A group of good Samaritans came to the rescue of a trapped elderly lady, delivering a much-needed generator to her cut-off home after Hurricane Helene left her without power for six days.
Helene wreaked havoc across the North Carolina mountains, downing trees, causing rivers to surge and cutting off power to many residents.
In Creston, North Carolina, a team of local helpers from Phi Kappa Tau fraternity at Appalachian State University flagged that a lady named Ally had been trapped in her farmhouse, where she had been standing on her porch looking down the mountain helplessly.
The group was working with Trent Woodcock of TM Woodcock Construction, and so they began to devise a plan which would allow them to tackle the biggest obstacle of all: getting a generator around the river that ran in front of Ally’s and her husband Gary’s home.
One helper, Ryan Lampe, decided to take a route around the back of the farmhouse through the mountains, which allowed him to bypass the river and allow the team to deliver a much-needed generator successfully.
Trent captured the team’s heroic work on video, which then saw them use a tractor to carry gas across the river and up to Ally and Gary’s home.
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The rescue took place on October 3, and Trent’s wife, Molly, 33, later shared a video of the team’s rescue attempts on her Instagram account, where it soon went viral and received more than four million views.
Through such posts, Molly has been looking to spread awareness of the selfless work of rescuers and construction workers in the area and raise money for rescue efforts.
Molly, from Boone, North Carolina, said: “It’s really emotional to see someone so excited for a basic need, like power.
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“We are so proud to be able to help our neighbors.
“Hurricane Helene left so much devastation; we’re just trying to do what we can.
“We hope others are motivated by the video and lend a hand where they can.”
Trent said: “I’ve seen boulders the size of dump trucks or school buses that were moved by this water – just to show the power.
“People’s bridges were blowing out, or driveways were blocked; we were cutting our way in, sending 10 trucks a morning out, running supplies, running generators; coming across elderly folks – maybe folks on CPAP machines that can’t use those at night without power.
“From the day that this thing hit, and I just saw all the struggle and devastation, I just, kind of, knew there were people out there in the world that wanted to help, and I’m, like, ‘Hey, I think we can really put something together.’
“You could see her standing on the porch and the bridge is just completely gone, and you could tell she’s had no contact from the other side.
“You can tell she was actually, like, ‘No, it’s too dangerous; don’t cross.’ And we were, like, ‘No, we’re going to find a way.’
Alice said: “It was like a vision.
“I was just taken aback, because I didn’t expect it.
“I felt so grateful, and it was going to be so wonderful to have electricity and hot water.
“It was very, very heartwarming, for sure.
“And every day, I would keep a journal and write everything that I was thankful for that happened that day, because you could forget it, because one things after another – bringing food or bringing gas – it was too much to take in, so I thought, I’m not going to lose this; I want to write it down.”
Gary added: “I saw the tractors, I saw the generator and the two guys putting it together and was, like, ‘Wow! What a surprise.’
“To see all of these anonymous people come together and help us, it just gives you a lot of faith in people.
“It was a phenomenal example of brotherhood, really.”