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Celina First Church of God has raised over $60,000 for Hurricane Helene relief in North Carolina. Pictured is the first batch of 40 generators driven down to North Carolina by two congregation members last week.
Photo from Celina First Church of God
CELINA- About 523 miles northwest of Asheville, North Carolina, Celina First Church of God pastor Craig Flack and his congregation are hoping to make an impact with disaster relief for Hurricane Helene survivors.
As of Friday afternoon, the church has raised over $60,000 for victims of the storm that tore through the Southeastern United States a little over two weeks ago.
Helene's path through the Southeast left a trail of power outages so large the darkness was visible from space. Tens of trillions of gallons of rain fell and more than 200 people were killed, making Helene the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. since Katrina in 2005.
It also damaged water utilities so severely and over such a wide inland area that one federal official said the toll "could be considered unprecedented."
Western North Carolina was especially hard hit. Officials are facing a difficult rebuilding task made harder by the steep, narrow valleys of the Blue Ridge Mountains that during a more typical October would attract throngs of fall tourists.
Flack and the Celina First Church of God congregation are raising money primarily for generators.
"Like a lot of churches we were just kind of thinking we wanted to do something," Flack said. "Then I have a good friend of mine who lives in Asheville, North Carolina, and so after speaking with him this previous Sunday, basically we found out that one of the big ticket needs right now was generators. They had plenty of water. They had plenty of stuff. But that was obviously still a need."
Celina First Church of God has raised over $60,000 for Hurricane Helene relief in North Carolina. This was the first batch of 40 generators taken to North Carolina.
Photo from Celina First Church of God
Flack continued that the reason generators were such a need was because they're expensive and because it could take up to a month or more to restore utilities in the mountains.
"Because for some of these places, the roads have been washed away so much that (it's impossible) to even get the utility trucks up into the mountains to restore the utilities," Flack said. "They're basically preparing for winter and they know that for some of the people generators are going to be a lifeline to keep the heat running and keep a refrigerator going."
Flack said his friend had a goal of donating 1,000 generators but the biggest issue was they couldn't source any of them right now from North Carolina because they're all sold out.
He said the church worked with Lowe's Home Improvement in Wapakoneta and within a matter of days he was able to source 40 generators.
"We started working with Lowe's in Wapak, their store manager, a guy by the name of Mike," Flack said. "They gave us a really good discount on every generator. They went ahead and they were able to get 40 from all their other stores. And they got them shipped in that Monday for us. Then, two gentlemen from our congregation, Kevin and Jason (Kevin Draiss and Jason Van Tilburg), agreed to drive them down. … They went and picked up the generators Tuesday morning, like at 8 a.m. from Lowe's. They were unloading them by like 9 p.m. that night near Asheville. We got the request around 8 p.m. Sunday night, and they were rolling out (with the generators) by 8 a.m. Tuesday morning."
Flack originally set a fundraising goal of $35,000.
"We've been just kind of blown away by the response because it hasn't just been from our church family," Flack said. "It's been from businesses in the community and other churches have partnered with us and given us thousands of dollars. Businesses and then a ton of individuals, some that come to our church, many that don't. We've had donors from multiple states now people are donating. … As of this morning, we had $62,000 come in (since Oct. 6). That's with the $35,000 from the church (and) we've had $27,000 additional come in (through donations)."
Flack said he and the church congregation realize that whatever they give will be a "drop in the bucket" compared to what those communities need to recover.
"We just have said, 'Hey, our goal might have been one thing, but the Lord might want us to do something completely different, or completely more,'" Flack said. "So any dollar that comes in from churches or businesses or individuals, 100% of it is going back to those devastated."
He added that Celina First Church of God is working with several local churches and mission agencies on the ground in North Carolina to distribute goods.
"We don't know if their need is just 100% generators," he continued. "They might need space heaters, they might need blankets, they might need some other stuff, but what we're going to do is take all those funds and purchase what they need and work with them."
Flack said he also knows that the destruction left in western North Carolina will take years to rebuild.
"So we're hoping to establish long-term partnerships that maybe in the future we'll be able to take down some work teams and help physically rebuild," he said. "But right now what they just need is goods and materials and the cash to buy them. … But the reason we picked this community is because I had a contact there. So the Lord opened the door there."
People can donate money to the church's efforts by donating online or by dropping off donations to the church directly. Flack said people mailing in a check should mark the check for "hurricane relief." Celina First Church of God is located at 850 Fairground Road, Celina.
Celina First Church of God is not the only local group to lend help to survivors of both hurricanes Helene and Milton. C.A.L.L. Food Pantry is also collecting non-perishable items to send down to victims for relief.
The pantry's first effort was to team up with Cheeseman Trucking last week, executive director Homer Burnett said. C.A.L.L. donated multiple skids of basic products which Cheeseman sent down to North Carolina last week.
The pantry is collecting non-perishables like food, bottled water, hygiene products, flash lights, first aid items, cleaning supplies and pet food. They will be transporting the items in pallet loads so they can accept large donations of articles, Burnett said.
People can drop off or send all donations to C.A.L.L. Ministries at 420 N. Brandon Ave., Celina. Mark all donations for Helene and Milton relief and let the pantry know if a donation acknowledgement is requested.
Local wine bar Spade & Barrel of Celina also held a disaster relief event on Saturday. Attendees were able to donate two cans of non-perishable items and receive a free sampling of four wines.
Anyone interested in donating directly to disaster recovery funds for hurricanes Helene and Milton can donate to the Florida Disaster Fund at www.volunteerflorida.org/donatefdf/, The Humane Society of the United States at www.humanesociety.org, the North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund at https://pay.payitgov.com/ncdonations and the American Red Cross at www.redcross.org.
-The Associated Press contributed to this report.
