Sherry Housley lost her home in Burnsville, North Carolina, during flooding and debris slides from Hurricane Helene in September. She’s been displaced since the storm. Now, local high school students are rallying together to build her a new tiny home on her old property.
BURNSVILLE, N.C.– A North Carolina woman who lost her house in Hurricane Helene nearly eight months ago is finally getting a new place to call home.
Sherry Housley said Friday during an interview with FOX Weather that she is doing well.
“I am phasing out of the fight or flight mode,” Housley said.
Housley has been living in an RV since the hurricane destroyed her home.
“I’m just counting the moments for my little house,” she said.
A group of high school students partnered with a nonprofit called Rebuilding Hollers, and together, they are building a tiny house for Housley.
Plans for Sherry Housley’s new tiny house.
(Sherry Housley / FOX Weather)
She said she got a call from Stephanie Johnson, the founder of Rebuilding Hollers, who told her she would be getting a house, and the first one.
“I was just blown away,” Housley said. “I thought I was going to live in an RV for the rest of my life.”
Housley said she struggles to come up with words to express how she’s feeling, knowing she’ll have a real home again.
“What they’re doing is just beyond anything I’ve ever experienced in my life as far as someone coming to my rescue,” she said.
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Utilities have been restored in North Carolina and temporary infrastructure is in place for life to try to continue work towards normalcy.
Housley evacuated her home during Helene. She and her family had gotten several warnings that it was going to be bad, and she knew she couldn’t stay.
She went to stay with her sister who lived nearby. She said she was stranded there for a week.
“I walked the 3.5 miles off the mountain, and came and saw that my little house was gone,” Housley said.
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The contents of Sherry Housley’s home destroyed after Hurricane Helene.
(Sherry Housley / FOX Weather)
She said her home and studio were destroyed.
“Everything you can imagine was picked up and churned inside my workspace,” Housley said.
The tiny house is being built at the school, and will be moved to where her home used to be.
Housley said her home and workshop were destroyed in Helene.
(Sherry Housley / FOX Weather)
Housley said she was born and raised on the property she lived on. She inherited it from her parents.
“To be able to rise back up here, at my roots, in my beautiful mountains … I am part of these mountains,” she said.
Despite the mud and debris still left behind, Housley said she couldn’t imagine living anywhere but her property.
“I can see beauty here already,” she said. “It’s already blooming, and things are greening up.”
High school students building Sherry Housley’s tiny home.
(Sherry Housley / FOX Weather)
Housley said she’s excited to get into her new home and start planting, too.
Her tiny house is expected to be completed and moved by the end of May.
