From Ruin to Restoration in North Carolina
Hurricane Helene left parts of Asheville, North Carolina, and surrounding areas, covered in mud and debris. Many people had no power or running water, and no idea how they would restart their lives. Matthew Thomas and his family couldn’t believe the tremendous loss.
Holding back tears, Matthew said, “Looking around at all this, the devastation, it’s sad.”
The Thomas family’s basement workshop, where Matthew and his son, Jackson, worked together, had flooded. Their power tools were destroyed, along with their livelihood.
To make matters worse, their family also didn’t have running water, forcing them to get drinking water from a stream.
“Of course, I was risking something drinking that water, but I wanted it so bad that I would risk it,” said Matthew.
Then Operation Blessing found out about their family. We brought them a water filtration system, along with a brand-new generator, air compressor, table saw, router table, cabinet, and many other items needed to restart their workshop.
Looking at all the new tools, Jackson exclaimed, “Dude, this is so awesome!”
As Matthew’s wife, Tanya, gave Matthew a hug in relief, she said, “Oh, my goodness.”
Jackson said, “Ya’ll did this in one day! That’s amazing! This is incredible. A lot of this is higher quality than what we had before. So, we now have the shop. We just have to organize it.”
Matthew said, “The beautiful saw and the, all the tools, but the water makes it possible to use those tools. You can’t last long without water. Water is life.”
Jackson said, “We’ve got a water thing now, and now we have another generator. So next time we have an apocalypse occur, we, we’re set now.”
Matthew said, “I’m so grateful to, to like meet you folks specifically, and to know the folks that are out there that we haven’t met that are making what you do possible. You guys are doing the good work.”
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