Help Support Downtown Marshall Clean Up & Recovery

We, Hilary & Tim Nylander, are writing to you from our small, close-knit, rural community of Marshall, located in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Our town has been utterly devasted by Hurricane Helene and we are facing terrific odds. In Downtown Marshall, floodwaters reached a record 27 feet from the French Broad River, 10 feet above street level. Many of our buildings fell into the river while others had their first levels completely blown out. Basements and first floors were filled with several feet of mud and debris. Our collective grief knows no bounds, but we have all persevered to the best of our ability and come together to support those whose losses are the greatest.

We began this campaign last week in an effort to immediately provide PPE (personal protective equipment) and safety gear to the volunteers, business owners and residents cleaning up our downtown and other flood affected areas. Thus far your donations, along with fundraising efforts by many others, have helped ensure that everyone who heads into town is outfitted with Tyvek suits, respirators, rubber boots and gloves. We have also been able to provide equipment to keep food and drinks, medical supplies and other vital supplies stored and safe at our volunteer center.

As local construction crews have to get back to work we are losing access to heavy equipment. With your help we purchased a dump trailer so we can help continue clean-up. This trailer will haul trash and be used as a mobile pressure washing rig to sanitize buildings, clean brick and pavement. Now we need to purchase a dedicated truck to pull it. We will donate the entire rig to the Community Housing Coalition of Madison County to support their efforts now and in years to come.

BRASS TACKS:

Clean-up and restoration efforts have only just begun. If you can help, please do so. If you have already contributed, but could help us get the word out further we would be so grateful. Your support will allow us to immediately and directly provide support as needed AND it goes a long way towards boosting morale as we all see the campaign numbers rise.

We live in a unique and spectacularly beautiful region in this country of ours and look forward to seeing it thrive again - for us and for you!