Lord, why me?
Rain streamed from the brim of my hat with no hint that it would ever stop. Even at midday, the sky was as dark as dusk. I swung up onto my lead mule, Max, settling into the saddle. I wondered if he felt what I did: a sense of dread at the destruction all around us.
My fellow mule packer, Bob Howitz, and I had just arrived in Montreat, North Carolina. It was September 29, 2024, three days after Hurricane Helene made landfall. We’d come here to help, but now, in the face of such destruction—the sheer scale of it, trees down, bridges gone, roads washed away—I wondered if there was anything anyone could do, especially two guys with a string of nine mules. I glanced at…
