The wind howled. The floodwater came. The hurricane that was only supposed to skirt the small mountain county had led to its destruction. Powerlines had fallen. Roads caved. And homes were lost.

For Candace Crompton, it was more than devastating to watch her hometown crumble before her eyes on live television. It was mortifying for her to watch the downtown she once strolled through flood, and for the general store she frequented with her children to be swept away.

“[It was] just heartbreaking. I sat there and just watched videos, and I had text messages pouring in from people who used to live there, and we were watching all of it,” Crompton said. “It just… breaks your heart. I mean, that’s where… you grow up, because [that’s] like always a part of you, no matter how far away you are.”

That Saturday afternoon, Crompton had enough. She had decided that it was time to turn things around for the better.

“Just after watching so much, I was like, you know what? I have to do something,” Crompton said. “I’m a Christian, so I just felt like the Holy Spirit [was] calling me to do it.”

Crompton quickly got to work on helping her hometown, Rutherford County.

“I was like ‘hey, I’m just going to want to make a Canva post, and I’m going to post it on my social platforms and see if people will share it’,” Crompton said. “That was like the extent of it, and it became a very huge operation, which I’m very thankful for.”

She could have never imagined the amount of support she would receive, especially after starting this relief project in her own garage. Since Sept. 29, Crompton and her cause have raised over $10,000 in cash donations.

“It’s become much bigger than what you anticipate. Like I said, at first, I thought it’d be me. I homeschool my kids, so I thought…me and my two kids; we take up a few supplies in my SUV,” Crompton said. “And now… it’s going to be at least a five to six caravan, and that includes two trucks with trailers. We have a big sprint van that was donated to us.”

Thus far, Crompton has also partnered with multiple school systems and companies. She originally thought of only going up to her hometown once to deliver supplies, but with the large influx of support, she is now preparing for multiple trips. With each delivery, she hopes to help as many people as she can.

“My main goal is to just get as many supplies to people as possible, especially the remote areas,” Crompton said. “I think the big places like Asheville and Hendersonville are getting the most… attention, and more supplies there. And I feel like this small town is not getting as much of that. So, any little bit that we can get and just try to save these people’s lives.”

Similarly to Crompton and her large relief efforts, local Fellowship of Christian Athletes’ collegiate director William Kendrick and his church community have also gotten involved in the cause.

“LifePark church, over at Mount Pleasant, they’ve donated a ton of supplies, and they set up a staging area for that so people would come and they could donate… And then some other churches, Calvary donated resources and stuff like that as well,” Kendrick said. “But mostly, the biggest thing is just come from regular people, just individuals. We’ve seen $5,500 in donations, just through Venmo alone.”

With these donations, Kendrick and his church community hope to help the citizens impacted get back on their feet.

“My hopes for relief are to help those that are affected,” Kendrick said. “So I think with this… giving a man a fish so that way they can learn to fish again is what I’m trying to do here. So what I mean when I say that is the individuals that can’t go about their normal everyday life, working right now because of what’s been going on around them, we want to be able to supply their needs for them… so that way they can get back to normal life as quick as possible.”

Senior Mackenzie Eikenberry also could not stay idle. Due to her grandparents living close to Asheville and in the middle of the impact zone, she recently traveled westward in hopes of helping out in any way that she could. However, she was shocked by the devastation she was met with.

“Part of the front yard of someone’s house… looks like a new creek basically formed, and the road is just gone. There’s no way to really get between places,” Eikenberry said. “There is a giant landslide on one of the properties that caused the creek to flood more. There’s like parts of boats and half of a side by side.”

While some like Eikenberry have physically gone up to help, Crompton explains that one does not have to travel to aid those impacted. After all, it’s possible to be a hero at home.

“I hope it just gets the word out to people that they can be helpful just by donating either money or supplies. They don’t have to physically go up and help,” Crompton said. “We’re praying for them. We love them, and we are doing everything in our power to get their situation remedied and get things to them.”

This story was originally published on Tribal Tribune on October 7, 2024.