Support for the Crabtree Family in Light of Hurricane Helene

Many people have been asking how they can help us with recent events. We have applied for relief and been in contact with our homeowner's insurance, but with the massive scale of this natural disaster it will take time. In the meantime, we have bills to pay and we're still down to one car. A lot of things we will have to pay for up front and get reimbursed later. Ryan and I are both self-employed. I'm a solo private therapy practice owner, and Ryan is a professional musician. Neither of us have an income unless we are working, and our reserves have already been significantly impacted by this event. Any amount will help as we work toward rebuilding and finding a new normal.

What happened:

On Sunday, 9/22/24, Ryan was driving the Corolla to his church gig. He was on the interstate near our house going the speed limit in the right lane. He was not listening to music or in any way distracted. A person in an SUV was driving in the left lane going about 90 mph. At the last minute, she swerved into the right lane and hit the Corolla in the rear. Ryan spun around, hit the guard rail several times, and the airbags deployed. Ryan went to the ER and got imaging done and he is physically okay aside from soreness/ weakness in his left arm. The other driver's insurance has been really challenging to work with, so we are still trying to get a rental car.

On Thursday night, 9/26/24, Ryan and I stayed up late watching weather updates regarding Hurricane Helene. We saw many road closures, but were comforted knowing our phones would make a loud alarm sound if there was a real threat. Unfortunately, our phones did not wake us up with an alarm. Around 6:45am, we woke up to loud sounds and the house shuttering like an earthquake. We went into the living room and heard dripping coming from the ceiling. At that point we grabbed our boys, 2.5 and 5 y/o, out of bed and went downstairs. We called 911, but they were overwhelmed with calls and couldn't give us any information as to if and when we should evacuate. They told us to stay put if it was safe enough to do so. We hunkered down in the basement on a mattress piled with pillows. We began to get nervous as the backyard turned into a fast flowing stream, and we worried more trees could fall on the house. We got rain coats and boots on and were about to try to evacuate when we heard more loud banging upstairs and ran back to our safe spot. It turns out, that was the sound of the tree coming through the ceiling into the living room, knocking down the TV and anything in its path. Water was now pouring into the house and we could see daylight through the ceiling.

When the storm appeared to be over, we ventured out and checked on our neighbors, many of whom also were impacted. There were too many trees down to count, including two giant white oak double trees on our property. We decided to try to walk to the fire department to let them know about the tree that knocked a power line into our house. As we walked down the road, there were knocked down trees being held up only by the power lines. We couldn't make it very far and decided to turn back, recognizing that our situation was not the priority. We packed some bags, had a potluck with a neighbor since all our food was going to go bad anyway, and went to stay with friends whose house was not as impacted. We stayed with friends for 2 nights with no running water, no power, and hardly any cell signal. Helicopters were flying by every 5 minutes and there were no firefighters or linemen working in Black Mountain, indicating that there were even bigger emergencies than the ones our town was facing.

On Sunday, our friends decided to evacuate to stay with family. We were planning to stay behind in Black Mountain. That night, the Black Mountain Police Dept. issued an emergency evacuation notice regarding a dam that was about to break. Around 9pm we hurriedly woke the boys and packed them and the pets into my friend's hatchback. Our vehicle didn't have much gas and there was none to be had for miles. BMPD later rescinded the evacuation order, but we decided to continue on our way to Chattanooga since we were all packed and the threat of the dam(s) breaking was not completely over. It took over 6 hours to make it to Chattanooga since I-40 is destroyed in places. We arrived in Chattanooga tired and weary around 3am Monday morning. We are safe now, and doing our best to recoup. It will take time, and I'm doing my best to help my current clients as they are able to access sessions. Many of my clients still don't have phone service or internet to be able to meet. We are absolutely homesick and devastated for our community.

At the time of writing this, we still don't have power at our house and there's still a tree and power line in our living room. Ryan and I are planning to go back this Sunday and Monday without the kids to assess further damage/ progress and take care of some business if possible.

What Your Support Will Go Toward

Any monetary support we receive will be used the following ways: