A year after Helene: 'Volunteers have saved this church'
As a Western North Carolina church recovers from 14-feet of flooding in Hurricane Helene, it asks how it can better serve its small community
MARSHALL, North Carolina — A year after being overwhelmed with a 14-foot flood and many feet of mud from Hurricane Helene, Marshall Presbyterian Church in Marshall, North Carolina is still in the process of rebuilding. In this story, Interim Transitional Pastor Rev. Merri Alexander and Ruling Elder for Buildings and Grounds Howard Seiler reflect on the past year, the many people who have helped the small congregation restore its building, and the work still ahead.
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A year after Helene: 'Volunteers have saved this church'
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A year after Helene: 'Volunteers have saved this church'
Here’s a transcript of the video:
Rev. Merri Alexander: Hurricane Helene was and has been a traumatic experience for everybody. That trauma reignites inside your soul and inside your stomach as you drive around and see trees that are still down and bridges that are still out. For me a year later, it's a mixture of emotions. One, obviously, is that we're eager to get back in the building.
Howard Seiler: I wanted to be in here six months ago. So frustration, and, you know, it kind of hit me whatever. It's been a year, and I like to get stuff done, and it just seems like it's a slow go, and I'm still kind of sad for all the things, but I'm grateful for it's unbelievable. The volunteers have saved, saved this church, and we would never be anywhere without them.
Alexander: My goodness, these people have made a nest in my heart that will live with me forever. They are amazing. We have 15 people in worship on Sundays. These 15 people, primarily, are carrying the load of rebuilding this building that was built in 1950 that was flooded with 14-feet of river water, and no telling how many feet of mud.
Seiler: We started here with, with three gentlemen and we had a guy come off the street that was working for one of the contractors, and he said, 'Can I help?' A lady from downtown came and says, 'It looks, sounds like you need some help.' And I said, 'Yeah, that'd be very nice.' She said, 'How many people you need?' And I started crying. And I don't cry very much. The next morning, I think 30 people showed up, and it was just like, wow, those 30 people did a lot, and we're not, we weren't slackers, but, you know, 30 people versus three. You know, do the math. The company that was building tiny houses, he shut his whole business down and started asking for volunteers and stuff from Lowe's and Home Depot and all the hardware stores and whatever. So I came back with a truck load of stuff, and then it was like, 'Now we're rocking,' and every day 25, 30 people would show up. Sometimes 50 people show up when we got enough work to for them.
Alexander: I joined as this band of believers, as their interim pastor, their transitional pastor, and when the hurricane hit, we had to stop our search process. So we're just now beginning to get that going again. The good news is that that process encourages us to continue to think towards the future. Immediately after the flood, this congregation began to think, quickly, when we rebuild, how can we serve the community better than we have already been serving the community, which was pretty profound for a congregation of this size.
What's going on in this church is also going on all over town. There was no question about whether or not they were going to clean up and build back. So it's a spirit that lives throughout the whole region.
Seiler: We as human beings, people or whatever, need to realize this is it is not about us or just here or whatever. This is happening all over the world, and the only way we're going to get through it is by this volunteers and community spirit and working together and stuff, because you can't do it by yourself.
Alexander: As soon as we saw on television the floods in Kerrville (Texas), it was PTSD for us, and there's no question, because it looks just like our river did. And our session immediately said, we have to send money to Kerrville.
Seiler: I think it was right at $4,500.
Alexander: $4,500 from this congregation. I'm a lifelong Presbyterian, and I have supported PDA (Presbyterian Disaster Assistance) over the years, but now that I've experienced PDA, I cannot say enough good about what PDA does to help in disasters. The money does good work, and I've seen it firsthand.
When I came as their interim pastor over a year ago, I thought it would be just, you know, a few months or maybe a year, and we would find another part time pastor and so on. And then this happened, and I realized that I needed to be here. And, you know, there's that question in Scripture, why me, Lord? And the answer is, 'For such a time as this.' When you take the experience of rebuilding the church and having the church new and ready again, and their increased faith, or vibrancy of their faith, and the idea of a new pastor, I just can't even begin to imagine what God is going to do with this congregation in this particular town in God's future. It's very exciting to think about.
Seiler: We got projections thrown out there. We have varying degrees. We'll definitely be in here before the end of the year. We could be here as early as the end of October. I would say early spring, we could get everything done.
Alexander: The steeple bell was not damaged, thanks be to God. And I envision ringing the bell and just ringing it until people aren't coming through the door anymore.
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