Sheriffs Department, Ohio Task Force 1, the Wisconsin Forestry Service and the NC Forestry Service for helping with unloading air drops, cutting and clearing trees and providing security during unloading aircraft and distribution.
I also want to thank Uncle Dum-Dums Swamp Juice, Emily Fleenor and Bert Arzola Cunningham for helping us put gas in generators, cars, 4 Wheelers and all modes of transportation on our mountain. They have been the lifeline in keeping donations moving and getting them to people that need it most.
In the coming days, we will be branching out and helping efforts outside our community. We will be doing all we can do provide supply drops, goods and food to any and all areas that express they need help. Our community is in good hands now and it is time to move to the next one that needs our help. We will not stop until we’ve done all we can to make sure those without have their needs met.
Please continue to pray for all those who are displaced, suffering, hungry, missing and the families of those who are deceased. Also please pray for the volunteers who are doing their part to help all of those mentioned above. Please pray for our first responders, police, pilots doing air drops, search and rescue teams and supply providers. Also pray for our country as a whole. We all have a long road ahead of us, but we are strong when we are united.
Here is an update on everything:
The Homestead:
Holly is doing an amazing job feeding all of the babies in our house. 4 baby piglets born the night of the storm are doing amazingly with their bottle feeding every 4 hours. They are growing quick! All 12 puppies are in great health and their mother is producing enough milk for them all and Holly is making sure they are all rotated so they all get fed. The kittens are growing rapidly and will need to find their fur-ever homes soon. I was able to haul down almost 60 gallons of water to all the animals today by 5 gallon bucket, one by one, to make sure they are stocked up; especially the water foul as they use a lot of water to clean themselves, digest food, etc. The pigs and sheep are almost oblivious as to what is going on as are the rest of the animals because we are making sure they are taken care of as often as possible.
The Neighborhood:
Our mountain neighborhood has almost completely recovered from the aftermath of the storm with the exception of having no power or running water. The morning after the storm, Jeff Best and Josh were immediately outside cutting all of the trees off the road that fell across the road and made sure the road was clear. The linemen from Easley, SC brought up by our other neighbor Cory Bowman finished cutting up the wood several days later and stacked it on the side of the road for the community to use for firewood. We wouldn’t have a clear roadway if it weren’t for them. Today, Ronnie Kirby our neighbor, fixed all of the deep ruts made in the road made by water flow in the sections that needed it most and gathered the inactive power lines off the road so that vehicles wouldn’t come in contact with them. Thank you all so much for all of your help and hard work and making the road to all of our homes safe.
Everyone for the moment has enough fresh water and food thanks to the helicopter food drops coordinated by Heidi Selbee and Noah Swabe as well as the 16 foot supply trailer coordinated by Jennifer Lauren Rowe and the water brought to us by Jerry and Keira. These people were quite literally the lifeline to our nieghborhood and mountain. We cannot even begin to thank you enough for all you’ve done.
Hot meals have been provided to everyone in the neighborhood by our good friends: Amanda Birchfield, OBX Hillbilly Bigfoot bash where the Beach meets the Mountains and Rick Wisswell as well as them bringing some specialty essential supplies needed by several people on the mountain. Thank you for making sure all of us have been fed to have the strength to keep going!
For now, the neighborhood and the mountain is without power, but today the landlines on the mountain, for those who have them, were restored.
The Main Roads and Bridges:
As of today, all of the state maintained roads and bridges on our stretch of road leading to our neighborhood have been fixed. The NCDOT and county have absolutely busted their tails to repair all of the damages caused by the massive volume of water we saw. They have been bringing in dump truck after dump truck of gravel, road bond, rip rap and boulders packing in all of the huge holes, washouts and slides and using excavators to dig out the banks of the creek. From sun up to sundown, they’ve been here. Thank you all for allowing us to get off the mountain and venture out into “civilization”.
The Supply Location:
As of today, the supply location at Rock Springs Church is concluding picking up and dropping off of supplies. The church was gracious enough to let us use the location for 2 days, but the strain on the member volunteers is too much. Everyone in the Crabtree Community can still get supplies at the Crabtree Fire Department, the Methodist Church as well as several other locations; all within a 15 mile radius and all locations have an abundance of supplies.
As for the supplemental supplies, Jerry and Keira are helping me load them up and take them to a church in Asheville that has expressed a great need for supplies. This church in particular is not only providing hot meals every day, but also handing out food and supply boxes every day to the general public. We know that this supplemental delivery of supplies will be put to good use where there is a need and we are happy that we are doing what we can fill it.
During the time Rock Springs Church was used as the supply location, 3 people were there from beginning to end while I made deliveries of supplies to different parts of Crabtree. Those people are Debbie Jo Sapp and Jackie and Jerry Best. They have single handedly made sure everyone that walked in the door was given a box and was told to fill it with any and all supplies and food they needed. They have organized, unpacked, packed, cleaned every item and have fed everyone that visited the location. They are godsends and a testament to the strength and giving hearts of service that the residents of Crabtree have.
Supplies and Donations:
We have stopped taking supply donations, food donations and donations of essentials as the need in our area specifically at the location we were was deemed fulfilled. The fire department and several other locations in the area are still providing supplies and food to all that need it and we encourage everyone to please visit those locations. If you are looking for places to donate, we encourage you to please donate to a place that has expressed a definite and desperate need. Many locations are being inindated and overwhelmed with donations, which is a tremendous blessing, but there are many many places here in rural WNC that have unmet needs. I urge you to please seek them out and donate to them as you will know how to serve them best.
I want to take a moment to thank everyone for their donations to help get our community back on our feet and get people the things they needed. I personally want to thank Tyrell and the Crabtree Fire Department for doing welfare checks and doing coordination on all things at the highest level for our community and helping us with our donation location and making sure we had all we needed, the Haywood County Sheriffs Department, Ohio Task Force 1, the Wisconsin Forestry Service and the NC Forestry Service for helping with unloading air drops, cutting and clearing trees and providing security during unloading aircraft and distribution.
I also want to thank Uncle Dum-Dums Swamp Juice, Emily Fleenor and Bert Arzola Cunningham for helping us put gas in generators, cars, 4 Wheelers and all modes of transportation on our mountain. They have been the lifeline in keeping donations moving and getting them to people that need it most.
In the coming days, we will be branching out and helping efforts outside our community. We will be doing all we can do provide supply drops, goods and food to any and all areas that express they need help. Our community is in good hands now and it is time to move to the next one that needs our help. We will not stop until we’ve done all we can to make sure those without have their needs met.
Please continue to pray for all those who are displaced, suffering, hungry, missing and the families of those who are deceased. Also please pray for the volunteers who are doing their part to help all of those mentioned above. Please pray for our first responders, police, pilots doing air drops, search and rescue teams and supply providers. Also pray for our country as a whole. We all have a long road ahead of us, but we are strong when we are united.