LEXINGTON, Ill. – Rural devastation in western North Carolina from Hurricane Helene remains severe, with many farms and ranches experiencing damage to buildings, fences and other assets. Illinois-based Fellowship of Christian Farmers (FCFI) is currently organizing “boots on the ground” in preparation for a farm rescue mission to rural areas around Asheville and Arden.

“I’m on my way to Ohio to pick up a generator that is heading for North Carolina, because a lot of people there still don’t have power,” said FCFI executive director Dennis Schlagel, reporting from the road on Oct. 9. ‘We’re going to try and help some of them out. There is still a lot of damage.”

FCFI currently has volunteer workers assisting disaster victims in Florida and eastern Pennsylvania, which, along with the harvest, is stretching their core roster of volunteers thin. In order to fulfill their missions, FCFI sometimes calls on area youth agriculture groups, colleges and university agriculture programs to fill the ranks. To better assist farmers and other citizens in North Carolina, college agriculture students from Heartland Community College in Bloomington, Ill., and others from Bryan College in Dayton, Tenn., have been recruited to assist in the recovery effort.

“Right now, we’re shipping materials to Bryan College where an effort is already underway. It will be easiest for us to join their efforts to get supplies and items into North Carolina. We’re hoping the roads will be safe to get into the area by the time we can mobilize, but it’s a real bad situation,” Schlagel said, adding that FCFI is working with the North Carolina Farm Bureau to identify a location for a centralized base camp to house the volunteers.

“This will be a long-term disaster recovery,” he added. “There may be trees down or debris to clear, or there may be a need for hay if farmers had a lot of flooding or couldn’t get all their hay made. But it is a very fluid situation, and we are still identifying the specific needs.”

In addition to personnel and heavy equipment, common household supplies and non-perishable food items will also be staged and prepared for delivery at Bryan College, a private religious school with an enrollment of about 1,550 students in eastern Tennessee. From there, the volunteers will move into the affected target area for relief in western North Carolina.

“We are hoping that some of our Heartland students from Illinois will work alongside those from Bryan College and develop new friendships. That is a secondary goal of the mission,” Schlagel said.

As of Farm World press time, North Carolina officials had reported at least 89 deaths from Helene. Buncombe County, where Asheville is located, reported at least 40 deaths. In addition, significant portions of the Blue Ridge Parkway remained closed, as did about a dozen popular western North Carolina state parks and Biltmore Estate, a popular tourist attraction.

FCFI is actively recruiting volunteers and welcomes donations of materials to assist Helene victims in western North Carolina. “Right now, we’re looking for food supplies, baby supplies and other things to help families. And when the farm bureau lets us know they are ready for volunteers to come, we’ll start going,” Schlagel said.

To donate to the FCFI Hurricane Helene effort in North Carolina reach out to Schlagel at (309) 530-7004 or dennis@fcfi.org, or contact the FCFI office at (309) 365-8710.