Local Volunteers Help with Hurricane Helene Relief
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Jennifer, Connie, and other volunteers helped remove trees with chainsaws and equipment.
At the end of September, Hurricane Helene made landfall and caused widespread devastation and destruction from Florida’s Gulf Coast to Tennessee. Hurricane Helene carved more than 500 miles of damage and impacted millions. Communities were stranded as floodwaters rose and washed away homes, businesses, roads, and vehicles.
Jennifer Kauth of Clark County is one of many volunteers who decided to lend a helping hand to those affected by Hurricane Helene.
Maddie, Jennifer’s daughter, lives in North Carolina with her husband Matthew. After the hurricane hit, Maddie called Jennifer and told her that their church, Crosspoint Church, was planning on helping people in the mountains who were impacted by the hurricane.
Jennifer decided to go to North Carolina to help as well. At first, Jennifer planned to fill her vehicle up with a load of emergency supplies, but after reaching out to multiple churches in the area, word spread, and the local community rallied together to graciously donate more items.
The supplies were dropped off at the First Baptist Church in Kahoka, MO. The supplies included wipes, diapers, baby food, chainsaws, blankets, bottled water, and non-perishable foods. The community donated so many supplies that a U-Haul had to be rented to deliver them to North Carolina.
“Mike Gutting and Jamie Harmon packed it and we had it completely packed full of over four tons of stuff,” Jennifer said.
“Kahoka just came together as the Church and we had everything that we needed to help people.”
On Thursday, October 7, Jennifer Kauth and Connie Gutting, also of Clark County, drove to North Carolina with the emergency supplies and arrived in Taylorsville, NC.
The next day, they started working with other volunteers from Maddie’s church around Boone, NC. The volunteers helped with clearing debris away from properties in the area.
“The people that we were helping at first were just hopeless, but when people came and helped, they had so much hope,” Jennifer said.
Jennifer, Connie, and the other volunteers helped clear trees with chainsaws and equipment, worked on landscaping, helped move a deck, and rescued a boat. They also helped a widow clean up her five acre property. The volunteers helped her clean out under her house and rebuilt her driveway.
According to Jennifer a lot of places are hard to access because the roads are washed out.
“A lot of places you can get with 4-wheel drive, but a lot of places you can’t because the destruction of the trees and the debris piles are absolutely huge,” Jennifer explained.
“The roads were a little more passable in some areas than I thought they would be, but there was a lot of one lane or where a road had just washed completely out.”
Due to the roads washing out, some areas can only be reached by helicopter.
On October 10, Jennifer and Connie delivered the U-Haul full of donated supplies at Troop F Highway Patrol. The supplies were sorted by the volunteers and organized to give away to people in need.
“We pulled in to unload our stuff and a lady that was a children’s division worker backed her SUV in. We had just unloaded, and a lady had donated like 31 blankets, a lot of them being kids’ blankets, and that is the first thing that went. She grabbed it to take and she headed out with formula, bottles, blankets, diapers, and all baby stuff,” Jennifer said.
Right now, Jennifer said the biggest need is for volunteers to go and sort supplies that are being donated.
“They have a lot of people wanting to come in with equipment, but it is really hard pinpointing specific locations for equipment,” Jennifer explained.
It is going to take a lot of hard work and time to rebuild the communities that were affected by Hurricane Helene, but donating items and volunteering is a great way to give back and help those who were impacted.
Jennifer is working with Mountain Rescue North Carolina. She plans to travel back to North Carolina at the end of November and will be taking specific supplies with her from a list provided by the organization. The group is also planning to set up a toy Christmas Drive to help provide Christmas gifts for children affected by the hurricane.
Jennifer plans to set up a Facebook page, so people can contact her if they want information about volunteering, the Christmas Drive, or about donating certain supplies. She also hopes to get a cargo trailer that can be used for any future disasters in the area or elsewhere.
Jennifer wants to thank the community for donating supplies and to thank everyone who helped sort and load the supplies.
“The thing that impacted me the most was the people in Kahoka that wanted to help,” Jennifer said.
The group of volunteers also worked on landscaping, helped move a deck, and rescued a boat. They also helped a widow clean up her property and helped clean out under her house and rebuilt her driveway.
The community rallied together and donated over four tons of emergency supplies to help with Hurricane Helene relief. The items were dropped off at the First Baptist Church in Kahoka, loaded up in a U-Haul by volunteers, and delivered to North Carolina by Jennifer Kauth and Connie Gutting. The donated supplies were delivered to Troop F Highway Patrol to be distributed to those in need.
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