Harrison Realtor Cameron Yockey spearheading Helene relief mission

Cameron Yockey watched the devastation from Hurricane Helene unfold on TV and social media until he could no longer stomach it.

He posted to Facebook on Wednesday that a one-day collection would happen at his Harrison real estate office before he and other volunteers hit the road to Black Mountain, N.C. The town was among the hardest hit when Helene made landfall a week ago and killed at least 194 people, according to multiple news reports.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said on Monday that entire communities “were wiped off the map.”

“The biggest thing for me is that you get used to living your ordinary life and you see what people are going through,” said Yockey, of Murrysville.

“The lack of help for the smaller towns is hard to watch. Rescue crews aren’t getting supplies to people yet because of closed roads or other obstacles. There’s so much need.”

Twelve hours after his post, Yockey’s phone was buzzing pretty much continually with messages from people wanting to help.

By Thursday morning, he received a couple thousand dollars in monetary donations to purchase supplies, and countless others had pledged to drop off toiletries, pet food, canned goods and more.

Collections will continue “late into the night” at Realty One, 1627 Freeport Road, Harrison; Horizon Wash Spa, 1132 Brackenridge Ave., Brackenridge; and Realty One, 3731 William Penn Highway, Monroeville.

Especially needed are portable grills, batteries and shelf-stable food.

Anyone willing to make the eight-hour trek south also can reach out. Yockey said a group of at least a half-dozen people in U-Hauls and other trucks will pull out of Harrison at the crack of dawn Friday.

Dave and Laurie Marchese of Brackenridge were among the first to arrive at the Harrison drop-off site. After seeing Yockey’s post, Laurie Marchese said she gathered up bags of cat food, bottles of Gatorade and hygiene products.

“It’s the least we can do,” she said.

The couple reached out to friend Butch Magnetta, owner of Tarentum Hardware, and he was quick to pitch in supplies, too.

“It’s all for the good of the community,” Marchese said. “Little things like toiletries, these people don’t have any of it.”

The Speed Family Blessing Box in New Kensington donated a pallet of hygiene products, and a private resident in Natrona loaded Yockey’s truck with canned goods and board games for kids — all before 9 a.m.

The only wrench in Yockey’s plan, so far, was an apparent panic over the port strike that started earlier this week — and the resulting run on toilet paper at big-box stores across the country.

People have started clearing shelves for fear the dockworkers’ strike would impact imports.

Experts have said there is no need to worry since more than 90% of those items are produced in the United States.

“Who would think that we’d want to go in and buy pallets of toilet paper and they might not be there?” Yockey said. “We’ll get the supplies one way or another. It’s just an ironic problem.”

Yockey said his crew will be armed with generators and chainsaws, anything that might aid them in making their way to remote areas. He was told fewer than 25% of the roads in rural Buncombe County are clear.

He also paired with churches in that area that have distributions arranged for residents in outlying areas.

“I think it’s going great so far,” he said. “People didn’t hesitate to respond to our request.”