Couple finds a new life purpose in disaster aid

Like many residents, Dan and Courtney Crouse of Candler awoke Sept. 27 thinking Tropical Storm Helene didn’t do much damage.

“The sun was shining, and everything looked great, and we honestly thought the storm had just passed over North Carolina,” Dan recalls. 

Then they ventured out beyond their home. As the couple drove toward the Westgate Regional Shopping Center, they saw the River Arts District flooded below. 

“That was our first clue that it was bad,” Dan says. “We turned around, came back and regrouped and said, ‘There’s going to be a lot of people that need help.’” 

With no cellphone service, the couple’s only source of information was radio station 99.9 Kiss Country. They heard that Marshall was in bad shape, so they headed north. 

“But it was just chaos with no communication and everybody trying to help but nobody really knowing what to do,” Dan says.

Frustrated, they returned home, eventually locating a hot spot for cellphone service. Dan called the radio station. “I said, ‘I have a truck full of supplies. I have people that are skilled and ready to help. Where will we be of most service?’”

The radio host responded: Garren Creek in Fairview, where landslides killed over a dozen residents. 

The next day, Dan and Courtney began what has since become Hell or High Water, a project dedicated to the restoration, rebuilding and long-term support to all areas of WNC affected by the aftermath of Helene. From food and generators to tiny houses, its mission is to meet immediate needs. 

And they are not alone. The couple has had help from a number of residents, including Kevin Driggers, Robi Eckley, Mike Razzano, Belle Crouse, Kylee Parris and Lauren Bruin.

Xpress caught up with Dan and Courtney to find out how this all came about and what’s next. 

Xpress: What was that first day like when you went to Garren Creek? 

Dan: They weren’t letting anyone into the area because it was just so devastated. Even though we had everything needed to help, law enforcement had a roadblock that would not let us in. So we did what we do and went around the other way, bypassing the road block, and the road was just simply washed away in the other direction. There was no way to get in. On our way out, we met some people and told them we were there to help. They had some ATVs with racks and baskets on them that they were using to take supplies up to the people who were trapped. So we made that a distribution point for us. We started going up there daily, or multiple times a day, dropping off supplies so the people could load up their ATVs and take them up to the people that needed them.

How did you know what to do?

Dan: We have a farm and a little bit of property in Candler just outside of Asheville. And when you have 50 acres with lots of trees and lots of gravel roads, you learn how to do certain things. You learn how to cut down trees. You learn how to clear creeks. You learn how to do a lot of the things that are needed in the mountains. It’s not something that would be common for somebody who’s coming from out of state. They don’t know how to work on the side of a mountain, clearing trees. And we have some connections. My best friend is a general contractor and a master builder, and he helped me do a lot of projects here on the farm. But just over time, living in the mountains, you just kind of learn to do certain things. 

Are you from here?

Dan: I’m not from here, but I got here as quick as I could. I moved up here in 1993. I’ve been here a little over 30 years; but my wife is a native, so I’ve got some cred there.

Courtney: I got hassled a whole lot about marrying a Florida boy, but now we joke that he has definitely become an honorary member of the Appalachian men’s club. He has this big old mountain-man beard right now. He wants to trim it. But we laugh because someone back where we’re working said that that gave him “holler cred” instead of street cred.

Courtney, what kind of skills do you bring into this endeavor? 

Courtney: I have ADHD, so I am phenomenal in a crisis. I have trouble in normal life. But there’s a quote that people have been throwing around that says, “In a crisis, grab a Crouse,” because we all pretty much have some form of ADHD or whatever. I guess I bring the heart to the table. I do community care projects. What we found is a lot of people that we’re helping up there just want to talk. They want to be heard. We’re trying to do something a little different. [We don’t want to just bring] a generator and then never see them again. So much of it is just listening to people, finding out their direct needs, just letting them be heard. 

I’m also a writer. I began to write, this is what we’re seeing. People just stepped up. Our friends have been phenomenal. They caught on fire. Their hearts caught on fire like ours did, and they’ve just not stopped. For instance, we needed a certain kind of syringe for a woman who could not get out of her house. I put out the call for those syringes. I had somebody drop them off in an hour. We took them to her within the hour. 

A lot of people are in tents right now, and so I put out a call for air mattresses. 

What’s your long-term plan? 

Courtney: We have learned looking too far ahead right now is counterproductive. There is so much destruction and so much need that it is very easy to get overwhelmed. Making a difference to one person or family at a time is how we are operating. The future will take care of itself. But I will say that we much prefer helping people like we are, in disaster relief, than anything else we’ve ever taken on. It gives us a sense of purpose where we were a bit aimless before. It also breaks our heart daily but the hugs and seeing a tangible difference being made helps us to keep going. 

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