Colorado mountain community steps up for hurricane victims in North Carolina
The devastation of one mountain community thousands of miles away is drawing sympathy and action from another mountain community: Summit County in Colorado, has rallied around Asheville, North Carolina, after devastating floods and storm damage from Hurricane Helene.
It was a plan thought up by the local AutoStar dealership in Silverthorne, owned and operated by a family right out of Asheville, looking to help the folks back home after evacuating to the Colorado mountains themselves.
"I know what's going on there and it's absolutely devastating," Kylie Olp explained. Her family runs the two shops, one in Silverthorne and one in Asheville. She said three employees so far have lost their homes, and that's where the donations Coloradans are bringing in will go.
"Clothes, baby food, shoes, blankets, non-perishables," Olp said. "Which is everything people need right now during this time, all the roads are so closed there, it's really hard to evacuate."
Just in a week's time of collecting, Olp said Summit County has filled the semi truck they are planning to drive back to North Carolina to the brim. She knows that was thanks to strangers who saw someone in a bad situation and jumped to help.
"It's a very tight community up here," said Evan Backues, a Summit County local who stopped by to donate. "Everyone is just a generous person and wants to help out where they can."
That generosity is not lost on Dianna and Dustin Sweigard, the folks on the other end of this donation. Not only are they members of the AutoStar dealership family but they're now looking at a completely flooded basement, cars washed out of the driveway by the flood, and no insurance to help cover the damages.
"Our homeowners (association), they didn't even offer flood insurance in our area because of, you know, it's never flooded or anything in our area," Dustin explained. "You know, we just we don't have anything."
The two agreed to speak with Your Reporter in the mountains Spencer Wilson over Zoom while they sat among their destroyed property, with personal belongings littered across the muddy landscape that used to be their yard. They explained everything changed in the span of an hour during the storm.
"The one foot, two foot creek that runs down at the bottom of the property ... within maybe 30 to 40 minutes, it just took out the entire first floor of our house," Dustin said. Dianna nodded in agreement, adding "Consistent rain that just wouldn't stop."
They heard about the donation efforts happening in Colorado and were touched by the generosity of people who didn't know them but still agreed to help.
"There are probably just no words, really." Dianna said. "I mean, we're just very grateful for the hope that people that have helped and that have just you know, whether it's just a phone call or it's kind words and it's prayers. It's just you know, it's the fact that people are showing kindness."
The dealership plans to start the long drive back to North Carolina with the donations this week.
