ASHEVILLE, N.C. - The 80-year-old woman put her hands to her face and cried when I told her I’d help load her car with boxes of canned food and water.

She’d come on Wednesday to BeLoved Asheville’s distribution center looking for support for herself and her 96-year-old neighbor. The nonprofit was teeming with volunteers who served a steady flow of people in need.

At times, while volunteering with a friend at the nonprofit, it was sobering to come face-to-face with those in need after the devastation of Hurricane Helene.

That afternoon, queued at a Shell station to buy a rationed $10 worth of gas, I helped an older driver navigate to the correct side of the pumps. She rolled down the window to thank me, adding that as a caregiver to someone she felt so overwhelmed. Her worried face and damp eyes said the same. The gas station was just too much.

Helene has left more than 200 people dead across a number of states, with more than half of that total in North Carolina. President Biden visited the region, where entire towns have been washed away by the storm, on Thursday. As many as 1,000 soldiers will join the North Carolina National Guard in assisting the recovery.

Western North Carolina’s needs are vast and........

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