Retired North Carolina police officer delivers thousands of dollars in supplies, food to Helene survivors
EXCLUSIVE: FAIRVIEW, N.C. — Retired Asheville Police Department Officer Steve Antle immediately answered the call to help his local community of Buncombe County, North Carolina, after Hurricane Helene struck in the early morning hours of Sept. 27.
Antle, his wife, members of their church and others have been putting thousands of dollars in donations toward delivering literal truckloads of supplies to remote neighborhoods in the mountains on a trailer attached to their Hyundai.
"I saw a news article on Fox where the president was saying that people here were getting everything they needed, and they're not," Antle told Fox News Digital on Sunday during one of his trips coordinating a delivery of supplies to Spring Mountain Baptist Church. "I can't help but feel that Appalachia has always gotten short shrift … going back decades and decades."
Antle added that the area is "at the beginning of the beginning of the beginning" in terms of rebuilding what was lost during Helene.
"My opinion is that this storm has completely altered certain areas of our county, in our area, that are just never going to be the same," Antle said.
For more than two weeks since the storm, Antle has been sharing updates about how donors' money is being spent, what kind of necessities are needed and where he is delivering supplies.
When the storm struck, civilians needed water and food, and first responders needed bee spray and boots that fit properly. Now, people need gas, propane and stoves as temperatures drop to the low 30s at night halfway into the month of October.
More than 250 people perished across seven states during Helene, including 123 in North Carolina. While an unknown number of people remain missing across those states, North Carolina authorities estimate that the whereabouts of approximately 92 people remain unknown.
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The former police officer — who was working as a delivery driver prior to the hurricane — estimates that he has received about $7,000 in donations from friends and strangers, which he has put toward essential items for those in his community. He has been delivering some items to community gathering places like churches and some supplies directly to elderly residents or those in inaccessible places.
Antle is one of many community members in the western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee areas who have taken relief efforts into their own hands in their spare time.
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"We're going to need long term support … and when I say long term, I mean years. Years. We were just at the very start," he said.
People from across both states and other areas of the country, too, have donated money, supplies and even private helicopters and construction equipment, initially to help with search and rescue efforts and now to help devastated communities rebuild in hard-to-reach areas.
Some have used trailers to create makeshift bridges to transport supplies to residences that were isolated when bridges collapsed in rapid flooding.
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Members of the Army and National Guard, police officers and sheriff's deputies, volunteers, first responders and others from across the country are still stationed in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee working to find missing people, rebuild roads and bridges, clear debris and clean mud out of buildings.
Linemen have been working 16- and 17-hour days to help get power restored for the tens of thousands of people who are still without electricity in remote areas of the Appalachian Mountains.
Neighbors are also coming together to help each other, even if they were strangers before the storm.
Black Mountain Police Chief Steve Parker previously told Fox News Digital that it has been "amazing" to see how the community has come together after a tragedy.
"One gentleman the other day, he said, ‘I never knew my neighbors.’ But he said, ‘Joe over here needed this, and Susie over here needed that and Jake over there needed this. And we all got it for them.' So, they're working together to help each other, and they're truly becoming a community."
Certain North Carolina towns are encouraging tourists to return during the western part of the state's peak autumnal travel season, while other towns are still working to bring water and electricity back to residents.
Help people affected by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Your donation enables the Red Cross to prepare for, respond to and help people recover from these disasters. Go to redcross.org/foxforward.