Buncombe County community heroes during Helene are USA Today Women of Year honorees

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27-02-2025

Corinne Duncan, Jen Hampton and Katie McMullen are three of USA TODAY's Women of the Year, a recognition of women who have made a significant impact in their communities and across the country. The program launched in 2022 as a continuation of Women of the Century, which commemorated the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote. Meet this year's honorees at womenoftheyear.usatoday.com.
ASHEVILLE - During Tropical Storm Helene and the immediate aftermath of the worst flooding Western North Carolina has endured in a century, countless people sprang into action for their communities. Here are the stories of three women.
In Swannanoa, Katie McMullen, 38, swam into floodwaters with an extra lifejacket to save a neighbor clinging to a tree, who was quickly dropping into hypothermia. Now, McMullen continues to run a pop-up supply center entirely on her own out of her backyard since Week 2 after Helene, ensuring neighbors have the supplies they need to weather freezing temperatures while rebuilding.
In the River Arts District, Corinne Duncan, 43, helped an artist across the street move their artwork from a flooded studio to her two-story apartment complex when Helene hit. Two days later, Duncan and her team with Buncombe County's Election Services got to work, affording citizens every opportunity to vote in a historic election five weeks after the storm.
In Asheville's public housing, Jen Hampton, 50, quickly organized mutual aid workers to bring supplies to those without food or water. Seeing a flyer sent to tenants days after the storm reminding them October rent was still due, she knocked on every door in three public housing complexes, collecting over 300 signatures for a petition against the city's housing authority.
Even after the Housing Authority of the City of Asheville paused filing new evictions, Hampton, the housing and wages organizer for the nonprofit Just Economics, continues to push for a larger eviction moratorium for WNC residents, similar to that during the COVID-19 pandemic.
All three have been named honorees in USA TODAY's Women of the Year program for their tireless efforts after the worst natural disaster in Western North Carolina history.
SWANNANOA - Lynne Hillis, 70, shuffled around five storage areas full of supplies In McMullen's backyard on Jan. 7. Every so often, Hillis comes here for 'a little treasure' — a ritual that's kept her spirits up through the emotional aftermath and hardships from Helene while her roof and basement are being repaired by volunteers.
'She went and got my meds for me because I had no way of getting them; I don't have a car. She's made sure I got propane when it began to run out. Food, clothes, my hat I'm wearing right now, these gloves — she's provided everything I could possibly need,' Hillis said.
A feature on Katie's pop-up: Swannanoa woman creates pop-up in her yard to help neighbors after Helene's devastation
Behind Hillis, rows of winter jackets, canned food, personal hygiene items, portable heaters and more, line the inside of donated event tents. Signs in Spanish, some typed and some handwritten, hang on shelving units for a large Latino community McMullen has helped to serve.
'We're going be warm and we're going make it,' McMullen told Hillis while embracing her in a tight hug.
Before the holidays, McMullen, an occupational therapy student, ran a special toy drive to ensure 'a couple 100 kids' received 10 toys each for Christmas. Hillis said her newfound friend deserves a citizen award from the county because 'she's done all this more or less by herself.'
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Q&A: Answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Citizen Times: Not coming from a background in organizing, how have you pulled this off?
Out of necessity. As things evolve, I do too, in the ways that I run the pop-up. I'm here almost all day, every day. I organize as I run supplies, and it's just an ongoing process.
CT: Where have the supplies come from?
Most are coming from out of state. Word has finally gotten around that we're absolutely not OK and won't be OK for a long time. I have reliable sources right now from all over: Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina, Texas. They're coming with supplies. They're coming with propane.
CT: Is there anyone or anything that's inspired you to keep going?
The people, my neighbors who are in such need and so grateful for what's available here. Other people are spending their time and money to bring supplies in, and I'm just simply offering them.
Just seeing the joy on their faces. Yesterday, a boy asked if I have any toys. I offered him and his cousin two brand new bikes. They were so excited.
CT: What's your proudest accomplishment?
One of the things I'm really proud of is getting that woman out of the tree during the storm, getting her to first responders who brought her to a hospital, learning that she's alright.
My ability to adapt is also something I'm proud of. Nobody knew what was happening, including me, and I just kind of evolved with it. Being able to set up all of this brings me so much joy.
ASHEVILLE - Duncan, as director of the county's Election Services, felt a pull in multiple directions when Helene hit — to help her community, to assist in the county's emergency operations center, or to continue running Election Services with just five weeks until Election Day.
Her team started trickling into her office off Woodfin Place on Sunday, Sept. 29 — two days after the storm. She never asked the staff to, but they 'knew how important it was,' she said. Every time a new person walked into the office, Duncan said she cried through 'continual relief.'
Then, residents started showing up at her office, asking if voting was going to happen amid the destruction. That reinforced Duncan's decision to turn her attention to the Nov. 5 election.
With 50 people to one "porta john" — and some coworkers bringing in water from at-home wells while the city's water distribution was offline — her team got to work.
The Monday after the storm, Sept. 30, they continued sending out absentee ballots. The demand for these ballots having "ramped up" following Helene, the county had to hire more people, get more supplies and find more space for storage, Duncan said.
How WNC election boards pushed through: WNC election boards harness magic of voting to overcome voting obstacles after Helene
With spotty service, her team contacted over 560 early voting and Election Day poll workers to see if they could still volunteer. While access to gasoline was limited after the storm, Election Services personnel shared gas to assess 14 early voting sites for damage. Then came the 'bigger job' of assessing 80 Election Day polling sites, Duncan said.
CT: Tell me about the attitude of the people you worked with, who helped ensure Buncombe County voted?
People started sending their families away, like, 'you need to go to a safer place.' And my team stayed. They did not have to, but they did — every single one of them. It's just amazing to me, and I think had we not done that, we wouldn't have been able to turn around and start working on the election as quickly as we did. We were one of the first county departments to get back into action, because we knew that we had to. So, on Sunday, we were taking care of each other. On Monday, we were sending out absentee ballots.
Only about two-thirds of early voting workers were able to serve. That was right after the storm. People had left. They were nervous. It was unclear how things were going to work, but still, two thirds of those people said, 'yes, I will stay.' Then Election Day, less than 25 people out of almost 600 were not able to serve. That was an amazing amount of dedication.
(Duncan said there are 42 total staff, including 12 core staff, five board members and 25 seasonal staff).
What work had to be done to figure out on short notice?
The state Board of Elections passed an emergency resolution that allowed counties to make decisions for early voting because those usually must be submitted and approved by the state. They made some changes that included issuing absentee ballots over the counter too. We had a lot of state support right away, which was great.
Normally you can't make Election Day voting changes right before the election — 45 days is the deadline. We were of course coming up on the day itself. So, it was quite a scramble to assess the locations. We worked with Emergency Services, we took distribution hubs and fire departments off the list, but we couldn't just not have a location. We either transferred those locations or found new ones. That was another place the community rose: we had people offering their spaces, churches, schools, different community spaces.
Some expressed concern over whether people would turn out to vote after Helene. What's your reaction to the nearly 74% turnout?
During the storm and during COVID, we really proved that you can run an election through anything.
We didn't hit the 2020 percentage overall, which was a record 78% in 2020, but we were only about 854 voters lower than 2020. We just have a bigger population. That is something that I always point to as a point of pride: we came out, we prioritized voting. Both of those situations, the pandemic and the hurricane, had loss of life and basic needs competing. Everything was harder. Yet people said, "I will find a way to make time for voting." That's something we should be so proud of.
Do you have any lingering concerns going forward about the election process?
I do see at the state level, a reduction in budget, which is concerning to me. I think that we need to keep investing in our elections system. There's the database that holds all of our information and is the basis for voting when you're checking in and things like that.
All of that stuff requires upkeep, and we just keep getting bigger. The budget needs to follow that. If we want to keep supporting elections that are well attended and trusted, then we need to invest in them.
More: In 1st visit to WNC as governor, Stein announces 5 executive orders to aid Helene recovery
ASHEVILLE - Toting large brown paper bags full of printed Federal Emergency Management Agency aid applications and HACA rent exemption forms, Hampton and Just Economics Executive Director Vicki Meath went door to door in each of Asheville's public housing communities in the weeks after Helene, to ensure residents knew how to get help.
As someone who lived in Asheville public housing after fleeing domestic violence, and who previously worked as a server since the age of 16, Hampton has made it her mission to empower and give voice to low wage workers and public housing residents — a pursuit that's only grown stronger and more important since Helene made landfall.
HACA evictions post-Helene: After Helene, Asheville public housing evictions continue. Residents have 'nowhere to go'
Q&A: Answers have been edited for length and clarity.
CT: What first motivated you to start in the role you have now?
The pandemic. Before the pandemic, I had internalized all my struggles — living in poverty, in public housing, being a low-wage worker — as my fault. When we shut down for quarantine, I had time to talk to people and watch the news and realized that everybody was facing pretty much the same issues. It was systemic.
That made me mad, as someone who will fight for others but not myself. So, I started researching how to organize. The more I talked to people, the more people felt empowered because they also had internalized the struggles. That feeling of empowering other people kept me going.
Three months after Helene, what lingering concerns have you heard from residents and service workers, and how do you plan to help them?
It's intertwined. A lot of people who live in public housing work in the service industry, and a lot of people lost their jobs. Some of the places that have opened are under limited hours, so people are worried about paying rent and being evicted, who are not in public housing. People are still concerned about being evicted because unemployment is going to run out.
Another main concern is storm damage. One person I've spoken with lives in an apartment that had a small leak from the storm, but their landlord did not address it though they requested multiple times. A couple weeks ago, the pipes just completely broke and it flooded their whole apartment. Now they have to move out.
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What movement do you see behind a larger eviction moratorium?
I've been supporting Vicki and my co-worker Sam Stites on that. We started out just writing a letter to the governor, trying to get him to call for an eviction moratorium, and then we started sending it out to Chief Justice Newby. We tried to do it at the General Assembly too, and nobody's really biting on it. The governor (former Gov. Roy Cooper) said that he has the will to do it. He just has to have the approval of the Council of State, and they don't seem willing to do it right now.
We're still working on it. We got over 700 organizations to sign on to our petition, including elected officials from all of the surrounding counties in Western North Carolina. We figured it's always Asheville and Buncombe County, the little blue dot in the state. We figured it'd be really impactful to get all of these other surrounding counties on board.
More: WNC public officials, 400 signees, call for post-Helene eviction moratorium, rental aid
Who paved the way for you?
Vicki Meath (Just Economics executive director), for sure. I often say that working for her is kind of like clerking for a Supreme Court justice. She is so good at strategizing, organizing, seeing the bigger picture and breaking it down to parts and steps. She keeps me focused.
Ryley Ober is the Public Safety Reporter for Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at [e-mail] and follow her on Twitter @ryleyober.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: USA Today honors 3 Asheville-area women who aided Helene-hit community