Paul and Photini, along with their 6 children, were displaced by Hurricane Helene due to flooding in their home.  Thankfully they all made it out of the house safely, but just barely.  They will need help getting back on their feet again as their home is no longer livable.

The Girards Abridged Story

Short words for now because my brain is functioning in survival mode with a low bandwidth. Mostly centered in keeping my children happy, fed, and safe. 

On the Feast of the Holy Cross, the day St. Helens commemoration of finding the True Cross is remembered and honored every year, we were hit by hurricane Helene in WNC and surrounding regions. 

My son woke up early in the morning to quickly rising waters and alerted my husband and I. We all quickly got the children dressed, the holy relics and the relic of the holy cross that we bear from his reposed father, father Laurence (memory eternal), some food, and some blankets into the car, and loaded up and out. 

By the time we got to the bridge across our creek, the flood was up to the trusses and rising rapidly. We were received into our loving neighbors home, Kristin Brumm who with her self sacrificing children helped care for my family until we were able to escape, across the street. 

When my husband Paul Girard went to return to get our other vehicle moments later, the bridge has completely flooded. Shortly after, the house was engulfed in 3+ feet of water, with the creek turned into a raging river all around it. Our home was an island. Mike Stephens came to make sure we had gotten out, bless him, because he knows how many little children we have. But we were safely across the street. 

We are now in Blountville TN, after our church and priest organized massive rescue efforts to locate and rescue any parishioners in WNC. After having located all his parishioners and helped them (including us) evacuate, he and teams are now helping other regions in the deep woods and hollers get help they so desperately need.

We managed to get out with our vehicles with the help of a volunteer firefighter who had established a temporary bridge to circumvent the 40-50 ft deep sink hole that engulfed our road. We met with the st tikhons rescue team in spruce pine where they drove us to our parish in TN on back roads they helped chainsaw to make passable. 

Glory to God in the highest.

*****take note***** the flood waters in our home don’t go even a millimeter above the horizontal bar in our wall cross. On the feast of the cross. 

For God is With Us

☦️

If you can share or donate, our family is so thankful. We lost so much.

https://givesendgo.com/GDD65?utm_source=sharelink&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=GDD65

All prayers for everyone that was devastated by this are welcome ❤️☦️🙏 and all the rescue efforts