Hurricane Helene forces North Carolina residents to sleep in tents where homes once stood

SWANNANOA, N.C. - Nearly a month after Hurricane Helene devastated areas of the Southeast and killed more than 250 people, North Carolina residents are sleeping in tents where their homes once stood, even as temperatures drop to the 30s at night.

Kris Weil is one of several people in hard-hit Swannanoa sleeping in a tent with his dog outside his home, which was destroyed by intense flooding and winds on Sept. 27. Weil's story is nothing short of a miracle.

Less than 24 hours before the storm struck the Appalachian Mountains, Weil's 8-month-pregnant girlfriend was transported to the hospital because she was experiencing chest pain. Weil stayed home to prepare for the baby, at which point he started getting flood warnings on his phone, not knowing he'd soon be left with nothing.

Weil watched as water rapidly flooded his neighborhood and then made its way inside his home.

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"The house completely got washed off its foundation, and we got sucked out the back window — with me and my friend and three dogs — and managed to survive long enough for a swift water rescue boat to come get us, just by chance, they had just showed up in town from Chicago, Illinois," Weil told Fox News Digital. "They came and got us out of the tree with a rescue boat. And we've been staying in tents."

The water that flooded Weil's home forced him out a back window that had broken open. He was able to latch onto a vine attached to a tree in his backyard with one hand and hold onto one of his dogs with the other hand as water rushed through the area.

It wasn't until nearly six hours later that a rescue boat from Cook County, Illinois, arrived and transported Weil and his friend to safety.

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"She would have been in that tree with me," Weil said of his girlfriend had she not gone to the hospital before the storm hit.

For days, there was no cellphone service or Wi-Fi for Weil to contact his girlfriend, but when he eventually found a way to contact her, he learned she had been transported to UNC Medical Center in Chapel Hill where she delivered a healthy baby several weeks before her due date on Oct. 20.

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The couple named their baby Sage Nevaeh — her middle name being "Heaven" spelled backwards. Sage is expected to be released from the NICU soon, Weil said. His girlfriend qualified for a program offering her temporary free housing, and she and the baby are both doing well.

— Kris Weil

"The churches, the community, more than anything, have been some of the people who have helped the most. And it's been inspiring to know that we're not forgotten. The people are amazing," Weil said. "Their willpower and their love for other people is amazing. … They come in here in force and brought us everything we need. And they weren't going to leave until they knew we were all right."

Volunteers donated several tents to Weil and his dog, as well as a bike, food, a camping stove and propane. Emerge Ministries was able to find someone to donate a car to Weil so he can visit his girlfriend and newborn.

Less than a mile from Weil, Dara Cody and her neighbor are sleeping in tents where their homes once stood in picturesque yards on the banks of the Swannanoa River.

"For whatever reason, I just couldn't sleep that night," Cody said of the night Hurricane Helene came through, adding that she kept "checking and checking" the water level of the river behind her home that she had lived in since 2010.

"Something wouldn't let me rest. I almost fell asleep several times, but something brought me back awake," she explained. "But then at about 5 in the morning, I just couldn't rest till I got up and went and looked. … It had jumped up about 12 feet in 30 minutes … and it was way higher up in my yard and way deeper."

At that point, Cody woke her partner and told him, "You have to get up right now. We're not going to make it if you don't."

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They grabbed what personal items they could and fled their home, which is now a patch of dirt beside the river that came far up over its banks that morning, destroying homes, cars and land. The couple found shelter while Helene passed through the area, but when they returned to where their home once stood the next day, it was "completely gone."

"Like, is this a dream? What is happening here? I just didn't know how to feel," Cody recalled.

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"Our home, my car, everything was just completely gone. And the devastation — not just in my home — of the entire town was just absolutely heartbreaking and just beyond … there are no words," she said. "It was shock. It was pain. It was hurt. It was just, my heart was broken for my whole town. I've lived here my entire life since I was born."

— Dara Cody

In the weeks since, Cody has been working to gather what remnants of her home she can. Volunteers from Emerge Ministries have been helping her clean and sort through debris. At night, Cody, her partner and their neighbor sleep in tents alongside the now-destroyed edges of the Swannanoa.

She added that she is a candidate for a tiny home "if the county will allow it."

"All the volunteers that have come here have just been beyond what we could ever imagine and have been more generous than we could ever imagine," Cody said. "They have all done more for us than we ever imagined any people, especially strangers, would ever do for us. The outpouring of love and compassion and generosity and people giving … has just blown our minds. It's unbelievable."

— Dara Cody

Shannon Martin Easley of Louisiana and Judy Norris of North Carolina are two volunteers with Emerge Ministries who have been helping Cody and others in the aftermath of Helene. The ministry has anywhere from 50 to 150 volunteers in the western North Carolina region "from all over the country" offering help "every day," Easley said.

"My uncle cleared a driveway for a man a few days ago, and he had not seen a human in 20 days," Easley said. "How many more are just like him?"

Volunteers from Ohio and Maryland also spoke with Fox News Digital in Swannanoa. 

Martha Hershberger and her husband, Roy, of Shekinah Christian Fellowship in Ohio, have been serving hot meals under a tent in a parking lot off the main road in Swannanoa. She estimates that she and other volunteers have been serving between 1,500 and 2,000 meals per day.

"We've dealt with several people who've lost their homes, and we've talked to some who have watched their neighbors drown and everything washed away," Hershberger said. "We've talked to some who have their home. They lost power for a bit, but they're all impacted with the trauma of it."

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Hershberger added that the people of western North Carolina will need "help for the long haul."

Several volunteers from Maryland echoed that sentiment. Barbara Kaufman of A Lady and A Hop Maryland LLC, David Hawkins of Hawkins Landscaping and Michele Payton of Pulling for Veterans all came to Swannanoa from Frederick to deliver supplies and services to those in need. Kaufman said she traveled to the area to help people clean their damaged homes.

"We need boots on the ground, hands to the plow," Kaufman said. "These people here need help."

"Yeah, they shouldn't be sleeping in tents," Payton added.

A total of 26 North Carolinians remain missing in the wake of Helene. The storm caused widespread damage across seven states that will take years for some towns to recover from. Locals and volunteers compared Helene's devastation to a war zone.

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