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Raphine FD Spearheading Local Efforts
With the Rockbridge area largely spared from the damaging effects of Hurricane Helene, local community groups are organizing to help out the residents of western North Carolina, where Asheville and other mountain towns have been devastated by extreme flooding.
A search and rescue team was put together by a coalition of local communities, including workers from Staunton and one member of the fire department in Raphine. They are establishing a headquarters in Spruce Pine, N.C.
By Monday evening, countywide relief efforts were centered around the Raphine Volunteer Fire Department, which had posted on Facebook over the weekend that it would be collecting items for distribution in Asheville and Boone. Volunteers collected and organized donated items brought in from all around the area, including bottled water, health and hygiene supplies, nonperishable foods, and cleaning supplies.
Donations were being accepted again last night and will continue to be accepted at the firehouse through Fri- day.
The News-Gazette visited the station Monday and spoke to fire department volunteer Chelsea Brooks, who is helping organize the relief efforts. As of that evening, the fire department had filled over 50 individual buckets with supplies, with many more to go.
Brooks said that the search and rescue team will “be back Thursday night, and then we’re going to give them a little time to recuperate, which will also give me time to sort all this. We weren’t expecting this turnout!”
Due to the evolving nature of emergency situations, Brooks was uncertain as to the exact day the donations would be delivered to North Carolina, though she expected them to be packed up by the middle of next week.
Local schools rallied and began to collect donations to send to Raphine. The Rockbridge County High School volleyball team accepted donations at its home game Tuesday night.
Lexington City Schools Superintendent Rebecca Walters said that their staff are “working on a plan to collect donations for North Carolina and other weather-affected areas that will be communicated with our school community this week.”
Parry McCluer High School in Buena Vista is also collecting donations through Thursday, which they will then take to the Raphine fire station that evening.
