Help Leo and Tessa Rebuild After Hurricane Helene

For those of you that don’t know us, we are Tessa Reed and Leo Sharp. We are two homesteaders that are fortunate enough to have found ‘home’ alongside the Nolichucky in Green Mountain, NC. After Leo’s 10 years in the Navy on a submarine, we took a leap of faith and bought the first stepping stone to our dream and Magnolia Heritage Homestead was born.  As a Naturalist this land had more beauty than I could explore in my lifetime. Our home was built in 1920, and holds lifetimes of love and history in these walls. We’ve spent our two years bringing back its history and filling this home with love. Our house which has stood the test of time and withstood many storms was ravaged and severely damaged.

This year we made enough progress on the homestead that spring ‘25, we’d be able to get fruits of labor into markets and really develop our homestead from a passion project into a business. Helene washed away our medicinal herb and tea gardens, half of our bees did not make it, our coops and incubators washed away, our lawnmowers, tools & equipment have been encased in mud, our freezers that were full of garden veggies and meat we had raised were ruined, the stores we had preserved all year in the root cellar were no longer safe for consumption. 

Leo and I had planned on having our wedding ceremony on October 5th 2024 which we had to postpone due to the widespread damage. Not only were we hoping 2025 would bring fruits from our labor we were hoping to overcome some of my fertility issues and begin our journey towards growing our family. All of our hopes and plans were changed on September 27th when Hurricane Helene forever changed our lives.

The night before the hurricane we watched the high waters but never imagined in the blink of an eye, life would change entirely. Friday morning the water was beginning to rise over our road, and by 10:30am we had released every chicken, turkey, bunny, goose, duck and quail. By 11:30am the water was past  our ‘go point’ and was flowing underneath of our home. Us, our three dogs, 18 year old house cat and 3 barn cats escaped to the barn up the mountain. We watched as the water continued to rise fearing everything was lost. We felt the ground shake as boulders bounced along the riverbed, barns, houses, coffins, and unidentifiable mounds of debris swept down river. All we could do was sit, hope and watch. Around 6pm, the water receded enough for us to make it back down to the house. 

We had no idea the damage that would unfold as the water continued to recede. After checking on our neighbor we began hiking up to my mom, who lives just 5 miles up river and climbed the mountain around the corner from us. On this trek, we realized the extent of the damage would be so much greater than our sleep deprived minds would allow. 

As the days have unfolded we’ve been working at doing what we can and helping where we can. We applied for FEMA early on, and are still working and waiting to get word back. Insurance would not cover our damages as we were not in a flood plain, and did not have flood insurance. Instead however, due to the damages they dropped us from all coverage until the damages are repaired. We are no longer covered for anything else that may happen to our home between now and then.

Our bedroom was an addition put onto our 104 year old home, and between the water that rose underneath of the house and the water that came down the mountain like a waterfall, mixed with the winds that beat upon the roof and walls, it created the perfect recipe for black mold to completely take over. After taking the room down to the studs and throwing away most of our mold covered belongings, we found the issues were far greater than our initial expectations. The joists are unsupported due to the washout, the stress from the wind split the trusses, and the entire room would be more affordable to demolish and rebuild once the foundation repairs are completed. This alone will roughly cost $44,000 just to build the bare shell. That means no flooring, no interior walls, no ceilings. We are trying to do our best to do what work we are capable of in order to conserve costs. However hard the toll has been on our bodies.

We will also need to repair the foundations for the main part of the house, replace the roof, fix the foundations on both of our barns, fix our front steps, and continue rebuilding the retaining wall keeping our driveway and lower barn safe. The quotes keep piling up and so does the bill. Currently we are looking at over $120,000 for all of the repairs. We want to say that even meeting a goal to allow us to just make our home safe to live in would be enormous. Every bit helps. We thank god for the blessings we’ve been given.

To make matters worse, just the other day our daily (and only) driver has kicked the bucket and can no longer reliably handle our new “road”. We took it to get inspected and they told us the cheapest scenario involves replacing the entire engine with a used one. The timing could not be worse. 

We know that while our plans have taken a 180, we are going to make it through this and be stronger for it. Our list of losses is long, and our community was hit just as hard. We cannot express just how thankful we are to everyone that has helped us. Anyone willing to help us through such a difficult time is our hero.

If we can get 10,000 people to donate just $12 we can meet our goal and be able to make everything safe again. So whether it’s a dollar or more, every single bit helps and we would be eternally grateful knowing that you helped save not only our home, but the dreams we’ve spent years nurturing.

God bless you. From the bottoms of our hearts.