28 Feb Helping after Helene with a lifesaving supply of insulin

In western North Carolina, the Cane River runs north from Mt. Mitchell through Yancey County. The river, communities and people along this valley hold a special place in the heart of our Bill Hollan, principal and  investment advisor at the firm. He’s been visiting the area for four decades with his father and now his own family to fly fish and spend time with the many friends they’ve made there over the years.

“The people make an impression on you,” Bill says. “The area is home to some of the kindest and most remarkable people you’ll ever meet.”

Back in late September, however, this picturesque valley turned into a disaster area when Hurricane Helene delivered horrendous amounts of wind and rainfall across the region. The normally shallow Cane River was already running high from heavy rain during the prior week when Helene unleashed an additional 20+ inches over the span of only a few hours.

The river swelled to an unprecedented torrent as water rushing from higher elevations channeled down the valley and devastated communities all along its path. Highway 197, the main road serving the area and which generally runs along the side of the river was almost totally washed away as were all of the bridges in the valley. Homes were destroyed by both the rushing water and subsequent mudslides.

“When I was tracking the storm’s path, in the back of my mind, I knew Helene might be bad for the area,” explains Bill. “But I couldn’t have imagined anything near the magnitude of what actually occurred.”  Reports are that the river rose 10 feet per hour, and peaked at around 30 feet, exceeding the level of the ‘500-year’ flood – which devastated the area and all of Western NC in 1916.

The area didn’t make the national news, like Chimney Rock or the French Broad around Asheville, in part because no one could get to it. But the valley was hit every bit as hard, or even harder. “People we know had to hike out of the valley, four or five miles to Burnsville… our friends have lost their homes to the river or mudslides. There were several fatalities in that valley,” he adds.

In the week after the storm, Bill realized that there would be another critical and immediate need for many people trapped in the community: insulin. With the communities cut off from power, communication and transportation, diabetics in the area may risk running out of lifesaving insulin.

Bill and his wife Elizabeth know firsthand how urgent the need for insulin is for anyone with this disease. Their son, Will, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes (T1D) when he was 16. In those with T1D, the body’s immune system attacks  and destroys the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Insulin is an essential hormone that helps the body turn food into energy. People living with T1D must take insulin by injection or insulin pump several times per day just to survive.

Since Will’s diagnosis five years ago, the Hollans have been actively involved within the T1D community through the local chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, which was recently rebranded nationally as Breakthrough T1D.

“The Type-1 community is a really close-knit group,” says Bill. “When Will was diagnosed, we were immediately surrounded by support… We will be forever grateful for those that helped us and helped Will in our time of need. And when you experience that, you say to yourself I hope to be able to do that, to pay it forward, one day.”

It was this realization that made Bill wake up in the middle of the night. He had the idea to gather donated insulin from friends in the T1D community in Winston-Salem and take it to the affected communities. The goal was to deliver the much-needed supply to healthcare responders to distribute to diabetics deep in areas where access was limited due to destroyed infrastructure.

When Bill and Elizabeth put the word out about what they wanted to do, they were overwhelmed by the response from the community.  In addition to insulin, people donated diabetic supplies, low carb foods, winter clothing, toiletries, food, bottled water, other medical supplies and many other household items. Throughout the next week, Elizabeth coordinated pick-ups and drop-offs at their home.

“We received an extraordinary amount of people’s surplus insulin supply, which is not easy to come by, and not a small thing for people to part with” continues Bill. “It’s expensive and  tightly controlled by insurance companies. Stockpiles take months and years to build up. The sum total of all the donated insulin piled together made us both a bit emotional.”

Bill and Elizabeth then set off on the morning of October 11, now needing an entire U-Haul truck to transport the donated items. With their typical route impassable, they had to find another route, navigating logging roads and a number of delays as debris continued to be cleared. The drive to Burnsville, which normally takes only a couple of hours, ended up taking more than five.

Their route took them through Boone where they saw cars, roofing material, and all kinds of debris in low-lying areas. Around Grandfather Mountain, they saw incredible wind damage and downed power lines. The closer they got to their destination, the real scale of the devastation became even clearer. “As we got into Yancey County, the damage turned  apocalyptic,” Bill says. “Mud, leveled structures, and twisted metal, almost as far as the eye could see.”

Pulling in to heavily hit Burnsville, the staging point for relief and recovery efforts in the area, they also began to see signs of hope. “The town was jumping with workers, volunteers and organizations like Samaritan’s Purse,” says Bill. “Food trucks from unaffected areas were there to cook for relief workers for free. In the midst of such destruction, there was a spirit of cooperation that was amazing to see.”

As an example, the sheriff’s office dispatch center in Burnsville was being operated by a group of dispatchers from Alabama. “They came in so that local dispatchers could be out helping the communities and their families,” Bill explains.

Once in Burnsville, the Hollans had pre-arranged to turn the insulin and supplies over to a deputy sheriff who is also a close friend. With the road to Pensacola destroyed and access beyond Burnsville restricted, the insulin and other items were then transported by ATV south to Pensacola and neighborhoods that were unreachable by any other means. From there, medical professionals were already on the ground and were able to distribute the insulin appropriately.

“This is a place and people my family deeply cares about – the communities along the Cane River and the community of T1D families,” adds Bill. “I am grateful that we were able to help and be there for them, as others were for us in our time of need.”