I watched last week as my timeline and national news began showing photos and videos as Hurricane Helene ravaged Appalachia. I watched as it left destruction, “biblical flooding" and drenching rains that damaged more than 500 miles in the South.

My Instagram feed is filled with nonprofit guides, mutual aid resources and other helpful information for people back home.

I've been in contact with my family, who had a large oak tree fall on their street but are otherwise safe. It didn't take long before realizing that not everybody in my home state was as lucky.

More than 200 people have died, and there are still many people missing. Over 190,000 Duke Energy customers still don’t have power in Western North Carolina.

North Carolina is my home. Its mountains cradled me in infancy; its pine trees grew alongside me. Its people raised me. The devastation has been hard to watch, and it’s clear Western North Carolina won’t be the same. But what stands out to me is how willing other people are to go out of their way to help others in this time of crisis.

I saw that in the stories my friends told.

Alexandria Bounds, 30, a former camp counselor of mine, had to leave her home in West Asheville to get electricity and cell service. She relocated to........

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