A Mountain to Climb: USU Scholar Organizes Hurricane Relief Effort for Her North Carolina Hometown

Like many natives of western North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, Utah State University graduate student Hannah Feinsilber never dreamed a hurricane would roar through her hometown and leave utter destruction in its wake.

“I spoke by phone with my mom and siblings as Hurricane Helene was nearing landfall,” says Feinsilber, a doctoral student in USU’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, who conducts nitrogen fixation research with faculty mentor Lance Seefeldt. “They expected some rain and wind, but weren’t concerned.”

A few days later, as Helene crashed into Florida’s Gulf Coast and cut a deadly path northward, Feinsilber watched news reports in horror and disbelief as the storm barreled through her home community.

“By last Friday, I couldn’t reach my family and spent a sleepless night as I tried repeatedly to get an answer,” she says. “Finally, on Saturday evening, I was able to talk with my mom and sister.”

Feinsilber’s hilltop family home in Black Mountain, North Carolina, about 15 miles east of Asheville, filled with a few inches of water. Tall trees surrounding the dwelling tumbled to the ground; their roots ripped from the soil.

Her family members assured Feinsilber they were OK, but their shock was apparent.

“I could tell they were in survival mode, trying to stay positive and grateful their circumstances weren’t worse,” she says. “Without power, water and spotty cell phone coverage, they actually knew much less than me about the widespread destruction. They had no idea Helene had caused so much death and damage.”

This past week, Feinsilber’s family has been busy with relief efforts, handing out water and food from a makeshift command center in their town of 8,000 residents.

“The town of Black Mountain is decimated, but it’s still been a staging point for relief operations in Asheville, a much larger city of nearly 95,000,” she says. “It’s a mountain town, situated at an elevation of 2,300 feet. We never dreamed this could happen.”

Black Mountain and her family, Feinsilber says, is the new face of climate change.

“We’ve always thought of Black Mountain as a climate haven,” she says. “I’ve been a sustainability leader with USU’s Graduate Student Council, and weather disasters like Helene seemed very abstract, things that happened in vulnerable coastal areas. This is a sad, new reality and we are an example.”

Feinsilber wants to help.

“People have lost everything,” she says. “The local economy is destroyed. People are in fight-or-flight mode.”

Feinsilber is organizing a relief effort to help her townspeople get back on their feet.

“For now, I want to help people with basic needs and let them know others care,” she says.

Feinsilber has placed collection boxes in the Eccles Science Learning Center atrium, where people can place needed items such as toilet paper, wet wipes, cleaning supplies, diapers, batteries, flashlights and non-perishable, ready-to-eat snacks. She’s organizing dispatch of donated goods to Black Mountain through a network of friends in eastern North Carolina.

She encourages Aggies to contact her with any questions, and she can also provide contact information for charities providing targeted assistance to affected areas.

“It’s going to be a long, long recovery,” Feinsilber says. “We’re a mountain town, Logan is a mountain town, and we need to pull together.”