Johnson County was one of the first areas in Tennessee to be struck by Hurricane Helene in September. One person died, over 60 homes were destroyed and hundreds of people lost their jobs there as a result of the devastating storm.
The county seat, Mountain City, is a small town of around 2,500 people. It’s nestled in the rolling hills of the Doe Valley, and surrounded on all sides by steep mountains and crisscrossing streams.
The area has historically been challenged by high rates of poverty and homelessness. But that was made worse when Hurricane Helene swept through, bringing torrential rains that overwhelmed shallow creeks and river beds.
“The damage up through there was unreal,” said local resident Tanya Stout. “Half the mountain was gone. I mean, it collapsed completely under [Highway] 421. I mean, it was bad up through there.”
Stout, along with Heath Ashenback, lives in Trade. It’s a small, rural community about 10 miles south of Mountain City. They had just moved into a house there after living on the street for two years. Then Helene struck.
Floodwaters overwhelmed the creeks running through the valley, rising six feet beyond the ordinarily shallow banks that surround their new home. Roads were destroyed and utilities were downed, leaving this mountainous region nearly cut off from the rest of the world.
Though the waters surrounded their property, Stout and Ashenback’s house was spared – or so they thought.
“It looked like the house hadn’t been touched,” Stout said. “You could see where the flood had been in our yard, but you didn’t quite know what was underneath yet.”
In reality, the floodwaters had run through the home’s foundation, which holds it against a hillside.
“We noticed the house was leaning more than it was before,” Stout said. “We started looking underneath. It had washed away everything holding the house up … it’s just a matter of time before the house completely crunches in half or falls completely.”
Their home’s foundation has been damaged beyond repair, leaving it unable to support their house. Massive cracks now divide the living room and bedroom, and the kitchen is starting to slide downhill.
Neither Stout or Ashenback work due to their age and health concerns. They’re still living in the house, because they have nowhere else to go. And they don’t have any money to put towards fixing it.
“I've tried to do everything I can to get some kind of help for the house, and I've not gotten any response from anybody from FEMA,” Stout said.
So they go day by day, waiting to see what might happen.
“The house was the plan,” Stout said. “We didn’t have a backup plan. You know, this was it … I don’t even know how it’s still standing there right now … I really don’t. I’m worried.”
When they were homeless, Stout and Ashenback relied on a small community non-profit known as Helping Others of Johnson County for food, water, clothes and other essentials. The organization operates out of a small building on the edge of Mountain City, and is a soup kitchen, thrift store, and food pantry all-in-one.
Since Helene struck, they’ve been one of the only sources of hot food, fresh clothes and friendly faces for Stout, Ashenback and hundreds of others.
“They helped us with blankets and food and clothes and, Lord, they even gave us a bed,” Stout said. “So, I mean, they have helped us tremendously here.”
For six days a week, Helping Others opens its doors from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. as a low-cost thrift store and food pantry. Until 2 p.m., people can come in for a fresh, homemade meal prepared in a kitchen onsite.
“Every day, pretty much, you get somebody who comes in who, the hot meal, it kind of lights their face up,” said McGregor Barnhill, a volunteer in the soup kitchen. “Because a lot of the people who come in here don’t have access to that stuff without what we do.”
Barnhill’s family used to rely on food pantries and thrift stores to get by.
“So I almost feel like [volunteering] is a nice way to pay the community back,” Barnhill said. “Now that I'm in a better place to come in and volunteer and give some help to people who need it.”
In the days immediately following the flood, the kitchen was feeding about 400 people each day.
“Everybody was without power, and a lot of people had lost their homes, and didn't have anywhere to go,” Barnhill said. “A lot of people were staying in hotels without kitchens. So people would come in here and they knew that there were free meals, so they would come in here and get what they needed.”
And the need has remained. Many people are still living in hotel rooms, or even tens. And major area employer Parkdale Mills, a yarn manufacturer, closed their Mountain City factory due to flood damages, laying off over 100 workers.
So, Helping Others’ work continues. They give out canned food, essential home goods, and run the store to help fund their work. But if someone comes in and says they need something, Vice President Angie Thompson says they’ll get it.
“We give so many blankets away to people, household furnishings, necessities to get started with whatever they can,” Thompson said. “You have to ask the people of the mountains what they need, because they will not say, ‘I need this and I need that.’ So our volunteers are just precious people, and we actually talk to the person that comes in.”
And Thompson says it wouldn’t have been possible without support from the community. In the days and weeks that followed, the organization would receive an innumerable amount of clothes and food donations from all over the region, and even beyond Tennessee. And all of the workers, from cook to cashier, volunteer their time here for free.
“We have people bringing in truckloads of donations,” Thompson said. “We worked hard to keep the supplies coming in, because we knew what we were to so many people here in the community.”
One item in high demand are heaters. Since the flood moved through the area, many homes have lost access to heat and air conditioning, including Stout and Ashenback.
“Like today, they helped us with some heat,” Stout said. “We don’t have any heat now. So they gave us propane tanks and things like that … if it wasn’t for these people, we’d be a lot worse off.”
Thompson says the one consistency she’s seen since Helene struck is people helping others.
“I’ve never seen anything like it, neighbor helping neighbor here like it has,” she said. “It just really touches your heart.”
