Exactly where Southern Baptists of Texas Disaster Relief teams would deploy in the wake of Hurricane Helene was a mystery on Oct. 3, until a call for assistance in mass feeding surfaced.
“A charitable entity contacted Send Relief and said they wanted to help with mass feeding after Helene, including one at Spruce Pine, North Carolina,” said Scottie Stice, SBTC DR director. The town — with a population of about 2,200 nestled in the Appalachians off the Blue Ridge Parkway — had been devastated by Helene. Businesses, homes and the town’s wastewater treatment plant were destroyed by flooding.
RELATED: For more stories on disaster relief efforts in the Southeast and beyond, click here.
At 3:30 a.m. the next day, SBTC DR associate Wally Leyerle left his home in Flower Mound for Flint Baptist Church near Tyler, where volunteers had readied the SBTC DR mass feeding unit housed at the church. The team of 19, plus drivers who would deliver the DR trailers to the disaster area and return home, caravanned northeast toward western North Carolina.
There they met another SBTC DR team headed north to join the Spruce Pine effort after completing two weeks on a feeding crew in Florida.
What should have been less than a one-day trip took two. North Carolina greeted them with impassable roads, multiple detours due to damage and near escapes.
“Later that week, we found out that one of the bridges we had traveled on with 40-foot trailers collapsed two days after we passed over it,” Leyerle recalled.
After arriving at the parking lot of a major Spruce Pine retailer, they set up camp with five 40-foot trailers, a kitchen trailer, two support trailers, a 30-foot tent, a 20-foot tent, a forklift, two generators, and two 48-foot food storage trailers.
“Our footprint spanned one whole side of the parking lot. The retailer allowed us to block off a whole section just for DR,” Leyerle added.
Appalling conditions
“When we got to Spruce Pine, we found a community with no power, no potable water, no functioning bathrooms, no trash service, and an entire population still in shock from the storm,” Leyerle said.
The first meals went out Sunday, Oct. 6.
“At 11, we opened up our feeding lines by holding hand-lettered signs announcing, ‘Free Hot Food,’” Leyerle said.
The people came … in cars, in trucks, on tractors. They came, thankful for the hot meals available at lunch and dinner.
“In all, we served 1,200 meals that day. Not bad for zero publicity except for some social media and word of mouth,” Leyerle said. Counts steadily grew until one day the team distributed more than 2,400 meals.
“The people were very receptive. We stationed chaplains and counselors near the head of a drive-thru feeding line. The chaplains initiated conversations with all drivers and passengers, asking politely if there was anything specific they could pray for them about. Most everyone was eager to be prayed for and our chaplains did it, right there in the middle of the parking lot,” Leyerle said, adding that no one was forced to pray.
“The storm had taken out all their ability to communicate with the outside world. There was no news, no electricity, no internet. Many felt like nobody knew about them and they were going to have to get through this disaster all on their own. When the people looked at the logos on our vehicles, trailers, and our yellow DR shirts, they were shocked to discover that we had driven all the way from Texas with all this equipment just to serve them some hot food. We told them that we came here because they were here and we wanted them to know that God still loved them. Often, they cried,” Leyerle said.
By the time the deployment ended, SBDR volunteers from New Mexico, Arkansas and Indiana had joined the Texas team to help.
To read full story, click here.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Jane Rodgers and originally published by the Southern Baptist Texan.
