Town of Erin, WI – Forrest Peterson from the Town of Erin, loaded up four new generators, an excavator, and chainsaws into a truck and took off for Lake Lure, North Carolina on Sunday afternoon to help assist in disaster relief efforts following severe flooding in an area ravaged by Hurricane Helene.
An updated post after a day volunteering is below.
Hi Judy, phone died and I’ve got one bar. An exhausting day of helping at a donation center while still waiting to be deployed for cleanup.
So many people have lost everything who didn’t have much to begin with.
But they have banded together as community. Many times we had people pray over us and each other.
We were stationed at an old hardware store. A little building turned into a makeshift donation center.
Donations were coming in all day from people out of state and local. Had helicopters making some deliveries.
Donations included everything from jars of instant coffee, peanut butter and jelly to boxes of granola bars and cereal. There are bags and bags of clothes and pallets of bottled water.
At the end of the day we sat down for a hot meal at a local church. They treated us like kings with true southern hospitality. Had a delicious huge brownie to end the day.
As for local politics, I heard about one heated confrontation with some mountain boys and officials. Also the death toll numbers are much, much higher than currently reported.
I’ll try to send a few pictures if I have enough internet
October 8, 2024 – Peterson met up with his father, Lynn, in Indianapolis; he too is driving a separate truck and trailer filled with supplies. The pair are working with a group called Spokes of Hope Faith Responders.
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Peterson spent Monday night in Morganton, North Carolina.
“I saw some damage, but we finally got here in the dark,” Peterson said. “We came over the mountains by Linville Gorge in North Carolina and there were fallen trees sprawled across highways, barriers bent and broken.”
Peterson and his dad traveled Highway 181; they’ve heard Highway 221, has way more damage.
“My mother-in-law was just showing me pictures of the Catawba River which is about a mile from her house,” he said. “That’s one of the main rivers that flooded, and it was about a foot from the bottom of the bridge, so it was up at least 30 feet, and it’s just washed away everything in its path down the river.”
“I also talked to a gentleman who had been up there working, and he said all they did was open roads up for people to get through. There’s just piles and piles and piles of debris everywhere. That’s just going to take… years to clean up.”
Peterson said he hopes to be on the road at 7 a.m. “We’re just going to go out, clear debris, open roads, and, if necessary, enter homes and try to help where we can,” he said.
Peterson said he was going to dedicate a week and hoped to make an impact.
“Ours is such a small effort to help spark hope in a place that’s seen too much damage already,” he said.
A team from West Bend, WI will then head out to take over.
Stay tuned, as Peterson will file more stories about the cleanup following Hurricane Helene.
On a side note: The VFW Post on Sand Drive in West Bend, Wi, is collecting donated items during Burger Night on Wednesday, October 9, 2024, from 4 p.m. – 7 p.m.
