Tiny Town of 800 People Was Ravaged by Helene, Then They Came Together to Start Rebuilding: 'Just Swells Your Heart'

Mar. 15, 2025

Joel Friedman watched as“apocalyptic” floods from Hurricane Helenedevastated his small North Carolina town of Marshall — but now is witnessing what residents there call the “miracle” of a community coming together to set things right.

While broader, government-backed recovery continues, the townsfolk have wasted no time in jumping to the aid of their neighbors.

Friedman says people came with shovels into his shop,Zuma Coffee. When they left, the mud had been mucked out and the front had been cleared of debris.

“And that was not me asking anybody. That was just showing up, whether it was employees of mine or friends or maybe even people who didn’t know who I was,” Friedman, 64, tells PEOPLE. “That’s what’s happening everywhere in every business throughout the entire downtown Marshall. They want to take care of the people who have been taking care of them for the last number of years.”

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Home to about 800 people, Marshall is a mix of old families and newcomers who saw opportunity in the postcard-worthy mountain town that sits about 2,000 feet above sea level.

Friedman says he was the first one to open a coffee shop there, in 2002, when some locals initially laughed at his high prices for a cup of coffee.

But he, and others, soon found themselves as the linchpins in the growth of the downtown tourist destination. There are still no big-box stores or major corporate presence; instead, the town has mixes artists and farmers, working people and retirees looking for a slower pace and closer ties.

Joel Friedman outside his Zuma Coffee shop.

“We are always in a flux of what we agree on and what we don’t agree on, but we really try to work together,” resident Mallory McCoy, 38, who owns the popular bar Mal’s, tells PEOPLE.

McCoy calls her bar “a ruralCheers,’’ where people come to listen to Appalachia music, laugh at the comics on stage and learn to play at the only public pool table in town.

Now, however, McCoy — like so many others — faces the brutal reality of picking up the pieces of her future. She says she didn’t have flood insurance on her business, and says the same is true of other establishments, which makes repairs a costlier burden.

She’s hoping aGoFundMe to rebuildwill be able to keep her bar alive. As of Saturday, Oct. 5, it has received more than $12,000 in donations.

After the flood hit Mal’s bar in Marshall, North Carolina.courtesy of Mallory McCoy

courtesy of Mallory McCoy

Looking back at how quickly Helene’s devastation unfolded, McCoy says that she thought she took enough precautions for the expected level of flooding: When she left work on Thursday, Sept. 26, with the hurricane soon set to make landfall in Florida, hundreds of miles away, she had stacked furniture and tucked away some items higher than usual, expecting maybe a little standing water on the floor.

She couldn’t even get in because the mud was so high and her boots kept getting stuck.

Then aid arrived: other residents, lending a hand.

“It started with a couple of helpers, just with shovels, and you could kind of see it coming together. We could get things pulled out,” McCoy says.

Clean up in progress at Mal’s bar in Marshall. Mallory McCoy, right, with helper.courtesy of Mallory McCoy

One of those locals, Tom Graves, brought his tractor, with only about a half-inch leeway to get the scraper in, and cleared out her bar floors.

“He backed in and out of there for at least three hours, pulling that sludge out,” McCoy says.

The death toll is at more than 200, according to officials and news reports, and climbing — with many of the victims in western North Carolina.

Marshall lost people, too: Resident Bruce Tiptonclung to a tree for hours, hoping for help that couldn’t reach him, before being lost in the water, witnesses have said.

Rebuilding efforts are underway across the Southeast, but progress cannot move fast enough for residents without power, life-saving supplies or reliable internet and phone service.

The people of Marshall marvel at how they’ve worked together to help out, even as they acknowledge the challenges ahead.

Tom Graves helps clear the sludge out of Mal’s bar.courtesy of Mallory McCoy

“I believe in us so much, and we already do that on a daily basis anyway, helping each other and fixing things up is not foreign to us,” she continues, “But I think not having the hub to come together is really foreign to us, and that’s what I’m most worried about.”

Friedman, the coffee shop owner, says: “Someone described it to me as being a ballet of machinery and working people. It’s like an ant colony, everybody’s picking up a shovel. They’re driving heavy equipment. They’ve moving trash. They’re getting the town together again.”

Folks have also jumped in with food, clothing and other donations.

Jessi Koontz, 44, is the executive director ofBeacon of Hope in Marshall. Koontz says the group serves about 1,200 of the community’s low-income residents with food and other support, like through a thrift store and laundromat.

After the floods, Beacon of Hope opened up its pantry to everyone even though, at first, it looked as though there would not be enough.

“Then people just started coming all throughout the day with a couple of boxes, a little bucket of tomatoes and a basket of okra or dry goods," Koontz tells PEOPLE. “And that’s how we got through.”

She says she’s been dealing with calls from all over from people wanting to help. A helicopter landed on one neighbor’s lawn with provisions; another time, a couple came with a truck full of donations including bottle water and pet food.

“All these beautiful miracles happening and it just swells your heart three sizes,” Koontz says. “We are not fancy. We’re down to earth. We take care of our own. After the [COVID-19] pandemic, we realized the supply chain could be disrupted and we need to be more self-reliant.”

Erin Lowndes, who ownsPlain with Sprinkles, a wedding and event planner specializing in the LGBTQ+ community, has also seen some positives coming from this tragedy.

“There’s a lot of young people here that are hippies or alternative young business owners that are moving in and really falling in love with the community,” Lowndes, 33, tells PEOPLE.

“This horrible disaster is creating such a strong, beautiful community despite our differences,” she says. “When our country’s so divided, I’m hoping our country takes our story here to heart.”

To learn more about how to help with relief, recovery and rebuilding efforts from Hurricane Helene,click here.

source: people.com