Story by Audrey Kashatus
Cover Photo by Bethany Pryor
BOONE, N.C. – Bev Kauffeldt was at her home in Boone with her two dogs dealing with a flooded basement, power outage and multiple downed trees the day Hurricane Helene swept through Western North Carolina.
Three days later, Kauffeldt was sent on a helicopter that flew to Radiant Church, just south of Asheville, to distribute water bottles as part of her job at Samaritan’s Purse, a national and international disaster relief organization.
That first trip launched a widespread aviation operation – headed by Aaron Ashoff, director of international projects – to bring resources and relief to struggling communities in 23 different counties across North Carolina, Tennessee and South Carolina.
“Thus began just an incredible couple weeks for us to do something we never tried before,” Ashoff said.
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Located in North Wilkesboro is one of the Samaritan’s Purse warehouses, filled with water purification systems, field hospitals and disaster response vehicles the size of a semi truck.
“We could be anywhere in the world in 36 hours,” Jason Kimak, the senior director of North American Ministries at Samaritan’s Purse, said. “In the U.S., we say within 12 hours, just depending on the drive.”
While the North Wilkesboro campus hosts its disaster relief warehouse, Samaritan’s Purse headquarters is located under an hour away in Boone.
Since 1970, the nondenominational evangelical Christian organization has responded to crises across the globe, in places such as Ukraine, Sudan, Liberia and most recently, Israel. Kimak said Samaritan’s Purse was ready to respond to Hurricane Helene in areas around Florida and Georgia, but soon shifted plans as the storm made its way up into the Carolinas.
“We started to see very quickly that we were in trouble,” Kimak said.
Ashoff was tasked with developing a fleet of helicopters to distribute any and all resources available to hard-to-reach communities. The helicopters were coming in from the organization itself, private owners who wanted to donate time to the response, former military personnel and the National Guard.
Before long, each helicopter in the fleet was making 15 to 20 relief trips each day.
With its heavy winds and rainfall, Helene caused massive flooding and mudslides across the Blue Ridge Mountains resulting in hundreds of closed roads. Even sections of Interstate 40, one of the busiest highways in the state, were washed out and impassable for days.
Smaller communities that were unreachable due to road closures were the main focus of Samaritan’s Purse’s helicopter missions.
“It was a true emergency,” Ashoff said. “I mean, it was familiar to things we do in the world, but here it was in our backyard, and truly the only way to get to people was flying in.”
The organization’s main points of contact were through churches and fire stations. Pastors and fire chiefs could put in requests for certain supplies, the helicopters would then be loaded up and supplies arrived within hours.
Kauffeldt oversaw the smallest helicopters, or what she called “the littles.” Her helicopters could hold about 500 to 1,000 pounds of supplies each and were making over 15 missions every day.
Kauffeldt has worked for Samaritan’s Purse for 25 years and is now the manager of the Apprenticeship Program, where she trains new employees for long-term careers with the organization.
Prior to her current position, she worked in Liberia for over 14 years aiding their humanitarian crisis. While in Liberia, she frequently loaded and flew on Samaritan’s Purse helicopters and became familiar with aviation relief responses.
During the first couple of days following the storm, Kauffeldt visited multiple communities to assess their specific situations and needs. She said many of those people still had her phone number and would call her with requests and updates.
Kauffeldt said one of her most memorable moments was being on the ground in these places just days after the storm hit and seeing the destruction.
“I’ve been doing this for 25 years,” Kauffeldt said. “I’ve seen a lot of disasters, but the power of that water throughout these communities – just taking rebar and metal and just bending it like we would a piece of string – was pretty crazy.”
The Incident Management Team at the Boone headquarters would update daily spreadsheets of resources that were needed and where they should go. The first few missions were primarily delivering food, water and oxygen.
The organization delivered their own water systems to places without clean drinking water, which were able to provide thousands of liters of clean water every day. Emergency oxygen stations were also available to those experiencing medical emergencies.
Over time, as needs changed and temperatures dropped, so did the missions. Samaritan’s Purse began to airlift fuel drums and generators to those who didn’t have power or heat. In their North Wilkesboro campus, Samaritan’s Purse had a warehouse filled with winter clothing kits.
Eventually, the organization connected with Starlink, a satellite internet service that provides internet access to remote and rural areas around the world. Once communities were able to have stable internet connection, Ashoff said the operation really opened up.
In three weeks, Samaritan’s Purse flew over 350 air missions.
“It was more than we’d ever hoped we could do,” Ashoff said.
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Just over four months have passed since the hurricane and noticeable damage is still present throughout Boone and across western North Carolina.
During the initial relief response, Elliott Willis, the disaster response vehicle program manager at Samaritan’s Purse, sent out vehicles to six different host churches across western North Carolina. The disaster response vehicles contain all kinds of tools volunteers may need, such as shovels, generators, drills and chainsaws.
Willis said his team will also have a hand in the rebuilding process.
Today, the organization has about 60 vehicles across the country. A couple of these vehicles are at the North Wilkesboro warehouse, loaded with tools for rebuilds. Willis said four of the vehicles are completely empty for transporting furniture and supplies as well.
In addition to managing the disaster response vehicles, Willis was the volunteer coordinator for the Hurricane Helene response. He said he managed 1,000 volunteers each day.
“Just seeing the cars that were lined up for miles trying to help out was amazing,” he said.
Ashoff said in the weeks and months following the storm, Samaritan’s Purse is still trying to help people affected – even team members and colleagues – because there are still ongoing issues.
Samaritan’s Purse is planning a rebuild in Boone, Asheville and Burnsville and their surrounding counties. The rebuild will include building stick-built homes, providing mobile homes and furniture and grants to local churches.
“Everything happened so fast, and we’re used to responding all around the country and around the world,” Kimack said. “But we have just these amazing staff and volunteers who believe in the mission of Samaritan’s Purse – that’s to go and help those who are in need.”
