Shortly after Hurricane Helene inundated communities in Western North Carolina with 12 inches to nearly three feet of rain in just a few days late in September, Spruce Pine United Methodist Church in Spruce Pine, N.C., became a hub for disaster relief. It wasn’t their plan, but God needed a way to send help to this community, and this congregation provided that way. Though the church had neither electricity nor water, it was spared severe water damage, and on the third day after the storm, members of the congregation joined their pastor, Rev. Holly Cobb McKim, at the church, assessing their own situation and turning to help others.
Lilla Marigza, a freelance reporter with United Methodist News Service, notes that for weeks following Hurricane Helene, every square foot of Spruce Pine UMC was in service to the community. It offered a food pantry, water, a clothing closet and baby supplies. The Western North Carolina Disaster Response office asked if the church would be willing to host Early Response Teams (ERTs) already making plans to travel to the region to serve. Within days, the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) sent the conference a grant to help with relief efforts.
The church set up dormitories in children’s ministry rooms and constructed a temporary shower facility outside for what turned out to be literally hundreds of UMCOR-trained ERTs coming from conferences across the country. They visited for a week at a time to serve the people in this area of Western North Carolina who have seen tremendous devastation, loss of property and natural habitat and worst of all, loss of family members.
McKim noted: “I’ve been United Methodist all my life. How many times have we taken up special offerings for UMCOR? And we’ve sent money, and this is the first time it’s been right here in my own backyard! That’s actually a very humbling experience. Learning how to receive everything that everyone has given us has been extremely humbling and gives me hope in humanity.”
Specific areas of the Holston Conference in East Tennessee and Virginia were also affected by Helene, mostly through flooding. A dam gave way outside Greenville, Tennessee, causing massive flooding, power outages and road closures.
On Friday Sep. 27, Trinity UMC in Greenville had no power or water, but the church was in good shape. Pastor Sara Varnell said she didn’t know what to do, but members of her congregation called and were certain they should do something. She connected with another UMC and asked a lot of questions.
“Our church started saying ‘yes’ on Saturday morning,” Varnell said. “We didn’t know how to do this, but God did. This is God and a whole community and all the churches and people working together.”
People from the wider UMC connection started showing up with water, food, diapers – and people from the community soon learned where they could find these things they desperately needed. Before long the church was a major hub. UMCOR sent clean-up supplies, volunteers from church within and outside the conference showed up with supplies and stayed to help organize and distribute them.
Spruce Pine and Trinity churches were two paths God found to reach people after Helene struck. This scenario was repeated in other communities and churches, in other states affected by Helene’s broad reach. Today, as the relief operations wind down, United Methodist disaster coordinators in the affected conferences are planning recovery strategies for weary communities.
Preparing for long-term recovery efforts
As 2025 unfolds, three hard-hit United Methodist conferences are working with UMCOR to assess recovery needs and set-up long-term disaster management programs. Western North Carolina Conference, South Carolina Conference and Holston Conference are each receiving grants averaging $100,000-$200,000 to begin this assessment, which includes fact and resource gathering to discover where needs are already being met by government and nonprofit agencies and which communities have not received what they need. Finding these gaps in services and resources is an UMCOR objectives.
Jim Cox, who recently began work as UMCOR’s new executive director, met a number of ERTs in the Asheville, North Carolina, area as they arrived to help Western North Carolina Conference mud-out and clean-up in surrounding communities.
“UMCOR has been in partnership with the conference here since day one,” he noted. “Western North Carolina Conference has done great work early on. We’re now looking at long-term recovery. We plan to partner together with the conference for several years.”
Long-term recovery grants from UMCOR help to cover expenses for disaster case management, construction management, volunteer management, material resource management, financial management and administration, depending on what the assessment determines. Recovery grants tend to be substantial and are usually implemented in time periods of six months to two years or longer after initial assessments are completed.
South Carolina sustained major damage from winds and tornadoes created by Helene. Jessica Brody, South Carolina Advocate editor, noted that nearly the entire western half of South Carolina—comprising 29 counties in total—was approved for individual and public assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
United Methodists in the conference have donated supplies, sent ERTs out and quickly arranged ERT trainings for UMCOR ERT certification.
Florida was also hit hard, particularly in the panhandle region, and received a series of relief grants, but it has already set up major recovery hubs in response to previous hurricanes and received an additional grant early in 2024.
“We are UMCOR”
“When disaster strikes, like the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene, many ask, ‘Where is UMCOR?’ The simple answer is: We are UMCOR,” wrote Aimee Yeager, director of Communications for Western North Carolina Conference. “United Methodist disaster response is embodied through the work of our local churches, teams, and volunteers.”
The role of the UMCOR is to help fund disaster response efforts, train volunteers and provide the expertise and resources that empower annual conferences across the nation to respond to disasters. UMCOR’s real strength, however, is found in the hands and feet of local church members who bring help directly to their communities.
“So, where is UMCOR? Right here,” Yeager continued. “We are UMCOR – each of us is a part of this essential ministry of love and relief. We have been here. We are still here. We will remain. Thanks be to God.”
Learn more about Disaster Response in the U.S.
United Methodist Committee on Relief U.S. Disaster Response and Recovery serves as the primary channel for United Methodist assistance for disasters that strike within the United States.
Make a gift to help UMCOR provide for the basic needs of people and communities devastated by both natural and humanmade disasters.
GIVE: https://umcmission.org/advance-project/901670/
Christie R. House is a consultant writer and editor with Global Ministries and UMCOR. With thanks to the communicators of Western North Carolina, South Carolina and Holston conferences for their story coverage used here: Aimee Yeager, Annette Spence, Jessica Brodie and UM News reporters, Lilla Marigza and Mike DuBose.
This content was originally published by the General Board of Global Ministries; republished with permission by ResourceUMC on January 23, 2025.