Hurricane Helene Hits Boone: An App State Student’s Story of Community and Recovery | #117

Summary

Summary of "Hurricane Helene Hits Boone: An App State Student’s Story of Community and Recovery | #117"

Episode Released on October 22, 2024, on "On The Homefront with Jeff Dudan"

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Introduction

In episode #117 of "On The Homefront with Jeff Dudan," host Jeff Dudan brings attention to the devastating impact of Hurricane Helene on Boone, North Carolina. Boone is not only significant to Jeff due to its personal connections—home to Appalachian State University where Jeff built his career and personal life—but it has also become a focal point of immense struggle in the aftermath of the storm. Jeff emphasizes the critical mission of the podcast: to inspire and empower individuals to transform their lives, make a positive impact in their communities, and enhance the well-being of their loved ones.

Personal Accounts of the Hurricane's Impact

Jeff introduces Jack Scalise, a student at Appalachian State University, who provides a harrowing firsthand account of enduring Hurricane Helene. Jack describes the severe weather conditions leading up to the hurricane:

• Prolonged Rainfall: Jack explains, “We got 8 to 10 inches of rain before the storm even hit” (01:35), which caused roads to flood days before the hurricane's arrival.
• Immediate Aftermath: As the storm hit, Jack recounts the sudden power outage and the rapid flooding of his two-story home. “We were mopping water out of our basement, out of the back door of the basement. We were just mopping water” (02:01).
• Destruction and Fear: The extreme winds resulted in numerous trees being uprooted, with Jack witnessing “eight trees fell in their house... It was unreal. I couldn't even process it” (02:57). The lack of cell service heightened fears, leaving residents unable to communicate or seek help during the crisis.

Community Impact and Destruction

The episode delves into the widespread destruction Hurricane Helene caused in Boone:

• Infrastructure Damage: Notable losses include homes, local businesses, and essential services. Jeff mentions that small businesses are gone, leading to economic strain in the community.
• Isolation and Communication Breakdown: The hurricane not only severed power but also cut off cell service, leaving residents isolated and without a clear understanding of the broader situation. Jack adds, “No cell service. So we had no idea what was going on” (02:56).

Recovery Efforts and Community Resilience

Jeff highlights the crucial role of community efforts in the immediate aftermath of disasters:

• Local Community Response: Local citizens, businesses, and volunteers are the first responders, stepping up to provide essential services like food, clean water, and medical supplies.
• Role of Franchises: Jeff underscores the importance of franchises in disaster recovery, combining local knowledge with broader resources to effectively aid in the restoration process. He reflects on his experience post-Hurricane Andrew, noting how businesses can restore essential services and bring hope back to communities (05:36).

Homefront Brands' Response and Support Initiatives

Jeff outlines the proactive measures taken by Homefront Brands to support Boone's recovery:

• Donations and Supplies: The company has been actively collecting supplies and supporting organizations such as Samaritan's Purse and the Red Cross. Jeff states, “Staff members from Homefront Brands have been going up there and working on the weekends” (06:00).
• Encouraging Community Involvement: Jeff urges listeners to donate time, money, or resources to support the affected residents. He emphasizes the importance of collective action: “It's more what we say. It's more what we do. It's the actions that we take that matter” (06:00).

Call to Action

The episode concludes with a powerful appeal for listeners to engage in recovery efforts:

• Supporting Organizations: Jeff encourages donations to trusted organizations like Samaritan's Purse, which is actively mobilizing relief efforts in Western North Carolina.
• Volunteering and Donations: Listeners are invited to volunteer their time or contribute financially to aid in the swift recovery of Boone and surrounding areas.
• Community Solidarity: Jeff reiterates the importance of unity and collective effort in overcoming the challenges posed by Hurricane Helene.

Notable Quotes

• Jack Scalise on Pre-Storm Conditions: “We got 8 to 10 inches of rain before the storm even hit” (01:35).
• Jack Scalise on Fear and Destruction: “It was unreal. I couldn't even process it” (02:57).
• Jeff Duden on Media Coverage: “The global picture doesn’t take shape unless your boots are on the ground...” (04:00).
• Jeff Duden on Taking Action: “It's more what we say. It's more what we do. It's the actions that we take that matter” (06:00).

Conclusion

Episode #117 of "On The Homefront with Jeff Dudan" offers an in-depth and emotionally charged exploration of Hurricane Helene's impact on Boone, North Carolina. Through personal narratives like Jack Scalise's, the episode underscores the severe challenges faced by the community, including extensive property damage, isolation, and the overwhelming task of rebuilding. Jeff Duden effectively bridges personal experiences with broader community and organizational efforts, highlighting the indispensable role of local resilience and collective action in disaster recovery. The episode serves not only as a report on the devastation but also as a rallying call for listeners to contribute to the ongoing efforts to restore Boone and support its residents in their path to recovery.

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Transcript

[Jeff Duden]

Everybody, Jeff Duden here. And welcome to on the Homefront. Something I'm very passionate about today. I want to talk about the devastating impact of Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina and especially the Boone area, because Boone holds a special place in my heart as it's home to Appalachian State University, a place where I changed my life and really turned it around and made a difference. And I spent my formative years there building a business, playing college football, getting my degree. And it's also where many students and residents are now facing incredible challenges in the storm's aftermath.

[Lenny]

This is my friend Lenny's home. Lenny's still missing. This home, the house, the chimney.

[Jeff Duden]

I'm sorry to hear that.

[Lenny]

The mud was about up to here. No one could get through here until about three days ago.

[Jeff Duden]

Recently, I had a really cool, excitable young guy called Jack Scalise, who is also a student at Appalachian State, share his experience living through the hurricane. And here is what Jack had to say.

[Jack Scalise]

Well, I was there. I was in Boone experiencing it. We live. We're kind of parked on the side of a mountain. So we have a very steep driveway and steep road that goes up. So, you know, we're sitting there. Power goes out around nine. Like, okay, power goes out. And then my roommate walks downstairs. He goes, man, there's water coming through the. Through the doors, both doors. We kind of live on a. We live in a two story house. We have a basement where I live. And then above on the top floor is where the kitchen is. Living room is.

[Jeff Duden]

How long had it been raining?

[Jack Scalise]

So it actually rained for three days before that. So we got.

[Jeff Duden]

Whoa.

[Jack Scalise]

Yeah, we got 8 to 10 inches of rain before the storm even hit. And the roads are starting to flood before the storm even hit.

[Jeff Duden]

Oh, my God.

[Jack Scalise]

Problem number one.

[Jeff Duden]

Yeah.

[Jack Scalise]

And then so that day, my roommate's like, hey, man, water's coming in. I'm gonna try to block it off with towels. I'm like, okay, cool. Yeah. And I wasn't really bothered. And he goes into the laundry room, takes a step in the laundry room and almost just eats it because we already got water piling up in our laundry room.

[Jeff Duden]

Wow.

[Jack Scalise]

So the water ended up coming in through our floors and just absorbing everything. I mean, we had to move basically all my stuff out of. Out of my room, move it upstairs, make sure that, you know, we got all the major stuff moved out. And we were mopping water out of our basement, out of the back door of the basement. We were just mopping water. I'll show you videos of it. Later. It's insane.

[Jeff Duden]

Hearing Jack describe how those flood waters force their way into his home and overwhelmed them despite of their best efforts was a harrowing tale. And the storm just didn't flood homes. It cut off power cell service in the area, which is untypical and most importantly, critical essential resources. Residents had no way to communicate with their family or check in on neighbors.

[Jack Scalise]

And I think the scariest part was, you know, all the trees and Boone. Everyone always posts about the leaves. The scariest part was when those big gusts of wind come in. Yeah, it would knock down like 10 trees within 100 yard radius.

[Jeff Duden]

Yeah.

[Jack Scalise]

I mean, we were just like sitting there and we're just like, there goes another tree. Tree fell in our backyard, our neighbor's house, Trees below us, or there's, there's a house below us. I think eight trees fell in their house. I'm just like, it's. It was unreal. I couldn't even process it. And the hardest part was no cell service. So we had no idea what was going on. You know, we don't know if people are okay, what roads are shut down. No idea. I could call my dad briefly for two minutes before the call would cut out and he was worried sick.

[Jeff Duden]

Oh, my gosh.

[Jack Scalise]

But, you know, then we were driving a little bit later that day when it cleared up and just seeing all the destruction and Boone, small businesses are gone. It's just like, it was just so sad. And I really just looked at my best friend that was in the car. I'm like, Boone's never going to be the same. It's really sad.

[Jeff Duden]

Yeah, yeah, that's horrible. Well, prayers to lift them up. Hopefully people are okay and it's going to be long recovery.

[Jack Scalise]

That's right. And we just got to do our part and continue to spread the awareness of it.

[Jeff Duden]

Right now, a couple weeks after the storm, the focus in Boone is on survival. Still getting people access to food, clean water, power, and sometimes, most importantly for many people, their medications. These basics, which we take for granted are hard to come by in situations like this. Refrigeration is a challenge. And for those who need daily prescriptions, delays in access to these things like insulin can be life threatening. In moments like these, it's communities, not governments, that rise to the challenge. Historically, local citizens, businesses and volunteers are the ones who first would step up to help their neighbors. What's interesting in disasters is, and I learned this, we would wait, you know, and we would. We had clients, government contracts that we were obligated to respond to. So when A hurricane was coming, we would get ready and then as soon as the hurricane would leave, we would go into the buildings that we were responsible to survey and dry out or do whatever it is we were supposed to do. And until you get on the ground in a hurricane situation or a flood situation, the news, it'll be two months or three months before people get a clear picture through the media as to what happened because they'll just shoot something and then they'll go with that. But they're shooting just this little myopic piece of it. And the global picture, it doesn't take shape unless your boots are on the ground and you're working with the crews and you're traveling around. So my suspicion is that it's going to be worse than anybody can possibly imagine because I don't even think there's people that have power, water or food and they can't get out right now.

[Jack Scalise]

Still. Yeah.

[Jeff Duden]

Still, franchises in particular play a crucial role. Combining the flexibility of that local business ownership and local knowledge with the strength of a larger network that can bring resources to bear, raise funds and support the local franchisees. After Hurricane Andrew, I witnessed firsthand how businesses could restore essential services and hope, bringing communities back from the brink.

[Jack Scalise]

I want. What I wanted to talk about was your, you know, you started your restoration company after Hurricane Andrew, correct?

[Jeff Duden]

That's right. Yeah. So, you know, for 25 years of my life, this would be all of our focus. We would be for the next year, we would be helping the people of western North Carolina and surrounding areas recover. And it was very satisfying work. Now, you know, I'm making donations. I like Samaritan's Purse, which is Franklin Graham's organization up there. We've done things around the holidays of packing boxes and doing the box packing thing and all that kind of stuff. And they're really, I think, a good organization. Red Cross does a lot of good work here. So right now, I mean, and you're not allowed to get up there. The roads are washed out, 40's washed out. So right now it's going to be, let's raise money, let's support. We here at the office, people took up a collection, went and got things. If you take them to the airport, they'll make sure they put them on trucks and they get them into the people that they need to get them into. So the staff here at Homefront Brands has been very active in collecting supplies and things like that. I'm just going to go ahead and quietly just support the organizations that I've been involved with for the years up there and reach out to anybody personally. One organization making an immediate impact is one that I have supported for years, which is Samaritan's Purse. It's run by Franklin Graham, which has been mobilizing relief efforts for those affected by Hurricane Helene. Many staff members from Homefront Brands have been going up there and working on the weekends and if you'd like to help, click the link below to learn how you can donate your time or your money to support their mission and help people right now, right away in Western North Carolina. This is a time when every action counts. If it's volunteering, donating or supporting the businesses working to reopen, we all can play a pivotal role. Thank you for tuning in. These people need help and it's just not what we say. It's more what we do and the actions that we take that matter. And together we can ensure that the people of Boone and Western North Carolina get the support they need to weather this storm and begin the path to recovery. Thank you for listening to on the Home Front. Like and subscribe. Give us a comment in the comments section. We'd love to respond to you. Tell us what you'd like to hear about. And most of all, give consideration to Samaritan's Purse. They're doing good work with good people for the people that really need it. I'll check you next time on the Home Front, this is Jeff Duden. Thanks for listening.