God’s Pit Crew delivers hope and new homes to hurricane-affected Yancey County families
WLOS
By Ed DiOrio
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YANCEY COUNTY, North Carolina (WLOS) — There wasn’t much left of Big Bear Branch Road in Yancey County after Helene.
“Our neighbor’s houses were washed away,” Martha Tomas said. “Ours got saved by this landslide.”
However, while the landslide may have saved the Tomas’s home, it did not help it.
“The landslide caused [our home] to fall backwards,” she said. “Water was able to get inside, water got in it [and caused] mold — the floor was ruined, the walls in the master bedroom and kitchen, too.”
Martha was not in the home by herself; she has four kids, who have all been on the move for nearly seven months.
“I’ve stayed with my sister — that’s where we were in the beginning,” she said. “We moved into my ex-husband’s house, then we went to my mom’s.”
The family thought they had found a solution when they got a camper.
“The power went out on this one. So, we’re in a different camper — it definitely has been hard.”
The solution came after her neighbors reached out to God’s Pit Crew, a disaster response team out of Virginia that had been helping in the Asheville area before with tasks like debris removal.
“[God’s Pit Crew] reached out to me through my neighbors,” Tomas said. “I believe that’s how they got my contact information. You just have to fill out an application. There and then, after we did that, they congratulated me and told me I was getting a new home. I got in my car, and I just started crying.”
The non-profit brought homes for Tomas and her neighbors on Thursday, all of which were washed away.
While it may not be their home forever, she’s ready to move again, this time, with a new perspective.
“Home is where me and my kids are,” Tomas said. “I feel like now, it has a bigger meaning to it.”
To help other families needing homes, visit the God’s Pit Crew website.
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