Helene Heroes

This past fall, Western North Carolina experienced one of the worst natural disasters the area has ever seen, and as a result, 105 North Carolinians perished. In total, more than 200 people across the country lost their lives in the storm. 

Abnormally strong winds and record-high flooding were the major contributors to the storm’s destructive power. Just before the hurricane passed through WNC, the area experienced a lot of rainfall, which elevated water levels across the region, even causing some initial flooding in certain places. As the storm pushed through Western North Carolina from Thursday night to Friday morning, it left devastating conditions behind. Bridges collapsed, roads were destroyed, trees were snapped at the roots, and most significantly, buildings, homes, and even whole towns were washed away.

In a clear demonstration of love, neighbors came out in droves to help their communities. People searched for missing loved ones, chopped down trees, cleared roads, and shared food and water with others. The list of people who deserve recognition for their supportive actions is lengthy beyond belief. But in these pages, we’ve tried to honor a few of the individuals and groups who have made significant contributions to the recovery and relief efforts of Western North Carolina. 

Ponkho Bermejo has worked as co-director of BeLoved Asheville since 2013. He got to know other leaders in the organization through music; their shared passion for intentional community sparked their collaborative efforts for the organization.

Gustavo “Ponkho” Bermejo - BeLoved Asheville

With roads and communication closed off the morning after the storm, those in Western North Carolina had to band together to find resources and rescue people who were trapped in the floodwaters. Gustavo Bermejo, known as Ponkho, was one of the first to mobilize when the heavy rain and wind stopped on Friday morning.

Bermejo is one of the directors of BeLoved Asheville, a community-oriented nonprofit organization that has been around for fifteen years. Since its inception, BeLoved has worked to strengthen ties within the community through outreach work, fundraising, donation collection and dispersion, construction, and more.  

The organization frequently made national news following the hurricane, and for good reason. Immediately after the storm passed, Bermejo and other BeLoved directors and volunteers began coordinating aid to Asheville and the surrounding areas. “When I came to the center of this community [Swannanoa], I was coming with a truck. I started seeing—from every direction from the streets—people coming with chainsaws. People I had never met before. We didn’t even talk about it. We knew it was the moment we had to figure our way out because nobody was coming to rescue us.” 

Bermejo and a few others at BeLoved were able to maintain some cell service after it had been disrupted for a majority of residents in the area. Through his many years working with BeLoved, Bermejo has formed many relationships between various organizations and individuals. By using his connections strategically, Bermejo and others were able to quickly bring in vital supplies like food and water into Asheville, as well as check on vulnerable members of the community. 

“In many places, the only way they were able to share the food, water, and supplies was with a string,” he shares. Because so many bridges had been demolished, they used a pulley system to send supplies to people trapped on the other side. 

After the community’s most immediate needs had been met, BeLoved began hosting fundraisers, drives, and giveaways for other important supplies like diapers, clothing and shoes, generators, and tents for people who had lost everything. The organization frequently gave away propane tanks (and vouchers for free refills) and heaters as the weather cooled down. In January, the Indigo Girls, a folk rock duo from Georgia, held a benefit concert for the organization as well. 

Bermejo also recognizes the swift action of other BeLoved directors, volunteers, community members, and WNC neighbors for the success of the organization’s relief efforts. Many individuals and groups who went out of their way to donate their time, energy, money, and supplies to BeLoved in the storm’s aftermath, he says.

Bermejo recounts the visit BeLoved received from a group from Ohio who figured out an analogue driving route into Western North Carolina. They brought many supplies into the region, and pledged to come back with more goods. 

The first several weeks after Helene, Bermejo slept in BeLoved’s office near Highland Brewing—it was the best way he could help, he explains, since people showed up looking for support as early as five in the morning. By being at the office full-time, he could provide immediate aid to those in need.

In 2025, BeLoved is focusing on rebuilding Asheville and the surrounding areas. Many people lost their homes to the floodwaters and high winds, so BeLoved arranged for temporary housing like RVs and tiny homes. The organization has partnered with local contractors to rebuild and donate homes to individuals and families who lost everything.

“We know that many of the people who lost their houses are people who work in hotels, restaurants, and grocery stores. Having deeply affordable homes is more necessary here than ever because these are the people who lost everything,” Bermejo says. 

Along with individual residences in Arden, Fletcher, and Leicester, BeLoved has created a “housing village” in Swannanoa, one of the towns seriously affected by Hurricane Helene. Their aim is to create at least 20 homes in this area this spring during what’s known as a “blitz build.” They’ve placed a national call to rebuild/reframe the homes in less than a week, which the organization has done in the past on a smaller scale. Bermejo says, “many people focus on the big rivers like the French Broad and Swannanoa River, but all the creeks became rivers on this day, too. We are going to these corners to help more people.”

BeLoved Asheville
32 Old Charlotte Hwy., Asheville
Tuesday-Sunday, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.
(828) 571-0766, belovedasheville.com

Give Back: BeLoved Asheville has ongoing needs for volunteers and donations. 

(Left) Vickie Cook; (Right) Volunteers at the Big Ivy Community Center handed out everything from laundry detergentand diapers to food and water to the community.

Vickie Cook - Big Ivy Community Center

Vickie Cook has always been a strong person. In the wake of Hurricane Helene, her friendly face and no-nonsense, can-do attitude is a mainstay at the Big Ivy Community Center (BICC) in Barnardsville, just 20 miles north of Asheville. Cook, 60, spent the first years of her life in Asheville. As a young teen she returned to Barnardsville, where her mother’s family has lived for generations. “I can’t think of any other place I could call home,” she says. “I love this community.”

The Big Ivy Community Center, where Cook has served as a board member for the past three years, is located down Dillingham Road. This local thoroughfare winds parallel to Dillingham Creek, a beloved waterway fed by innumerable springs and streams flowing from Pisgah National Forest, which, prior to the storm, was accessible from the end of the road. 

One of the worst hit areas in Barnardsville, itself one of the worst hit areas in the region, whole swaths of Dillingham Road were completely washed out. This led to hundreds of people being completely cut off, needing to walk or bike for several miles in order to access supplies in the first few days after the storm. Thanks to the immense generosity and hard work of Barnardsville-based Brock Mountain Land Company, access was restored to the BICC within less than a week. 

Since Brock Mountain also cleared and repaired Vickie’s own road, she was then able to head to the Community Center and get to work “from daylight to dark . . .You name it, we’ve been doing it.” Managing operations and resources is nothing new to Cook. She’s a mother of three adult children and spent most of her career working at Mission Hospital, after leaving Law Enforcement Training School in Weaverville due to family pressure to choose a safer job. At Mission, Cook worked in Facilities Services doing security and maintenance dispatch. 

On Saturdays she was the only person in the office, dispatching throughout both wings of the hospital. “There was even a phone in the bathroom,” she laughs, implying that she was required to be “on the job” every moment of her 12-hour shift. After Mission, she worked for Mountain Mobility, driving over 300 miles a day. “I enjoy helping people,” Cook says with a smile. “If I can help somebody, it makes me feel good inside. My mama was like that, she would help anybody. I’m thankful I got that from her.”

Some years ago, Cook started using an electric wheelchair to get around. Being such a strong person her whole life, this felt like a blow. “I thought it was over,” she says, with a glint in her eye. “But, nope! Just because you’re in a chair doesn’t mean you can’t help your community.”

This truth is evident to anyone who makes their way to the BICC these days. The spacious grounds, also serving as a community park before the storm, are bustling with activity and bursting with supplies: everything from whole sheds full of diapers, to generators and RVs. And Cook is easy to find at the “blue tent” where volunteers and people in need alike are directed to check in.

Before Helene, the Community Center operated a food pantry that served about 200 families per week. At the height of their disaster response efforts, that number rose to about 500 per day.

Regular volunteers have been joined by newer ones, along with lots of help from out of town and out of state. The basketball court hosts visiting organizations like Pike’s Plumbing, who cooked free meals for over a week, Blue Ridge Health, who have set up popup clinics, and others. “It’s such a tragic event,” Cook reflects,”But it’s beautiful the way people are responding to it, the unity. This country has been so divided, and this has given me hope to see such an outpouring of love.” 

Cook and the BICC have been in friendly collaboration with the Barnardsville Mutual Aid Hub that popped up at the old fire station and is run by mostly younger “newcomers” to the Barnardsville community.

Even local officials have come “with boots on the ground, working together,” says Cook. Both county commissioner Terri Wells and senator Warren Daniel visited BICC and left Cook feeling seen and supported by the halls of power. 

“You just gotta depend on each other and believe in each other, no matter what you think or your social status.” Cook wisely remarks. “Just because someone looks different or has different ideas doesn’t mean they’re not part of your community.”

When I ask her what she’s learned from this disaster response, Cook looks up for a moment at the sun pouring through golden tulip poplar leaves. Then she answers that “community centers, churches, and everyone needs to think about this stuff, and prepare. We need to keep up with what resources we found.” 

Being a person of faith, Cook also notes that during a disaster like this, you can “see the hand of God all around, if you just look.” She shares stories of supplies showing up right after someone expressed a need for them, and even a team of horseback search and rescue volunteers asking where they should go not five minutes after a distressed friend in Burnsville called to say that they couldn’t get to loved ones in a particularly hard-hit and inaccessible area. “You don’t know how wonderful your community is until you go through something like this.”

The Big Ivy Community Center, where Cook is committed to serving for the long-haul and beyond, was badly damaged during the storm. The grounds and pool, where the greater Barnardsville community comes to walk, play, celebrate birthdays, and more, are strewn with debris and mud. The Community Center building sustained significant damage from flooding, and it is yet to be determined whether they’ll be able to repair or need to rebuild. 

Big Ivy Community Center
540 Dillingham Rd., Barnardsville
Wednesday-Friday 11 a.m.-4 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
(828) 775-1757
bigivy.org

Give Back: Big Ivy Community Center has an ongoing need for volunteers and donations.

Jamie McDonald, Andrew Tasillo, Jack Andres, Willow Caristo.

Jamie McDonald - Bear’s Smokehouse

In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, food quickly became a scarce resource for many, since a loss of power and water meant that perishable foods would not last. In more remote areas, people could not travel to find supplies since many roads were damaged or blocked. 

In order to meet the needs of Western North Carolina, Bear’s Smokehouse, a South Slope barbecue favorite, gave away hundreds of thousands of savory, home-cooked meals with the help of World Central Kitchen, a global charitable foundation that provides nutrients to areas in crisis. 

External Communications Manager Andrew Tasillo and co-founder Cheryl Antoncic were able to work together to coordinate the restaurant’s initial giveaway. Although there was no power and water at Bear’s, the restaurant did not sustain any property damage during Helene. Since the restaurant had enough food for two Asheville locations and their food trucks, the pair decided to share it with the community rather than throw it away. 

“When we got together, we decided that the next day we should come in and cook all the meat because we have smokers that run off of wood. We have generators in our food trucks and fridges in the food trucks, so we can cook and serve food,” he explains. “This was on day two.”

Remarkably, the restaurant’s other founder and culinary director, Jamie McDonald, also took the initiative to feed Western North Carolina immediately after the storm. McDonald, who is based in Connecticut, was unable to contact Antoncic and Tasillo due to the lack of cellular reception. 

“He couldn’t get in touch with any of us, but he knew how bad it was. He knew how big the property was. He called his friends and said ‘you need to get someone there,’ and that Saturday night, a helicopter landed in the back,” Tasillo shares. 

McDonald, a Navy veteran, volunteered with World Central Kitchen for several years, serving in Poland and Ukraine, among others, before creating Bear’s Smokehouse. Because of this, he had unique connections with the organization that allowed for the speedy mobilization of aid.

World Central Kitchen was in Asheville for over a month, and helped to quickly organize and mobilize resources for those in need. The organization brought water to the area within two days of arriving and facilitated the delivery of new food products. WCK also got power and propane tanks for the restaurant to support the cooking of food for those in need. 

Tasillo was at Bear’s almost daily, working to prepare anywhere from 20,000-42,000 meals per day in the month following the storm. He says: “It was really rewarding for me, not for what I was doing but for what the city was doing. There were over 100 volunteers on property at a given time when they may have lost their houses. Knowing I was in a city that cared so much about its people was quite remarkable.”

Local volunteers showed up immediately, ready to work alongside WCK and the Bear’s team (Antoncic, Tasillo, McDonald, and restaurant staff). Antoncic traveled around Western North Carolina, scouting out the damage of various locations, while McDonald coordinated with WCK and Bear’s to create tailored recipes and menus based on available supplies. 

“One owner was cooking the food for the folks, and the other was handing it out, it was a great combination,” says Tasillo. 

In December, Bear’s Smokehouse was handing out 8,000 meals per day. Most of the food was sent to distribution sites around the area by request of communities in need. The restaurant extended its partnership with World Central Kitchen through the winter months in order to continue feeding those in need.

“In the beginning we were delivering all the way to Boone. We did have some helicopters there that were dropping food off to locations that couldn’t be reached by vehicle,” such as Black Mountain, Bat Cave, and Swannanoa, according to Tasillo. 

They distributed to seven-plus WNC counties in 55 days. While many staff were able to return to work after Helene, Tasillo cites the many volunteers that came to the restaurant’s aid in the storm’s aftermath. 

Volunteers are no longer needed for food service at Bear’s, but local communities are still in need of cleanup help and other aid. Bear’s Smokehouse is not accepting monetary donations, but Tasillo encourages others to purchase local in order to financially support WNC. 

The first Bear’s Smokehouse opened its doors in Connecticut in June 2013, and in 2020, the restaurant opened its first Asheville location. The restaurant serves Kansas-style barbecue as a nod to McDonald’s hometown of Kansas City. 

Bear’s Smokehouse
135 Coxe Ave., Asheville
Wed., Thurs. & Sun. 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. (828) 505-7088
bearsbbq.com/asheville 

World Central Kitchen - wck.org

Give Back: World Central Kitchen provides fresh meals in response to humanitarian, climate, and community crises both domestically and globally.

From left to right: Cooper Leist, Lance Buskey, and Sam Iatarola, cofounders of Helene Rebuild Collaborative, in front of their warehouse space. 

Lance Buskey - Helene Rebuild Collaborative

After a night of nonstop rain and heavy winds, Lance Buskey emerged safely from his Asheville home on Friday morning; however, many others were not as lucky. He quickly realized that people would need urgent necessities, and with the help of family and friends via Facebook, he worked quickly to bring water into the city. 

As the community’s needs became more apparent, Buskey and other volunteers swiftly mobilized, forming the Helene Rebuild Collaborative shortly after the storm. During the first 72 hours, Buskey and his companions had coordinated a delivery of fresh water into the area, and began distributing it in West Asheville. 

People began donating money to help them purchase supplies for the community, and as the demand for relief grew, so did their operation. With catastrophic damage scattered throughout Western North Carolina, the organization has helped countless families and individuals with basic necessities, rescues, relief aid, and more. 

Buskey has lived in Western North Carolina for most of his life, and recently moved to Asheville to begin working as a carpenter. Buskey is an avid outdoor enthusiast, and kayaks regularly. After the storm, Buskey and his roommate drove around the city, observing extensive damage and the floodwaters that were still rushing through the area.The French Broad River, Asheville’s main waterway, peaked at 24.67 feet following the storm. For reference, that’s about the size of an average two story home in the United States. 

“I just remember standing on the Haywood Street Bridge over the French Broad just being in total shock and awe seeing Second Gear [consignment store] and some of the River Arts District just totally underwater,” Buskey says. 

Asheville’s River Arts District, which runs parallel to the French Broad, was submerged underwater in record flooding as a result of Hurricane Helene. It took days for the water level to return to normal, and the flood waters were strong enough that they swept whole buildings away.

Like Buskey, many of the people who offered support to the group are outdoor enthusiasts who were able to use their skills to help others. 

“The outdoor community has come together so wildly. All of our friends that we initially started calling and texting were our kayaking friends, our biking friends, our climbing friends, and so on. It has been this wild mobilization of people that have jumped in on the effort and created an awesome organization. It’s been a huge team effort, hence the name Helene Rebuild Collaborative,” Buskey says. 

Buskey co-founded HRC with Cooper Leist and Sam Iatarola; the latter works with French Broad River Academy, an independent middle school that prioritizes leadership and outdoor education alongside academic learning. Helene Rebuild Collaborative has partnered with the school to provide resources and other aid to the community. 

“From an early point, we found a lot of success in our ability to get into hard-to-reach areas because we are a bunch of mobile, creative, and tough outdoorsy people—we like challenges,” Buskey explains. “We’ve been hiking, biking and motor biking. We’ve been loading things into helicopters and dropping things off. We have been extremely creative in our ways to get to remote areas and provide aid in remote areas.”

The Collaborative has also worked on logistical coordination throughout more than a dozen counties in the region. So far, the organization has completed more than 800 missions; for many rural people who had been stranded, HRC was their first point of contact. 

Looking forward, the Helene Rebuild Collaborative will be focused on continuing to meet the needs of our community in a sustainable way. Their focus is on creating housing for those who lost their homes in the flooding. Buskey has been able to lend his skills as a carpenter towards repairs and rebuilds. 

“Our sights are starting to move towards short and long term housing,” Buskey says. “We are getting to a point where our operations are pretty sustainable with delivering resources and offering essential resources to communities, so now we're starting to work on developing short and long-term housing solutions.” 

Helene Rebuild Collaborative used RVs and tiny homes as short-term solutions for people who lost their homes. HRC is also partnering with a number of local nonprofits to create long-term housing for people who lost their homes and did not receive federal aid or have insurance coverage. “We’re just all putting our boots on the ground and putting our minds together to figure out how we can make this work as best as possible for everybody involved,” Buskey says. 

Currently, the team is focused on three main projects: a family home rebuild, a roof restoration, and river cleanup. Each month, HRC hosts multiple volunteer river cleanups in partnership with Mountain True, a nonprofit committed to protecting Western North Carolina’s river, air, and land clean for a sustainable future. 

Helene Rebuild Collaborative
2002 Riverside Dr. Unit 42F, Asheville
helenerebuildcollaborative.org

Give Back: Helene Rebuild Collaborative has an ongoing need for volunteers, partnerships & donations.

Looking for ways to give back? In this feature you’ll get a small glimpse into four of the individuals, orginizations, and businesses who have made & continue to make a difference in the area. However, there are many other worthy orginizations working tirelessly to help rebuild WNC. Click here to view a current list of the region’s needs and ways you can give back to Western North Carolina. This list is continuously updating as needs change, so check in regularly.