Samaritan's Purse is helping storm-damaged churches rebuild as congregations continue to worship and minister.
Hurricane Helene ripped apart mountains. Mud, trees, and boulders plunged into raging creeks and rivers. Homes washed away. It was truly terrifying.
Hurricane Helene left churches under feet of water.
As traumatized residents sought relief and refuge on their road to recovery, they turned to churches in their community.
But local congregations were also in the path of the storm. In Mountain City, Tennessee, for example, the sanctuary at Riverview Baptist Church filled with floodwaters as high as six feet.
More than a year and a half later, in the spring of 2026, the church is still recovering from destruction that lasted only a few minutes. When members first returned to see the damage, there seemed to be nothing left to salvage. The inside of the church was destroyed.
Watch the video above to hear the story of God’s blessing after the storm.
Even sanctuaries filled with mud from Helene’s destruction.
“It was full of mud. Full of debris,” Deacon Jeff Simmons said. “There are no words for how bad it was.”
He found a hymnal that survived sitting on a “$12 stand from Amazon” near a waterlogged, mud-caked piano. Simmons remembers seeing the hymnal still opened to a favorite song, “No, Never Alone,” and then reading the line, “He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone.”
A Time to Rebuild
Since Helene hit in late September 2024, Samaritan’s Purse has been responding in Jesus’ Name. Thousands of volunteers helped with initial cleanup over several months. Now our rebuild teams continue to repair or replace scores of mobile homes and stick-built houses.
Samaritan’s Purse is providing grants to churches to begin rebuilds and restorations.
Churches in these communities across southern Appalachia have not stopped faithfully serving the hurting region. Yet many of these churches have been suffering alongside their neighbors. As part of our rebuild program, Samaritan’s Purse wants to see that these congregations have the resources they need to continue their own recovery. Through grants and other assistance, our teams are helping churches fix and restore damaged or destroyed worship spaces.
Nicole Harris, whose husband pastors at Rock United Church in Newland, North Carolina, described walking into their church building after the storm hit. The flood damage was devastating.
“Where do you go from here?” she said. “This is the house of God. How could this happen?”
The wreckage, she said, left the congregation reeling.
“It seemed very hopeless,” Nicole said. “It seemed very grim in that moment. And that’s when Samaritan’s Purse reached out to us and came in. When Samaritan’s Purse came in, they showed up like nothing I can even describe.”
Samaritan’s Purse is working to help restore both Riverview Baptist Church and Rock United Church as well as many other churches.
“Samaritan’s Purse has a strong partnership with local churches across the country,” said Tony Williamson, church relations manager for North American Disaster Relief. “They are the backbone of the work we do here in the United States with disaster relief. It only makes sense that we would connect with the local church when they’re in their greatest time of need.”
We praise God for the opportunity to restore or rebuild houses of worship after Hurricane Helene.
Church grants from Samaritan’s Purse have helped support more than a hundred congregations in their rebuild efforts, allowing them to hire quality contractors and more easily afford high quality materials.
“These churches that are being rebuilt are not just equivalent to what they had before,” Williamson said. “In a lot of cases they’re even better construction, better quality of materials, and this is an incredible testament to what God has done.”
Luther Harrison, vice president of U.S. Rebuilds at Samaritan’s Purse, described our ongoing and long-term commitment.
“It’s not a one-time check and we’re done,” Harrison said. “We want to walk beside them and watch them go to completion. We don’t want them to see what Samaritan’s Purse did. We want them to see what God did.”
Pastor Holt Whitson of Halls Chapel Bible Church in Burnsville, North Carolina, said that the outpouring of help in his community encouraged him to remember God’s continued blessing in the midst of crisis.
“It amazes me that this little church out in the middle of nowhere was the object of God’s grace and mercy and He never forgot us,” he said. “When you look at where we were and where we are, it just overwhelms us. We lost everything. But this has been the greatest witness. Thank God for his faithfulness.”
