Prominent Christian school in North Carolina reels from $15M in flood damages
SWANNANOA, N.C. — Dust still swirled in the air Tuesday as police and aid vehicles rumbled down the mud-caked, crumbling road that leads to Asheville Christian Academy, more than two weeks after Hurricane Helene largely destroyed the K-12 school.
Mangled cars, displaced trailer homes and other debris remained strewn across the 60-acre campus, which was built along the Swannanoa River and suffered catastrophic damage when the storm caused water levels to swell to unprecedented levels on the morning of Sept. 27.
Multiple sources who spoke to The Christian Post confirmed that human remains have also been found on the grounds of the school, which has approximately 750 students and where members of the late Rev. Billy Graham's extended family attended.
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Founded in 1958 as Asheville Christian Day School, the school merged with Blue Ridge Christian Academy in 1972 to become ACA. Its present campus was established in 2003.
Jason Putnam, who has served as ACA's interim head of school since earlier this year, described the devastation to CP as "terrible," and said the damage to the property is estimated to be between $11 million and $15 million.
"The water flow completely surrounded the school, so the school was part of the river," he said, noting the flood that swallowed the eastern-most of the school's three buildings was roughly hip-high on the morning after the storm surge, despite usually being 200 yards away from the river. "When we went in, there was just mud and muck left, and it was very, very deep."
Putnam said the school's auditorium essentially became a pond with floating chairs, and the floor of its state-of-the-art gymnasium was "rippled all the way through."
"There were these knee-high waves it looked like, so there wasn't a square inch of the first floor of our campus that wasn't impacted," he said.
When CP surveyed the damage to ACA earlier this week, the carpeting in each building had been ripped up, most of the toilets taken out and the bottom portions of drywall removed. Furniture salvaged from the flood-ravaged property had been stacked outside.
Property such as books and other learning materials that were not destroyed were being loaded in boxes and onto storage containers to be transferred to nearby Biltmore Baptist Church, where the school plans to gather until their facility can be sanitized and reconstructed.
Putnam noted the encouragement the school community has received from God's faithfulness and the outpouring of support worldwide, noting that donations to the school's disaster relief fund have poured in from as far afield as South Africa.
"Early on, we decided to try to take it day by day, and so we pray every morning for God to provide what's needed for today," Putnam said. "And every day He's shown up in amazing ways. And while it's heartbreaking to come here every day, I've started to look forward to seeing how He's going to bless each day, and that's fantastic."
Putnam said one of the most remarkable examples of God's provision was help from workers with ServiceMaster Recovery Management, which he said was offered without them having to ask. He said the workers are scheduled to finish their cleaning work by Oct. 21.
Regarding how God might use the evil of the disaster for good, Putnam noted that He has "certainly given us a platform to talk about our mission to glorify Him and say how He's working, not only at Asheville Christian, but also in Swannanoa township."
"I wake up every morning, not excited to be in this, because it's devastation all around us, but to look at how He's going to show up and bless the needs of our school community and the community of Swannanoa," he said.
Swannanoa is an unincorporated community of about 5,000 people that has drawn international attention as the epicenter of the hurricane destruction in western North Carolina. Nonprofits such as Samaritan's Purse, which is headquartered in nearby Boone, have since descended on the area to aid in relief efforts.
Samaritan's Purse CEO Franklin Graham recently told CP that storm-ravaged locals must rely on each other for aid and not on the federal government, which has drawn scrutiny for what some have criticized as an inadequate response to the disaster.
Along the debris-strewn bank of the Swannanoa River near ACA, CP encountered Amanda Griffin, a volunteer with Samaritan's Purse who said she believes God called her to travel more than six hours from Albany, Georgia, to help out with the local relief efforts. She said she helped a local woman and her husband earlier that day get into a hotel after most of their neighbors drowned.
"The look of trauma and devastation in her eyes was unreal, and we offered to put them in a hotel because they have no IDs," she said. "They can't get verification to FEMA to get the assistance that they need, so we've placed them in a hotel for a few nights, and we're going to work on organizing something to help them."
Griffin, who runs her own nonprofit called Love and Loaves to help the homeless in southwest Georgia, also said she hopes the storm will awaken Christians to care for one another and look past the divisions ripping the country apart.
"I hope that this is the awakening the American Church needed," she said. "I hope that revival breaks out, and it is. Look at all the people standing around us who have just come and stopped their lives to help."
"That's what Christ called us to do. We are supposed to be the hands and feet of Jesus," she added.
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to [email protected]
