Two Years After Helene: LHCC Returns to Barnardsville
This week, nineteen members of the Learning Help Centers of Charlotte team heads back up the mountain to Barnardsville for our second annual mission trip.
Two years ago this past weekend, the remnants of Hurricane Helene tore through Western North Carolina. The anniversaries have come and gone on the calendar, but for many of our neighbors in the mountains, the storm is not over. We are going back because the people we met are our friends
Neighbors who carried each other
Barnardsville is a small, unincorporated community north of Asheville, with roughly 600 residents and one main road running along the river. When Helene's floodwaters came in September 2024, homes and trailers were swept away, and the bridges along creeks like Dillingham were washed out. On lower Dillingham Creek alone, all four bridges connecting families to the main road were lost.
What happened next is the part of the story we will never forget. Nobody waited for outside help. The old brick firehouse on Barnardsville Highway became a relief hub almost overnight, its bays stacked with water, canned goods, and clothes. Volunteers rebuilt footbridges, cleared roads, gave first aid, and checked on elderly neighbors. The Big Ivy Community Center, which served about 100 people a week before the storm, saw eight times that traffic afterward.
It was a living picture of Galatians 6:2: "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ."
Two years later, the work is not finished
From the outside, it can look like the mountains have moved on. Most roads across Western North Carolina have reopened. But many of those repairs are temporary, and the hardest losses in Barnardsville were never just about roads.
Some families lost more than their houses. We have seen firsthand that our friends lost the land itself, which is now riverbed, and they are not allowed to rebuild on it. This summer, local news told the story of a Barnardsville couple still living in a trailer beside the concrete slab where their home once stood. Because the property sits in a floodplain, they cannot rebuild, and they are waiting on a federal buyout program. That is exactly why LHCC, a member of City of Hope, is going back.
Our second annual mission trip
Our trip this week is first about presence. Over the 18 months, LHCC and City of Hope has walked alongside several Barnardsville families, and our first priority this week is simply to sit with them again: to hear how they are really doing, to pray with them, and to remind them they have not been forgotten.
We will also spend our days serving the community's elderly residents, a generation that has shown us remarkable gratitude and grace. Many of them are still trying to restore their homes and land with limited strength and resources. Our team will help with whatever is needed to improve their property, from clearing debris and yard work to small repairs, including a collapsed ceiling, and the everyday tasks that have piled up.
We don't go with a list of what we think people need. We go to listen, to love on our neighbors, and to put our hands to whatever work is in front of us.
How you can join us
Pray for our team's safe travel, for the families we will visit, and for the elderly neighbors we will serve.
Give to support this trip and LHCC's ongoing work alongside families in need. www.lhcclt.org/donate
"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." (Galatians 6:9)
Thank you for standing with us. We can't wait to share stories when we return.
Brent Morris
September 30, 2026
