Mesa winter residents Steve Johnson and his wife Jill experienced firsthand the horrors of Hurricane Helene back in September.
The couple were living in a log cabin near the South Toe River in Burnsville, North Carolina, on a steep mountain slope. Due to flooding from the storms, Steve and Jill had to evacuate their home, but couldn’t get out due to uprooted trees, which not only obstructed their driveway but also damaged their car.
“Jill needed a CPAP so we had no electricity. Some neighbors came with a group of eight guys and cut a path through the trees so we could walk out. We got the tree off the top of the car so we could drive the car to the top, but we couldn’t drive it because the windshield was damaged. So one of our neighbors took us to a shelter at the Yancey County Fire Department right outside of Burnsville,” Johnson said.
