SPOKANE, Wash. — In the days following Hurricane Helene, help poured in from across the country, including a man originally from Eastern Washington. This isn't Chuck Boehme's first time deploying with the American Red Cross, who estimates he’s been sent out 20 to 25 times.
Boehme and his wife started volunteering with the Red Cross in 2009. Past assignments included responding to the mudslide in Oso, the fires in Lahaina and Hurricane Sandy.
Now the Spokane natives in North Carolina helping at an evacuation shelter not far from Asheville - one of the most devastated areas - in the aftermath of Helene.
“People are sleeping on cots and a lot of them have lost everything,” he said in a phone interview with KREM 2.
According to American Red Cross Northwest Region officials, Boehme is one of about 20 volunteers responding to the disaster from Washington and the Idaho panhandle.
His arrival this weekend, he's seen some of the devastation, including downed trees and long lines at gas stations as people struggle in the storm's aftermath.
“It's becoming a little bit easier as the days go on getting supplies,” he said.
While he's never lost a home in a disaster, Boehme experienced some loss in last year's Gray fire in Spokane County when a friend living in Medical Lake agreed to let him park his motorhome and car at their house.
He recalls how his friend called him Boehme & his wife were in Tucson moving into their home to let him know about the evacuation.
Boehme said his car burned up, but his friend managed to save Boehme’s motorhome “at the expense of his entire home.”
Boehme's expected to stay in North Carolina for two weeks. Yet if there's one thing he's learned while volunteering, it's that people are stronger than they think: “People who go through these things find that they have a lot of resiliency.”