SWANNANOA, N.C. (WLOS) — The nonprofit, BeLoved Asheville, is continuing to be pivotal in Western North Carolina’s Helene recovery.
Beloved has 102 home repairs and rebuilds underway to date.
For this week’s WNC Heroes, News 13 visited one of their latest projects in Swannanoa, an area hit extremely hard by Helene, to shine a light on BeLoved’s continued work in the community.
“It was one of things we wanted to offer from our hearts and from our long-term work here for communities on the ground is we’re going to show up,” BeLoved Asheville Co-Director Amy Cantrell said.
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The house News 13 toured had literally come off its foundation. During the storm the home floated in the river with the family inside. The family was able to cut through their ceiling and were rescued on the roof of their home, but they lost everything inside.
“The trauma of that is severe and yet this is the place that they love and it’s such a special place. Every time we walk here, they point out this plant and the name of it and when they planted it,” Cantrell said.
Through it all, the family did not want to say goodbye, so BeLoved is making sure they don’t have to. The nonprofit is working to build a new home just a few feet in front of the old.
“Back on their land in a way that’s flood proof so that they can rest easy here,” Cantrell said.
They’ve just graded the land and are getting ready to put in the foundation so they can get the home completed as soon as possible.
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Being in their third round of home repairs, the nonprofit’s work before the storm is paying off.
“To be able to bring all the skills we’ve picked up over the last 16 years to bear in this moment,” Cantrell said.
For both Cantrell and Co-Director Ponkho Bermejo, it’s all about being able to hand over house keys and celebrate bringing families back home.
“To rebuild the houses, we are looking to rebuild the souls and to heal together,” Bermejo said.
To learn more about BeLoved Asheville’s Helene recovery work, you can visit their website here.
