Unlike some of the agencies that are working to help Western North Carolina during the recovery from Tropical Storm Helene, your Cooperative Extension staff lived through this horrible event just like you. We had staff that were impacted at various levels from the storm, but thankfully we are all safe and recovering along with you.

For the first couple of weeks our staff was assisting with the overall county efforts to help our residents. We have now transitioned back to our regular duties, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t still here to help with storm related issues.

We know that our agricultural community was severely impacted by the storm and continues to be. We are working with many of them by educating on relief sources that are available. We have also been collecting information on losses from the storm so that we can help justify relief from our state and federal governments.

In the meantime, among our livestock community, our staff has been in several counties to secure hay and feed and other resources that the surviving animals require. We are also working on fencing needs, and getting those resources out to the areas that cannot come to get it.

Cooperative Extension continues to be available to answer your questions and get you to the right people for the various needs you may have. Water testing, soil testing, and animal feed testing are all issues right now. While we don’t do any of that here, we can send you in the right direction for all of these things.

Any food safety issues whether at home or on the farm can be addressed to our office and we can put you in touch with the right people to help. Our office in Jackson Park is fully open and we invite you to come in or call if there is anyway that we can help you during this difficult time. We are part of the community, and you are our neighbors. Our hearts and thoughts are with each of you as you deal with your individual impacts of Tropical Storm Helene.

We look forward to helping each of you in any way that we can!