Volunteer groups have stepped up during long Helene recovery

When Tropical Storm Helene hit Western North Carolina on Sept. 27, 2024, a longtime text message group chat of a few friends who all attended Mountain Heritage High School in Burnsville in Yancey County became a lifeline for checking on the status of loved ones, since the area lost cell service.

Since then, that lifeline has become Mountain Strong: Yancey and Mitchell Relief Team, a permanent relief organization that serves Yancey and Mitchell counties. Other unrelated groups across the region are also called Mountain Strong, which has been a catchphrase of regional pride since before Helene. 

The group is just one of the many volunteer organizations that formed during the storm and has continued to provide community support.

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Carol Tyner, a member of that group chat who was working as a nurse in Charlotte in September 2024, found a way to get home, though most of the roads in the region were closed for all intents and purposes. She and others set up at the West Burnsville Fire Department and coordinated medical supplies, helicopter deliveries and finding volunteer clinicians in the storm’s immediate wake. The volunteer group also set up a GoFundMe, which quickly surpassed $100,000. 

“We uniquely came together as a group that had truly, hilariously, like every position you would hope to fill in a business immediately,” said Tyner, who is now the organization’s executive director. There was a nurse, an interventional cardiologist, a lawyer, an educator and a counselor. 

In the immediate wake of the storm, Mountain Strong provided direct financial relief to people in the community who needed it, along with helping folks access transportation and mobility services. They were also able to keep their field hospital, where they assembled a community of volunteer doctors and nurses, open for months after the storm. 

Almost two years after Helene, Mountain Strong has pivoted toward a longer-term aspect of recovery. The organization is providing free mental health services at a brick-and-mortar clinic in Burnsville. Tyner said the volunteer organization wants to expand to primary care sometime in the future and continue providing care to uninsured and underinsured populations. 

She said that most people who visit the clinic, which opened in June, are from Yancey and neighboring Mitchell County, though some also trek in from neighboring Avery County. 

Providing mental healthcare in the months after a disaster is crucial, and Mountain Strong saw a big need for providing mental healthcare in the area, Tyner said. According to a study conducted by faculty at Appalachian State University last year, over half of volunteers who assisted in Helene recovery reported at least one poor mental health indicator. Some 24% met criteria for generalized anxiety disorder, and 5% met criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder.

“We thought, let’s take this access that we’ve developed, let’s take this trust that we’ve developed, and be able to move this forward in the community,” Tyner said. 

How far out is WNC from Helene?

It can take decades for disaster-affected communities to fully recover from large-scale natural disasters. Being two years out from Helene means turning the page toward another stage of recovery for Western North Carolina. While many areas and most roads have been rebuilt, many communities still need help — whether that be through direct funding or building stronger infrastructure that will survive future storms. 

Gov. Josh Stein submitted a $10 billion funding request to the federal government this June, but there hasn’t been any congressional movement on it. The state of North Carolina has funded roughly $5.3 billion in recovery, while the federal government has supposedly funded $9.5 billion, with a large amount of those federal dollars yet to be disbursed. 

When President Donald Trump came to Gastonia last week to campaign for US Senate candidate Michael Whatley, he acknowledged that Western North Carolina needs recovery funds from FEMA and the federal government. 

There have been tangible recovery wins. The NC Department of Transportation has repaired 99% of public roads in the state, and the Department of Environmental Quality has surpassed $1 billion in funding for more resilient water infrastructure in Western North Carolina. A large amount of Helene recovery funding from North Carolina’s most recent budget went to mitigating future disasters — through things like mapping out where landslides occurred and grants for enhanced dam safety. 

Still, many private businesses and homes need repair, and community members need resources that local governments are not able to fund. Unmet housing and employment needs have been serious issues for Helene survivors, according to the NC Tax and Budget Center, a left-leaning nonprofit organization that focuses on economic advocacy.

In the early days after the storm, community members sought resources from local nonprofits and other agencies that were providing on-the-ground immediate recovery resources.

Organizations like Mountain Strong are called VOADs, or Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster. These volunteer groups are not a part of the government and many do not receive funding from the government, but they provide early on-the-ground relief for communities struck by disaster. In the past two years, many of these organizations have devoted their work toward repairing homes and providing essential services to those impacted by disaster. VOADs that have formed during disaster have had to change their scope as community needs have changed

“We’re figuring out a way to kind of find our footing in a way that bridges what we are doing as a disaster relief and recovery organization to an organization that is focused on long-term resilience,” said Laney Tipton, the president of Mountain Strong. 

A report that Dogwood Health Trust published in 2025 said 60% of Western North Carolina nonprofits experienced physical damage to their properties, which totaled more than $100 million in damages. About half of nonprofit staff who responded to the report’s survey said that they experienced burnout in the months after Helene.

FEMA has processes for reimbursing these organizations for the immediate recovery work that they do. The state has also provided funding for VOADs, according to the Governor’s Recovery Office. About $1.4 billion of Helene recovery costs have been provided by private donations or philanthropic funds. But some of these organizations have seen a drop-off in financial support as more time has passed since Helene. 

Volunteer groups during new phase of recovery

In many of the 39 Helene-affected counties in Western North Carolina, Long-Term Recovery Groups have been set up. These are community organizations that connect those who have been affected by natural disasters with nonprofits, faith-based organizations and other groups that can address unmet needs. 

“Recovery is complex and it’s hard when you already face so much trauma to do it on your own,” said Sarah Roth, the interim executive director of the Buncombe County Long-Term Recovery Group. “Having a disaster case manager is what we think of as the critical linchpin to be able to help folks navigate the recovery process.”

Tyner said Mountain Strong has been working with the Yancey County Long-Term Recovery Group. LTRGs operate to connect people in communities with resources, Roth said. Roth worked at United Way, which is an organization included in the LTRG that was on the ground in Asheville during the days after Helene.

“A common misconception is that LTRGs are government entities, or that they’re funded through the government,” Roth said.

She said FEMA approached United Way after Helene and explained that after disasters, communities set up long-term groups with partners that provide services like construction, healthcare, case management and more. In late November of 2024, the Buncombe LTRG got started, and it now consists of 40 different agencies. LTRGs help individuals who might not qualify for state-administered programs find resources, Roth said.

“We’ve been doing the same thing since day one, but they look different every year the further we get from a disaster,” said Dan Leroy, the CEO and president of United Way Buncombe.

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