Flood victims finding temporary housing after homes destroyed

UNICOI COUNTY, Tenn. (WJHL) – Hurricane Helene brought catastrophic flooding, washing away homes or severely damaging them, leaving some with nowhere to go.

“We couldn’t stay there anymore, there’s just so much damage, it broke a metal door to the downstairs, broke it out the hinges and broke the door in half,” said Ricky Thomas, who is staying in temporary housing with his family. “We lost so much of the downstairs area and a lot to the upstairs so we just couldn’t go back there.”

The Appalachian Christian Camp (ACC) in Unicoi decided to open lodging to families in need of temporary housing. The Thomas family has been staying at the camp in a cabin for the past two weeks while they work to get their house fixed.

Aaron Morris, director of the Appalachian Christian Camp, said they had the space and the tools to help those in need. Currently, they are housing seven displaced families and disaster relief workers.

“We can house about 200 people, we have dormitories, cabins, lodge, things like that and we’ve got a big multipurpose building,” Morris said. “We have some equipment too, we’ve sent our backhoe and our skid steer out to do some work around the area, too.”

The ACC is at max capacity but Morris told News Channel 11 they are hoping to make more space so they can help more displaced families.

“We’re trying to bring in more RVs and campers, we’re committed to make sure that the families have private spaces, so we’re not putting them in dorms where they’re sharing bathrooms or anything like that,” Morris said. “We’re getting more campers in for them, we have more campers than we have camper hookups, so we’re working on getting all of that set up.”

The ACC also provides food, water, and supplies to those families in need.

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