On a Tennessee street hit hard by Helene flooding, strangers show up to help

NEWPORT, Tenn. — Across a winding road about a block away from the Pigeon River, an entire row of homes stands emptied out. Front yards are mud pits, piled high with ruined furniture, ripped out flooring, and drywall.

Inside one open front door, Don Reeb is bent over with a nail remover, pulling up the sub-floor of the one-story home he owns. The day Tropical Storm Helene hit, the person he rents the home to sent Reeb videos as the water rose, yet Reeb was still in disbelief, he says.

“I just could not visualize, in this house, you know the furniture and the refrigerator floating up to the windows,” he says. But that’s exactly what he saw. A mark on the wall shows the water rose above his waist.

Reeb took down wood paneling, drywall, a laminate floor, and all the furniture is gone. There is a strong musty smell in the air.

Like so many others, Reeb has no flood insurance. When he bought the house five years ago he was told it did not qualify because of the risk, although longtime residents say they’ve never seen the river swell so high. Reeb estimates replacing absolutely everything will cost $50,000. “Oh, it's gonna hurt, it’s gonna hurt,” he says.

Reeb knows he’s lucky. The house is standing, and he can do the rehab himself. He’s also pleased the place has been stripped down so quickly, which happened with a ton of unexpected help. The day before, a large group of strangers just showed up on this block, going door-to-door offering to clear out and clean up.

Recovery from Helene’s destruction has been slow in the mountainous areas across this region. President Biden on Wednesday deployed 1,000 active duty soldiers to North Carolina. He says they will speed up delivery of life-saving food, water and medicine to isolated areas.

As people wait for more help, the kindness of strangers has been one small solace amid devastation few could imagine. Those not hit by Helene are connecting on Facebook, and creating an informal network to help their neighbors. On this street that has meant a steady stream of people volunteering their time and labor.

A few houses down from Reeb, an orange forklift dumps a mattress and wooden dresser into a truck bed and smashes it down. The operator is 22-year-old Tyler Venerable, who’s home is safe on the other end of town.

“I have a business here, have this equipment, and there's people in need. So we're just going to, you know, give back to the community,” he says.

He shares his number at the dump with those lugging one item at a time. Venerable knows some friends from high school who’ve joined in cleaning out homes. He sees other people pass out cleaning supplies and jugs of water so people can flush toilets.

“I just think that's what we're supposed to do. I'd be upset if I was sitting at the house,” he says.

The owner of the house he’s at now is sitting on the front porch, watching every single item of her longtime home get carted away. Trudy Hall, 56, says the help she’s gotten from strangers started the day of the storm.

Her next-door neighbor called to say the water was rising in her basement and told Trudy to get her dog and bag ready and get out. Trudy said she had no idea where to go. So the neighbor gave her the number of a man up on a hill, who took her in and “treated me like family.”

Hall has two sisters who were also flooded out. “What are the odds?” she says. She’s now living with a fourth sister.

Hall is a certified nursing assistant at a nursing home, and her co-workers have also stepped up with support. So have their relatives, including an 81-year-old father-in-law who helped clean out her house. “How about that? People are good,” she says.

She can not imagine a future anywhere but right here. “I'm going to be back in this house, girl,” she says. “I ain't a quitter.”

Of course, it’s a big hit financially, and as we talk a tear slides down her cheek. “Oh, honey, I’ve been crying since this happened,” she says. “It's all good, we're alive.”

Still. She’s not sure exactly how she’ll manage, but is determined to do whatever it takes. “As my brother said, room by room, we’ll get it done,” she says. “We will get it done.”

As we leave, a co-worker brings Trudy lunch. And two women from a church show up with bags of wipes, water jugs, and cleaning supplies.