Triangle Mutual Aid (TMA) was ready to help when Tropical Storm Chantal hit Durham and Orange counties.
With some lessons learned from their Hurricane Helene response last year, over 350 volunteers from across the area mobilized to help with everything from chainsawing fallen trees to mucking and gutting flooding basements. A month after Chantal caused historic flooding, volunteers are still hosting nightly dinners at the hotel where residents of the flooded Camelot Village apartments in Chapel Hill have been staying.
At a disaster preparedness assembly (and dance party) last week, organizers said that they’d distributed close to $40,000 in donations directly into the hands of impacted people and around $30,000 to reimburse expenses including dehumidifiers, mucking supplies, and more.
“Some people have lost everything,” Devin Ceartas, founder and organizer, told the group of about 60 people. “We have also experienced, as always, the amazing coming alive of people who have never been in solidarity with other humans in this way, who show up just to help for the sake of helping and being there.”
An interview on TMA’s Paytreon features a woman identified as Crystal whose home near Eastgate was flooded in the storm. She commended the first responders, but said she struggled to get help through official channels afterwards. One large nonprofit, for instance, wanted more evidence to prove that she was eligible for aid.
“We were in literally one of the worst hit areas,” Crystal said. “I was so flabbergasted.”
TMA, though, directly sent her enough money to afford a third night in a hotel room until she and her family could crash with a friend for another week. Volunteers—wearing respirators because of the mold—helped discard damaged furniture from her apartment and move undamaged furniture into storage.
“The only organization that really was able to mobilize and help quickly was Triangle Mutual Aid,” Crystal said
In an interview after the event, Ceartas tells INDY that the organization’s strength really does come from its ability to mobilize quickly since it has no bureaucracy to get in the way. “We believe that people who were directly impacted are the best judges of what they need and that they need it as quickly as possible.”
TMA, though, isn’t just a disaster relief organization—ongoing projects include leveraging the ham radio network to communicate outside of corporate telecoms, fixing each other’s cars, collecting firewood, and providing water and ice to people during heatwaves. At the assembly, Ceartas pointed out that while providing financial resources to people in need is certainly worthwhile in an emergency, “handing out money to strangers is not our biggest thing.”
“We don’t want to be strangers. We want to be in community with you. We want to take care of each other,” Ceartas said.
The organization is always seeking more volunteers to help recovery from this storm, and to prepare for whatever may come. Howard Thurman, Ceartas tells INDY, might have put it best—“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
Reach Reporter Chase Pellegrini de Paur at [email protected]. Comment on this story at [email protected].