On September 26, 2024, a category 4 Hurricane swept the southeastern coast. The storm caused vast disruption and immense damage, making landfall in the Big Bend area of Florida, moving up the coast, and finally hovering over North Carolina.
With many people still missing and a rising death toll of 230, residents of the Southeastern United States were worried about whether or not their lives would ever return to normal. The hurricane was the strongest and deadliest to strike the mainland U.S. since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
On the 25th of October, Xavier hosted a fundraiser for Tampa Jesuit High School, which was impacted by the storms. Hurricane Helene wrecked their facilities, bringing hardships to the community. Soon after, Hurricane Milton hit the same area in Florida. The President of Tampa Jesuit wrote, “I encourage our students to generously and selflessly support their classmates who have been affected by the hurricane. Helping to replace lost notes or study guides, sharing clothes or shoes, simply listening to friends, or praying together are some ways for our students to care for one another”. Xavier High School hopes to be of aid to our Jesuit brothers and sisters down in Tampa, Florida.
North Carolina, seemingly safe from Helene, was suddenly struck by the ravaging storm overnight. The Review interviewed a North Carolina resident about the storm’s impact on his family. Greg McAden, an occupational therapist based out of Asheville, NC summarized his experience of Hurricane Helene as bizarre and shocking.
The storm hit Asheville on a Thursday night, with residents waking up Friday morning to no power, cell phone service, or water. Realizing that he was trapped with no communication to the outside world, Greg recounted “[my son] and I and all the neighborhood community went out with chainsaws and axes trying to clear the road out of the neighborhood. We worked all day Friday and Saturday to just be able to get out of the neighborhood and once we cleared that tree that was blocking the neighborhood exit, we saw the road beyond paved with an insurmountable amount of fallen trees, making travel nearly impossible”.
Throughout the next few days one issue became apparent and urgent: water. McAden revealed “We only had non-potable water in our pipes so we couldn’t drink or even flush toilets. Thankfully, a neighbor had a swimming pool that had not been drained for the season, and every morning the neighborhood would put a five-gallon bucket next to their mailbox. The men of the community would wake up and fill those buckets and redeliver them so that we could flush our toilets”. Greg and his family lived without power and cell phone service for three weeks. The storms and flooding brought many issues, including public schools shutting down as FEMA turned them into disaster relief zones.
Greg also explained how his daughter’s school was completely flooded, and a church 45 minutes away opened its doors to the students, who were eager to have a routine and sense of normalcy. McAden also drove two hours for gas and supplies for his neighborhood community, and recounted, “That’s when we realized how destroyed the place was…and I realized that there were deaths, mudslides and bodies that were washed 50 miles away from the city.” McAden’s willingness to serve his neighborhood was repeated throughout many communities and neighborhoods.
North Carolinians were the victims of a horrible misfortune that brought devastating effects to their towns. With the human spirit on their side, everyone pitched in and gave what they had to ensure their fellow neighbors would remain safe.