Photo by Edward Paterson on Unsplash
CV NEWS FEED // Residents of Clyde, North Carolina, are living in tents and campers nearly a month after Hurricane Helene destroyed their homes.
ABC 13 reports that residents like Annette Surrett may be facing the winter in pop-up campers and tents donated by church volunteers, due to the slow turnaround of aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA.)
Surrett told ABC that the trailer she had lived in before the hurricane was swept away. She was evacuated before her home was destroyed.
“The fire department — they were here yelling for people to get out. It was kind of horrifying,” Surrett told ABC 13.
She watched her trailer being swept away from a nearby parking lot, and she lost several pet cats in the storm.
She said the trailer “wrapped around the tree. It snapped in half, and the rest of it went down the river and the roof is down in the bamboo patch.”
Surrett continued, “I was devastated. I was screaming.”
She noted that two of her pet cats escaped to the roof of her trailer.
“They heard me and they just started meowing,” she said.
After Surrett’s community lost their homes, “It’s almost like we were forgotten for several days,” she said. “A nice military couple put a tent up for me.”
Now, Surrett is living in a pop-up camper donated to her by Crabtree Baptist Church.
“I am using a generator that one of the churches donated,” she said. “I’ve been using propane heaters.”
Surrett acknowledged she may have to spend the winter in the camper. “I hope not, but if I have to…,” she said.
She added that although FEMA is present, their accommodations take “a lot of red tape and a lot of time,” according to ABC 13.
Surrett also told ABC that volunteers matter the most, and she is receiving the help she needs from community and church volunteers.
“They’ve been told it’s going to be a while before even FEMA temporary housing is in place,” said Amanda Fowler, pastor at Canton Wesleyan Church and member of the North Canton Volunteer Fire Department.
The volunteers are currently building insulated sheds.
“It has a way to run a generator cord through it so that you can have safe heating options and not worry about catching your tent on fire,” Fowler explained. “There are families that have kids, and they’re trying to survive at this point.”
