After Hurricane Helene, a group called Latinos Aventureros covered more than 4,300 miles crisscrossing Western North Carolina, spending 650 volunteer hours delivering food, water, medicine, and other supplies to an estimated 1,700 people.
asserted
group → call → people
It was a departure from the group’s typical mandate: helping Latino families get outside in natural areas like Wilson Creek, a popular summer recreation site in the forest stretching north of the mountain-flanked city of Asheville, where President Donald Trump will welcome G20 leaders on Saturday.
asserted
Trump → help → Saturday
Since the devastating 2024 hurricane — the deadliest to hit the mainland U.S. since Katrina — North Carolina has received just a fraction of the disaster aid it’s sought from the federal government.
asserted
it → hit → government
Short on federal dollars, local volunteers like Latinos Aventureros tried to fill in the gaps.
asserted
volunteers → try → gaps
“We didn’t wait for permission.
asserted
We → wait → permission
We didn’t wait for funding,” said Vivianette Ortiz, one of the group’s leaders.
asserted
Ortiz → wait → leaders
“We just showed up.”
asserted
We → show → ?
The Trump administration has pointed to Asheville’s recovery as a marker of success, and its selection to host the international economic summit “reflects the Trump Administration’s commitment to the revitalization and resilience of western North Carolina,” in the words of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
asserted
selection → point → Bessent
But the view from the ground tells a different story.
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view → tell → story
Damaged roads and infrastructure remain; some residents are still living in trailers; and empty lots mark where homes and businesses stood before Helene.
asserted
homes → remain → Helene
And instead of receiving still-needed federal assistance, earlier this summer, Western North Carolina got Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
asserted
Carolina → receive → Immigration
ICE agents, U.S. Forest Service personnel, and Caldwell County sheriff’s deputies arrested 13 people at Wilson Creek on July 26.
asserted
agents → arrest → July
Among them was a father there with his partner and their 4- and 10-year-old children, who had to watch their dad be taken into custody.
asserted
dad → have → custody
ICE claimed some of those arrested had criminal records, but it hasn’t said who or how many.
asserted
it → claim → records
Volunteers with Latinos Aventureros had helped clean the recreation area, where the organization encouraged families to swim, hike, fish, and picnic on public lands.
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organization → help → lands
Families have since said they are afraid to use outdoor spaces because they fear encountering immigration enforcement.
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they → say → enforcement
“A huge part of our work has always been telling Latino families: These public lands belong to you, too,” Ortiz said.
asserted
Ortiz → tell → you
“If people are afraid to walk through that gate, then meaningful access has already been damaged.”
asserted
access → walk → gate
It takes just an hour by car to reach a different reality, where finance ministers and central bank governors representing the world’s largest economies are rolling into town for a meeting of the G20, the international economic forum whose members account for roughly 85 percent of global economic output and two-thirds of the world’s population.
asserted
members → take → population
They’re meeting up at the Grove Park Inn and Spa, a luxury resort overlooking Asheville and largely removed from the destruction Hurricane Helene left along the region’s rivers and valleys.
asserted
Helene → meet → rivers
Federal contracting records show the Treasury Department awarded Omni Hotels Corporation, the hotel’s owner, a $1.03 million contract to use the space.
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Department → show → space
A separate Treasury planning document names Grove Park as the event’s “primary place of performance” and calls for gifts representing Western North Carolina and cultural programming highlighting the region’s “history, culture, and character.”
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document → name → history
The city awaiting G20 delegates offers only a partial picture of recovery, said Jaime Byrd, a local resident and art gallery owner.
asserted
Byrd → await → recovery
“They will get that beautiful experience of being at the Grove Park Inn, most likely, and maybe a couple of them might make it downtown, which looks completely normal,” Byrd said.
uncertain
Byrd → get → it
“It’s unfortunate.”
asserted
It → ’ → ?
Beyond Asheville’s tourist corridors, Helene remains written into the landscape.
asserted
Helene → write → landscape
Debris left along rivers and roads has disappeared beneath nearly two years of vegetation, while damaged infrastructure remains.
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infrastructure → leave → vegetation
Elsewhere, recovery resembles absence: Buildings swept away by the storm have left empty ground where homes and businesses once stood.
asserted
homes → resemble → ground
Byrd’s gallery, located in Asheville’s River Arts District, took roughly six feet of water during Helene, destroying much of her artwork and causing at least $80,000 to $100,000 in losses, she estimates.
asserted
she → locate → losses
Across town, roads near her home washed out, largely cutting off the neighborhood.
asserted
roads → wash → neighborhood
Without electricity to power their wells, residents collected drinking water from an open spring on a neighbor’s property.
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residents → power → property
They laid rocks and large pieces of metal across damaged roads to make them passable.
asserted
them → lay → roads
Helicopters eventually arrived with “meals ready to eat” and evacuated residents who needed medical care.
asserted
who → arrive → care
“Most of this help came from self-help and community efforts,” Byrd said.
asserted
Byrd → come → efforts
Federal assistance covered about 20 percent of the repairs needed at her home, Byrd estimates, but she received no Federal Emergency Management Agency help for her gallery.
asserted
she → cover → gallery
She launched a GoFundMe, spent her own money, and salvaged what artwork she could.
uncertain
she → launch → artwork
Her collectors bought every recovered piece, which helped her keep the business alive.
asserted
her → buy → business
Two years later, she said one of her neighbors still lives without water, while others remain in trailers.
asserted
others → say → trailers
In East Asheville, Linda Tetens said flooding and fallen trees effectively turned her neighborhood into an island, while residents cleared roads and helped one another through days without power or reliable access to food and water.
asserted
residents → say → food
Tetens relies on a CPAP machine to breathe while sleeping and said that after about 10 days without electricity, the effects of going without it forced her to leave Asheville for a motel in Greensboro.
asserted
effects → rely → Greensboro
…and 55 more, not listed.
