Story originally published by the Temple Gwathmey Steeplechase Foundation, written by Betsy Burke Parker
When Hurricane Helene blew across western North Carolina and southern Virginia farmland in late September, few realized the storm would have such a far reach. Almost three months later, some residents remain without power or roads, and farmers are recognizing the damage goes well beyond the devastated fall crops they lost to floods in the days that followed landfall.
Everybody was affected, or knows someone who was. They all lost: cattle farmers, from the biggest cow-calf feeder operations to hardscrabble sustenance herds, and horsemen, from some of North Carolina’s biggest name show and western trainers to backyard ponies for the grandkids. They lost their hay stores, they lost their hay crops. They lost bins of grain and stockpiled stacks of pellets and oats. Without feed for horses and other livestock as winter sets in, and no way to make it next growing season, farmers are feeling the worst pinch. Some farms lost barns, some lost fencing. Some lost both.
Some lost their homes.
Some lost their animals.
“People have no idea how bad it was down there. How bad it still is,” says Remington, Virginia horsewoman Rachel Bates. Like the rest of America, Bates watched the news reports in the hours and days after the hurricane. She was horrified and moved to action.
“I’m definitely not the type of person that normally does this kind of thing, jump in my car and drive into a disaster area,” Bates says.
Instead, she jumped in her truck.
Her first relief mission, Bates says she didn’t really know what to do, what to take. She tried to imagine what she’d need if her animals were okay but if her barn and fences had been flattened by floodwater.
Bates stuffed her horse trailer with bales of hay and bags of feed, some donated, some from her own stable. She tossed in a few tools, some dog food, a gas can.
“I was so overloaded I blew a tire on I-81,” Bates says, “but I got there.” She was one of the first to arrive in southwest North Carolina with livestock supplies. She was directed to a fairgrounds where she offloaded and watched as exhausted volunteers and hollow-eyed hurricane victims filed through to pick up what she suddenly realized were meager supplies.
“Imagine how long one bag of feed, a few bales of hay would last you if you literally had nothing else.”
Right then, right there, she vowed to do more.
“You almost couldn’t believe what it is you were seeing. It’s like a war zone.
“And it’s still happening.”
It was Bates that first linked the steeplechase community to hurricane relief. She’s friends with Kelly Edens; Kelly’s husband Cook Edens is a National Steeplechase Association senior steward. Kelly had helped Bates with that first charity drive at the Warrenton Tractor Supply, and she heard from Bates how bad it was.
“I was kinda thrust in as the fundraiser and go-between,” Edens explains how he got involved. “I got on the phone and called Bill and Rosella at NSA. It just made sense to organize at a national level.”
Edens says the first contacts were simple: Horsemen helping horsemen. “NSA jumped in with a $4,500 grant to get hay to horse owners and farmers down there. Temple Gwathmey Steeplechase Foundation matched it.
The Virginia Equine Alliance donated, too.
“We started contacting area hay farmers and farm stores” to mobilize a stronger supply chain, Edens continues. Momentum built. “We were able to get some discounts, a lot of donations. Steeplechase sent out notices, and a lot of the hunts picked it up and started publicizing what was needed.”
Convoys of small, privately owned trailers loaded with a few donated items began to be joined by commercial haulers, tractor trailers filled with literally tons of discount-purchased supplies – hay, horse feed and pet items, posts and wire, hammers and pocketknives.
“You wouldn’t believe it if you saw it yourself,” says Bates. “These people lost everything. My friend Paddy Downing-Nyegard (like Bates, a USEF “R” judge and lifelong hunter-jumper), lost some of her pets, her bridge, most of her fencing, most of her barns, tons of damage to her house. The farmers with all those gorgeous riverbottom hayfields, the cropland, the pastureland they’d have cattle on during the summer months. They lost it all. The livestock, the fence. Their cropland is under a sea of toxic, contaminated mud and debris. Not only did they lose this year’s hay and corn crops, but it’ll be years, if ever, they get that land back. “Their tractors washed down river. Their pets drowned. Their cattle got swept away.
“It’s like a war zone, and it’s not over yet. We’ve got to help them get through the winter.”
Edens agrees that need remains high. “I wanted people to be aware they can donate money earmarked for this (hurricane) fund through the charitable Gwathmey Foundation. Your donations are tax deductible.”
Edens has actually seen hurricane devastation before, first-hand at ground zero. In 1972, he was 12 when Hurricane Agnes blew through central Virginia. He was on the family farm near Orange, sitting on a tractor watching the Rapidan River rise, waiting for his cue to help get the livestock out of harm’s way.
“It took out our river pastures,” Edens recalls. “The cows were going to drown if we weren’t there to move them up. The river took out the U.S. 29 bridge into Charlottesville.
“Watching these videos of Helene brings it all back.”
Then, as now, Edens says there’s a real old school mentality – softer, kinder, more gentle. “Everybody’s helping everybody.”
“What happened there is biblical,” Bates adds. “Coming from somebody who’s not religious, there really are angels out there, helping these people just like you and me, with animals and horses and pets and livestock. They’re farmers trying to get through it, and survive.”
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Boots on the ground: Hurricane relief efforts with racing horsewoman Nikki Valvo
Middleburg trainer Nikki Valvo got in on Hurricane Helene relief efforts within a week of the September 26-27 storm.
“My husband drove a load of hay, equine emergency supplies, as well as tools, generators, fencing and baby supplies to a western North Carolina livestock yard that first weekend after the (storm)” in early October, Valvo says. “Our family had put stuff together in about two days so it was a bit random. His was the first horse supply load they had received.
“I realize most people think of humans and small animals when they think of helping after a storm, but the farming community was so deeply affected by this storm.” It was just pre-harvest time, she adds, the worst possible timing for farmers trying to put up crops for the winter.
Once they started to publicize their collective relief efforts and circulate information about donation convoys, Valvo says supplies began flowing in.
“At first, I had a person donate 100 round bales, which led to contacting a hauler my husband uses for his company. The ball was rolling. I just needed donations (to pay for) the hauling.
“I tried emailing several of our local hunts, contacting people I knew who I thought could potentially chip in and so forth. I heard nothing but crickets. I was utterly dismayed.
“It struck me – what if I asked NSA to put out an email. That would take it national, not just local.
“I was thinking if everyone who read it made a small donation we could get this done.
“I called the NSA office to see if this was an off-the-wall request. (NSA racing director) Bill Gallo thought we could make something work.
“Two days later I received a call from Cook Edens, who informed me that the NSA had approved funds through the Temple Gwathmey Steeplechase Foundation,” a non-profit arm of American steeplechase.
“WooooHooo,” Valvo continues the narrative. “Then, my farrier (NSA steward Wayne Vansant) suggested I call Debbie Easter (Virginia Thoroughbred Association executive director) and get the Virginia Equine Alliance involved. VEA had a meeting and, voila, they matched TGSF funds.
“Hay is the biggest problem for the hurricane victims. The horses (and livestock) down there literally have no grass. The farmers some of them literally have no land or soil. It’s pure devastation. How to rebuild a hay field after it’s been raped of its nutrients and is now contaminated? Unfathomable.
“My hope is our ag colleges take this on as a research and redevelopment project. Everyone can learn from this and grow our knowledge agriculturally.”
Who was Helene?
Hurricane Helene was a devastating category 4 storm that caused widespread catastrophic damage and numerous fatalities across the Southeastern U.S. in late September. It was the deadliest Atlantic hurricane since Maria in 2017, and the deadliest to strike the mainland U.S. since Katrina in 2005.
Helene made landfall at peak intensity in the Big Bend region of Florida on September 26, with sustained winds of 140 mph.
The storm caused catastrophic rainfall-triggered flooding in western North Carolina, east Tennessee, and southwestern Virginia. As of late November, at least 234 deaths and $113.5 billion in damages are attributed to the storm.
Helene dropped 40 trillion gallons of rain on North Carolina, some areas receiving 35 inches of rain. A weather front had stalled over the Appalachians ahead of the hurricane, with 7 inches or more already putting creeks and rivers at flood stage in the days before Helene.
Western North Carolina’s topography – bowl-shaped valleys surrounded by mountains, funneled floodwaters downstream, literally washing out entire communities “downhill” from the Blue Ridge.
The French Broad River and Swannanoa River broke 230-year-old records for flooding. The French Broad drains the Tryon and Columbus, North Carolina area where the Tryon racecourse is located.
A comprehensive article about the hurricane’s effects to the horse community was published in The Chronicle of the Horse on October 1.
Fleet of Angels provides emergency grants for hay, veterinary care and other critical needs for individual horse owners and small rescue organizations – it’s another great place to donate to help equine owners impacted by Hurricane Helene.
Donate to Fleet of Angels HERE
