George Real Estate Group Radio Broadcast

From Devastation to Hope: The Bat Cave Disaster Relief Group's Ongoing Mission

• George Real Estate Group

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When Hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina last September, few could have predicted that a destroyed vintage shop would become ground zero for one of the most remarkable grassroots disaster relief efforts in the region. Lynn and Mark Staton's story unfolds like a masterclass in community resilience – after losing their business housed in an old Sinclair gas station, they transformed their parking lot into what would become the headquarters for the Bat Cave Disaster Relief Group.

What began with a simple shower trailer has evolved into a full-scale operation that continues nearly a year later. Every Wednesday, Lynn cooks massive meals (recently, four 15-pound trays of baked spaghetti) that feed approximately 100 workers and community members through their affectionately named "Bat Cave Door Dash" delivery service. Meanwhile, they coordinate volunteers from across the country who come to help with everything from home demolition to reconstruction projects.

The contrast between Hendersonville's recovery and the ongoing devastation in Bat Cave is stark, despite both being part of Henderson County. "It looked like a bomb went off," Lynn recalls of those first days after accessing their property. "Like a bad Armageddon movie with debris everywhere." While celebrating small victories like the recent reopening of the local post office, the Stations continue operating primarily from tents, having prioritized helping others rebuild before focusing on their own recovery. Their immediate goals include completing two major housing projects by the one-year anniversary of the hurricane.

For those wanting to support this extraordinary effort, the Bat Cave Disaster Relief Group needs volunteers and donations as recovery will continue for years. Find them online at batcavedisasterrelief.com or on social media platforms as "Bat Cave Relief." Their story reminds us that sometimes the most powerful community heroes emerge from the very disaster that threatened to destroy everything they had built.

Speaker 1:

The George Real Estate Group radio broadcast is celebrating 10 years on WHKP. The George Real Estate Group is celebrating 10 years on the radio live every Thursday morning at 10.05 on WHKP 107.7 FM and AM 1450 and streaming online at WHKPcom. And streaming online at whkpcom Each Friday morning at 845,. The George Real Estate Group presents the Hometown Hero Award to someone in our community who goes above and beyond to make our hometown a better place to live. Here's this week's Hometown Hero Show. Hometown Hero Show. It's 845 on Friday morning and you know what time that is. It's time for our George Real Estate Group Hometown Hero Series Every Friday morning. It's our best and most favorite time of the week to get together. Good morning, noah George.

Speaker 2:

Good morning and happy Friday. It's a privilege and honor every Friday morning to sponsor the Hometown Heroes series.

Speaker 1:

We look forward to this, don't we?

Speaker 2:

It's the best part of the week, for sure.

Speaker 1:

Fridays are special in a lot of different ways, but it's special for Noah and I because we get to get together and talk to some people in our community who really make a difference and gosh. Over the years, we've met some great members of our community, have we not?

Speaker 2:

We have, and it's amazing. And that's what makes our community for what it is. I mean the quality of life, of course, the four distinct seasons, the outdoors, the community we live in, but it's the people that make our community what it is.

Speaker 1:

It really is. And you in the real estate world, uh, you kind of got a front row seat to to see what kind of a difference that makes in our community, don't you?

Speaker 2:

well, we certainly saw, with helene, neighbors helping neighbors. But you know, to your point, I mean we're meeting with people every single day that are considering I mean we work with our, our locals, of course people that are downsizing or upsizing or right sizing or retiring or retiring. I mean, whatever you know, life happens, therefore real estate happens. But we get the opportunity to talk with people that they have their first experience here. Maybe they're visiting families, maybe they're at the Apple Festival or the Garden Ghibli, or maybe they're just coming through, but it's a contagious place. I, they, they experience it, they experience it, they meet the locals and they're like we want to be part of this community uh, you tell me, uh, if I'm wrong.

Speaker 1:

But uh, there's kind of, I think, a transition going on in the real estate world.

Speaker 2:

We're seeing interest rates begin to fall a little bit interest rate softening is certainly a benefit to our buyers having a little bit more affordable options and their payments can go down. It is softening in the sense that the market's softening the days on market's closer to 60 days on market, so buyers have more options. Inventory levels elevated a little bit, but the truth is Henderson County is averaging about 125 single-family homes a month selling. Averaging about 125 single-family homes a month selling Over the last 24 months, you would think and again there's a lot of news that the sky is falling.

Speaker 2:

That's not true. Here locally, I mean, there's just been this steady demand. Inventory levels have increased a little bit. So again that gives buyers a little bit more options. Sellers have to be a little bit more patient, but it's always important to price your home correctly. Our average single-family home price over the last 12 months is around $540,000, but that's been holding. And again it's the supply and demand. But be careful what the news says. I mean the sky is not falling. The real estate market is steady, it's healthy. Here and again we're helping people every single day with their buying and selling real estate needs.

Speaker 1:

You guys are your office offices located in Flat Rock, although you do business all around the Carolinas.

Speaker 2:

We do all well all over Western North Carolina and the upstate South Carolina, so we're grateful to serve the community. Find us online at realestatebygregcom. Also call us directly at 828-393-0134. And we podcast all of our radio shows. But it's a privilege and honor to sponsor the Hometown Hero we're glad you do.

Speaker 1:

Thank you very much, noah, for bringing us the hometown hero series each week. Welcome, if you will, lynn, and mark staten from uh bat cave disaster relief group. Good morning, lynn. Good morning, how are you?

Speaker 3:

I'm doing fine.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for having us thank, thank you for coming, and, mark, it's good to have you both with us. You guys have been literally boots on the ground since Hurricane Helene struck and did so much damage in the gorge right.

Speaker 4:

Yes, sir.

Speaker 1:

You guys and you're continuing to help out down there.

Speaker 4:

It's a marathon, isn't it? We've been blessed. We have another group of volunteers coming in, the 20th through the 27th. Michigan has been huge. This group coming back in will be their third returning trip to come in and help us out and they'll be about 15 strong.

Speaker 2:

That's amazing. Tell us about the evolution of Bat Cave Disaster Relief Group. I mean, you guys personally experienced a tremendous loss and then tell us your story about how this evolved.

Speaker 3:

Well, when the hurricane hit on a Friday, we did get a text from one of our friends across the road across the river and she prepared me. She sent me a picture of my building and of course the post office side is a back. A post office was standing but my antique vintage shop. I worked out a double bay garage. It was an old Sinclair's gas station. At one time that was completely gone and she had mentioned that they saw some people going in and out. We jumped in the car I believe that was on a Sunday and once he got our driveway back together, we proceeded to go down there. But every road we took we got stopped because the road was just missing. Yeah, so finally on Thursday that following Thursday, we were able to get down to the bridge to park and then we actually had to walk on scaffolding across one of these. It was a big hole between the road and the bridge and we just had to walk down. It wasn't very far from the bridge and then we just started dealing with what we saw.

Speaker 4:

We were trying to figure it out, just like everybody else was. We were fortunate a group came in from Franklin. We were just trying to salvage our stuff. They were like, hey, you have the biggest parking lot in the area for a shower trailer. We were like, wow, that's a biggest parking lot in the area for a shower trailer. We were like, wow, that's a good idea, we'll do it. So they helped us finish cleaning up our mess and then they brought us the shower trailer down and then people were coming around and they had problems getting supplies. So we started hauling supplies in and started our little donation hub and then, once people found out that we were there, then we started getting volunteers that came in and for the first couple of months they slept in their car, they slept in tents. They were there every day for us running, saw crews or just whatever the need was. They did their best to fill it. And we had never met these people before. It was just like-minded people with good hearts.

Speaker 1:

That's amazing. That whole thing has been amazing to me to see the outpouring of love and kindness that came about and you, you guys, continuing to operate a distribution, and I think on Wednesdays, am I right that you deliver?

Speaker 3:

Yep free lunch Wednesdays. Actually, a church north of us offered to start. They came in and started it. Did it for a few weeks. The workers got used to it. Of course so then we actually took it over when they had to bow out, we um myself, the volunteers, uh, locals, they jumped in um suzette sherry amy lee we have our local bat cave door dash that's what we call them. Yep, and they go up 74, they go up um 64 nine every Wednesday yep, where, uh?

Speaker 1:

where's the food coming from? Where are?

Speaker 3:

you, oh, and Brooke, yeah. Who cooks the?

Speaker 1:

food, or is it a home-cooked food? Or or, lynn, do you do the cooking?

Speaker 3:

a lot of the times I do, um, yeah, yeah. So yeah, this this week was, uh, baked spaghetti and I thought, oh no, don't do this again, because it wasn't that easy it was four big trays and they weighed 15 pounds. Yeah, we probably well, actually we're probably fed close to with some of the community even comes down. The ladies will meet and have lunch there. So it's whoever wants to eat. So it was probably close to 100 this week.

Speaker 2:

Wow. And so you guys have been in. You grew up in the community, you've had small business, you had a small business in the community and now this is what you're doing right now. I mean this is incredible. I mean it's hard to fathom.

Speaker 3:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

To where you were and to what you're doing and then coming up on a year in just a couple weeks, but the needs are still so great. I mean, how can listeners be part of what you're doing? How can they give? What can do you still need volunteers? Do you still need donations? I mean, how can we help with that?

Speaker 4:

We use our social media platform to share information and just let people know what's going on. We have a GoFundMe and a demo on our Facebook page, instagram, tiktok. We still need volunteers, we still need donations. We have a lot of work going on. We still demoed a house last week, but we have two big projects that we're looking forward to this upcoming week. We're hoping to have the homes finished by the anniversary date, project that we're working with a young couple to help get them up and out of the ground. And we use our volunteers as our labor source. Sometimes they come in. They might be a framing crew. That week they might be laying floor, they might be hanging drywall, they might be cutting wood. It's just kind of whatever the need is. But yes, and and to everybody that's donated and helped us out along the way, we can't tell you how much we thank you there's uh so many people who contributed.

Speaker 1:

I believe you tell me that uh, you've got a big stock of firewood. Uh, did I see that on your facebook page?

Speaker 4:

um we started that last what we work with the episcopal church down there society of transfiguration and they've done a firewood ministry for years, okay, so what we've done is we've been able to supplement them and last year we were had enough wood so, yeah, we were able to load them up going into this year, so that just any little thing that makes it easier on the people down there.

Speaker 3:

We also have a website. Batcavedisasterreliefcom shares a lot of information on that. There's a volunteer section that you can sign up, just email.

Speaker 2:

Follow you on social media.

Speaker 3:

You can see if they go to. Facebook probably has more pictures than any of the socials. That's where we started from. Shana is awesome. She's over in Tennessee. She was one of our original volunteers.

Speaker 4:

Can't tell you how long she slept in her car Every day. Can you believe that she?

Speaker 3:

blesses us once a week. We get one week a month at Ashauna. She still comes over and she handles all the social media, the website for us.

Speaker 1:

I've dealt with her some she's referred me names of people. She is amazing. She is, and there's so many amazing people that have jumped in the post office.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 1:

Let's talk about that a second. Did it reopen yesterday? Did you tell me?

Speaker 3:

It did reopen yesterday, as far as I know. Right now I believe it's only going to be like pick up, pick up mail. I don't think the sales part has opened up.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3:

But they'll get that going as soon as possible.

Speaker 1:

I think I read where you can go into the lobby of the post office and get your mail 24-7 there now.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, just be cautious of our friendly neighborhood bears.

Speaker 1:

They're hungry now.

Speaker 3:

Well, yeah, since the hurricane they've been out. I was just checking my security cameras and I had one walking around our outdoor kitchen about 8 pm last night.

Speaker 2:

So they're coming out there.

Speaker 3:

Their homes were destroyed too, yes, so just be careful.

Speaker 4:

And where our hub is. We're working out of what was the location of HipHim, but we still work out of tents, basically because we haven't rebuilt our facility yet. We're working on everybody else's, so it's amazing to me sometimes the amount of people that have came in and the amount of work that we've been able to get done and it's all been out of a tent.

Speaker 1:

Out of a tent and out of their cars. That is just mind-boggling to me and it continues and, quite honestly, it's going to continue for quite some time, yeah.

Speaker 3:

I mean it's hard to fathom that we're here in Hendersonville and then Back Haven-Gurtin it's Henderson County.

Speaker 2:

It is. You just go down the road, it's ground zero.

Speaker 3:

When we first got there it looked like a bomb went off. We just looked around like we couldn't believe it. We couldn't believe what we were seeing.

Speaker 4:

It was almost like a bad Armageddon movie or a Mad Max movie, with just debris everywhere and people were chaotic and trying to just's hard to figure it out.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well we're committed to uh trying to help and and once again, give us your contact information, the website and social media, etc okay, our website is batcave disaster reliefcom.

Speaker 3:

We're also on Facebook, instagram, tiktok X, and it's either Batcave Disaster Relief or Batcave Relief.

Speaker 1:

She couldn't do all those words.

Speaker 3:

All those words, I think on Instagram were Batcave Relief.

Speaker 2:

Thank you. We'll certainly have it all on all of our socials as well and be sharing. And we'll be podcasting this as well.

Speaker 1:

We have a small token of our appreciation, a little certificate.

Speaker 4:

Oh, thank you. That's all we can do. That's awesome.

Speaker 1:

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for coming out today and join us. Next week Bud McCall from Appalachian Navy will be here. Thank you for helping us.

Speaker 2:

Maybe the house feels a little too big these days, the stairs a little steeper, the pace of life a little too fast. But what if your next move wasn't about letting go. It was about making space for peace, for freedom, for what matters most? At the George Real Estate Group, we understand that real estate isn't just about the house. It's about transitions, timing and trust. We've helped thousands of families in Western North Carolina make smart, thoughtful moves Closer to nature, closer to family, closer to home. So when you're ready to right size, simplify or start fresh, we'll be here. The George Real Estate Group local, trusted, proven. Call us today 828-393-0134. Find us online at realestatebygregcom, because your next chapter deserves to feel just right.

Speaker 1:

The George Real Estate Group is located in Flat Rock, north Carolina, near Hendersonville in Henderson County. You can find them online at realestatebygregcom. The George Real Estate Group can be reached at 828-393-0134 or stop by their office at 2720 Greenville Highway, flat Rock, north Carolina. Tune in live each week on Thursdays at 10.05 am on WHKP 107.7 FM and 14.50 am, or stream online at whkpcom or download these podcasts wherever you get your podcasts. The George Real Estate Group brings you the WHKP Hometown Hero Series every Friday morning at 845.