‘Like angels had just descended:’ Trapped community finds a way out after Helene

By Ed DiOrio

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ARDEN, North Carolina (WLOS) — There are still many families and communities trapped due to roads destroyed by Hurricane Helene, but rescue teams and volunteers continue to find unique ways to help those in need.

In Arden, a tucked-away community in Buncombe County, a foot-high creek became a nightmare. It left many houses trapped.

“The number of trees that were down was what we thought was going to be the biggest problem,” resident Lauri Palko told News 13.

It wasn’t.

“We got down here to the culvert and realized no one was going anywhere,” she said.

“I saw something black,” resident Jerry Mozian said. “It didn’t make sense until we walked down and saw that the road had collapsed. It’s usually just part of the main road. There’s a culvert underneath that lets Little Hickory Creek go by. Usually, it’s a creek of maybe nine inches, 12 at the max. It turned into a raging torrent.”

The community was trapped for days.

“It was concerning in general,” Mozian said. “This is the way virtually all the traffic needs to get in and out. In my case, I have a disabled wife at home who’s got to get out for various medical reasons.”

Then, another surprise came.

“It was literally like angels had just descended,” Palko said. “I don’t know where they came from. I don’t know how they got here. They’re here. They were walking down the street with orange shirts on that had their names on it.”

“Samaritan’s Purse took one look at this, and realized it’s a real emergency,” Mozian said. “They decided they were going to fix it. This is a bunch of logs of some substance with dirt and gravel in between.”

In three hours, the neighborhood had a new bridge.The bridge does have limitations, as nothing bigger than a pickup truck can go over and have the logs support it. But it is still a sign of recovery for this community.

“It is the best-looking bridge I’ve ever seen,” Palko said. “I’ve never been more grateful to see a road in my life. You don’t realize the value of a bunch of logs and bunch of dirt. If you had told us two weeks ago that we would be so excited about a bridge that looks like this, we would’ve told you that you were crazy.”

“When they finished, there was an enormous amount of relief,” Mozian said. “They had something that turned out to be a lifeline for anyone that needs to get out.”

There is still damage to the neighborhood, however, the debris ended up being the community’s way back to normalcy.

“This is what we got,” Palko said, looking at the bridge. “There are so many people who lost everything. We’re alive. We’re okay. Nothing matters. This is all just stuff. It made you realize we’re okay and that there’s so many other bigger problems.”

“I don’t know when complete normalcy will be,” Mozian said. “What we’ve seen is the human spirit coming together. We have a problem and we’re going to solve it. I don’t know what the normal is going to be going forward. We’ll say a prayer of thanks and keep moving forward.”

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