George Real Estate Group Radio Broadcast

One Morning, A Call From God Sent Wes On A Yearlong Journey To Help Families Recover

• George Real Estate Group

Share episode

A ten-year milestone on WHKP sets the stage for a conversation that hits straight at the heart of service, community, and what it means to keep showing up when the cameras leave. We sit down with Hometown Hero Wes Hardin, a retired farmer and operator who woke up one September morning with a clear conviction: pack the trucks, load the gear, and go wherever help is needed. From East Tennessee to Western North Carolina, then into South Carolina, Kentucky, and West Virginia, Wes and his partners—most notably Jake from Helene Rising—have spent more than a year clearing roads, rebuilding bridges, gutting waterlogged floors, and reconnecting families to essential care.

Wes shares the kind of story you don’t forget: arriving in War, West Virginia after floods severed access to an elderly man on hospice. With a washed-out bridge and a river that jumped its banks, the crew pushed through predawn, cutting a new path so family, church, and hospice could reach him in time. Starlink brought distant children and grandkids into the room. He passed peacefully the next morning—seen, heard, and held by his people. That’s the promise of real recovery work: not just lumber and machines, but dignity and closure when it matters most.

We dig into the practical realities too. Fall brings a steadier housing market in Henderson County, with slightly more inventory and ongoing demand from relocations. But the bigger headline is the long road ahead across Appalachia: temporary campers break down, and permanent housing is the real endgame. Organizations like Helene Rising, Appalachian United Initiative, Samaritan’s Purse, United Way, God’s Warehouse, and the United Cajun Navy form the backbone that keeps crews supplied and projects moving. If you’ve been waiting for a sign to pitch in, this is it—volunteer time, donate materials, or spread the word that recovery is not done.

Subscribe for more stories that shine light on the people doing the hard work, share this episode with a friend who could help, and leave a review so others can find these voices. Your attention, your network, and your hands can change what’s possible for families still waiting to come home.

SPEAKER_04:

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 WHKP.com. 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. It's 8 45 time now for uh our George Real Estate Group, Hometown Hero Salute. And we do this every Friday morning brought to you by the George Real Estate Group, and uh Taylor Harry is here with us and uh going to talk a little real estate news this morning, Taylor.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, we are, not too much because we would much rather talk to Wes than anybody listening to me. But we have seen the fall season bring a steady rhythm into the market. The activity has leveled off a bit from the summer rush, but homes are still moving. Inventory is up slightly from this time last year, giving buyers a few more options, but sellers are still seeing strong values thanks to the continued demand from folks relocating to Western North Carolina.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, get us in touch with the George Real Estate Group. You guys are located in Flat Rock, right?

SPEAKER_01:

That's correct. If you know where Rainbow Row is at, or even if you don't, um, if you can search up the Flat Rock Bakery and you do so at your own risk because you'll wind up eating absolutely everything in there. We are also next to Hubba Hubba Barbecue, which is again dangerous but lovely place to eat, and across from Carl Sandberg and the Flat Rock Playhouse, right there. So we are located in Flat Rock. It's a beautiful place to work at, beautiful place to come and visit if you haven't been here before. And you can contact us directly by phone at 828-393-0134, or visit us online at realastate by greg.com for listings, resources, and any local updates.

SPEAKER_04:

All right. Thank you, Taylor. Uh Wes Harden, welcome to the microphone. How are you? Doing well, thank you. Good to have you with us. Thank you so much for coming to sit down with us. I know you're a busy guy.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh, yeah, we tend to stay pretty busy. You had uh my main partner in crime, Jacob Reuter, in here a couple of weeks ago, and I was talking to him on the phone coming in. We'll be back out tomorrow on the job. With Helene rising. With Helene Rising.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, good people. You were all good people, but um, that's awesome you guys know each other.

SPEAKER_04:

So uh what are you gonna be what job are you and him tackling tomorrow?

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, we're down at Old Fort. We ripped had to uh we had a trailer down there, a lady and her son lives in that uh was uh part of the hurricane damage. Water rushed up under the trailer, and later they noticed they had mold and the floor started rotting out. So here we are a year and a month in, and we're just now finding out about places like that. We got in there a couple of days ago, ripped the floor out, we're ready to start rebuilding for now.

SPEAKER_04:

And that's exactly what you've been doing for over a year now.

SPEAKER_03:

Ever since September 28th. I got up on the morning of September 28th, and God touched me and said, You know what? You're retired. I've given you equipment, given you trucks. Uh you're from two of the oldest families in East Tennessee and western North Carolina. These are your people, these are my people, they need help. You need to be out there. And my wife looked at me and she said, You kind of got a perplexed look on your face this morning. Is there something going on? And I said, Well, yeah. I I get the feeling that we need to move. And she said, Well, what do you need mean move? And I said, We need to load up equipment. And she said, Where are we going? I said, I don't know. I don't have a clue. But what needs to be done is not going to do itself, and it's not going to get done with us sitting here. And we loaded up and we we started then. It took us about five days to get off of the little place that we live in, Stony Creek, up over in Elizabeth and Tennessee. And uh ever since that day, it's just been a and it's gotten to the point that I kind of scare people like Jake and some of my other people that work with me because it it's just been we load up and don't always know where we're going, but we find where we need to be. And uh it's been such a blessing since we've been doing this. No matter where we've shown up, we have worked uh East Tennessee, Western North Carolina, South Carolina. Uh when the floods happened up in Kentucky and West Virginia, we responded to that. We have uh hauled supplies for people in Texas. It's been just uh an incredible year and almost two months. And uh no matter where we showed up, the amazing piece has been if we needed additional machinery, it would show up. If we needed additional operators, chainsaw, skid steer, whatever, they would show up. If we needed additional funding, it would show up. Everything that we've needed since day one has just been provided.

SPEAKER_04:

Wes, that's a great story, man.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm sure that it's hard to be like I mean every I feel like every hometown hero we've had on here, they're like they almost don't want to be recognized, or it makes you feel a little odd. And but I will say that and I had my great grandfather who's from here too, he's a farmer, as Wes is also. If he's not got enough to do, he's a farmer. Him and his wife are incredible. But um, he had told me one time he was like, you know what, giving to people almost feel selfish because it makes you feel so much better than anything else could. And I think that you can see that in every single person that's coming here, and especially you too. And he was Wes was just bragging on his wife big time.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I I have to say, the good Lord and that woman, sometimes she can be a pest. When we first got started with this, this was nasty work. We started off, we were doing SAR missions looking for bodies, we were doing chainsaw work, we were knee-deep in muck. No matter where I went, no matter how nasty it got, that little five-foot redhead was right there in it with me. I have watched her break her back just I mean, she would never leave my side. She'd get in the truck absolutely exhausted and sleep all the way home, but she would never leave my side. And uh when when spring started coming in this year, uh we s it started kidding season on the farm. So she one of us needed to be on the farm to get through that, and she peeled off, but she's still, I mean, today she's loading up a trailer at God's warehouse in Elizabeth and for Jake and I to do the work of fort.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, we'll have to have you back on you here for one time, the both of you for like marriage counseling or something because it's incredible. Y'all are just absolutely knocked it out of the park. That's that's sitting you guys have an incredible story. You it not only are you working hard during the day, but you're working hard. And again, man, it almost feels selfish, probably, because you get so much joy from helping people, but it doesn't take away the the back breaking labor that you're doing out there doing it, you know.

SPEAKER_03:

So it's just it's no, and and and I'm gonna tell you, um, we hooked up with a couple of organizations. Early on, my wife and I were pretty much we went what I called rogue warrior style. We we loaded up and we went. And I mean, we uh our friends would go with us when they weren't working, and that was pretty much the crew. And then by about November of last year, we had kind of started partnering up with a couple of organizations like Appalachian United Initiative, which is over in Unicoy, Tennessee, and Johnson City, and and with Helene Rising with Jake. We happened to meet him through Hurricane Helene Veterans Recovery Group. They put us on a job together. We've been working together ever since. Uh and we're pretty much inseparable now. Yeah, I'm not sure. Jake Jake's an incredible. I mean, I I wouldn't take a dollar for Jake.

SPEAKER_01:

We met him, we love him too. We can see why he likes it.

SPEAKER_03:

We agree. Yeah, he he and I have been in some thick stuff. I mean, uh we were up in West Virginia and I uh Jake's already stolen a lot of my stories, our best stories.

SPEAKER_01:

But one one of the best We can write a book together in split fros.

SPEAKER_03:

I I'm gonna tell you, you you want to talk about how touching this can be. Jake touched on it, but I want to give you a little more on the story. We we were we responded, we had just come out of Kentucky, we'd been up there for almost two weeks working with the United Cajun Navy after the Kentucky floods, and we had just gotten home that night and offloaded equipment, and Darien Davis from Cajun Navy called me up and he said, Wes, uh, can you get your team back together? And I said, Dude, you realize we just got home. We haven't even serviced equipment or anything. And he he said, I know, but we really need you. We have a huge disaster in West Virginia, and they're not getting uh the media support that other places have got, and they're not getting the response in there. So we loaded up and we went to a little place called War, West Virginia, and we got in there. And the first place we worked, there was like 20 houses up a mountainside, and every one of the driveways had been washed out. So we got in there and we'd gotten that fixed, and we got back to the place we were staying, and the preacher we were working with up there called us up and he said, We really need you tomorrow morning. Can we go out tonight and look at this? So at eleven o'clock at night we're out looking, and this bridge was washed out. And the story was that there was an elderly gentleman on the hospice that lived up this road that had been there. And uh for five days his hospice team hadn't been able to get to him. No family members had been able to get to him. Uh ambulance crews couldn't get to him if he was needed, and it was he and his wife up there by themselves. And uh we said, Oh yes, promise you, we'll be here at daybreak in the morning to start this. And we got in there and we started going up what we thought was the river. We were fording the river. Jake was on his excavator and I was in the skid steer. And we got, I don't know, a half mile or a mile up. And I looked at Jake and I said, Do you realize something? He said, What? I said, The river is about actually the river bed is like 300 yards to our right. It had jumped and taken the driveway.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03:

We were actually going up what was supposed to be the driveway, and we thought it was the river. So we got up to a point about a mile and a half in, and we realized we could cut it over, and we managed to get it cut back over, and we back dragged the road so that it was at least passable. That evening uh there was a lot of traffic in there. We came in the next morning, there were th like hundreds of tread marks going up this dirt road. They've been waiting for it to open. So all of his local family, police, his church, hospice teams, everybody had been in there to see him. They had managed to get him a Starlink, and he was able to talk remotely to his children and grandchildren who weren't there. And we went in the next morning and I fired equipment up for it to warm up, and this lady came out with a smile on her face. She put her hand on my shoulder and she said, My husband just passed. She said, God bless y'all. He was able to see everybody he needed to see. He was lucid. He got to meet it to see his grandkids. They got to see granddad before he passed away. But the stuff like that will keep if if you get started doing this stuff, when you s this will keep you going. It's like an energy drink on that. On steroids on steroids. And it's over here in Western North Carolina, the people we worked with, we work down in Deep Gap.

SPEAKER_01:

We have I have spent some time working around these parts in Black Mountain and Deep Gap too. We were talking about that earlier.

SPEAKER_03:

Black Mountain, Mini Ha ha. Yeah, back caves.

SPEAKER_01:

People that live out there because they don't want anyone to know where they are, and it's real easy to their cell phone service doesn't work anyway. So, you know, it's you're digging, looking around for people that you're look, you know, you're looking for anybody in the city.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, some of the places we've worked, it's interesting pulling in with Tennessee license plates because they look at you and it's like, who are you? And we had a really interesting, we were working over uh You can take my car next time.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

We we were working over closer to uh I guess it was over towards Poplar. We were going up in the mountains. We were on four-wheelers. It was before it was really passable to get up in some of the areas, and as we're going up in there, we look up the mountain and we see two what? New York City Police Department four by four F-356 packs loaded with NYPD cops coming down the mountain. In Mitchell County, North Carolina. Yes. And uh so we we stopped and talked to them. But this the other biggest blessing that we've had through this is we have worked side by side with people from all over America. I never expected the outpouring of support from America for Appalachia. Okay. Appalachians have always been known for supporting disasters elsewhere.

SPEAKER_01:

But you know what's funny? When we talk about this, is um this is not even a real estate plug, people from everywhere else moves here. Although people have probably been here before. They love this area just as much as we do, you know.

SPEAKER_04:

So Yeah. People come here and fall in love with this place, and and uh and it's people like you and uh and uh all so many others that uh make this place look so attractive. You jumped in, you didn't even know where you're going.

SPEAKER_01:

What do you guys need now?

SPEAKER_03:

Uh this. Just word out that it we're not done. That's the publicity that we're not done. If you watch most of the news media, you think well, everything's done. Well, we have people in campers, we have temporary housing. A lot of the major rebuilding that's still gonna have to be done across Appalachia is permanent housing. These campers are a three to five year solution and they fall apart. They're not made to be out in the weather every day. So just the word that we still need help. We need assistance. Volunteer, uh donations through Helene Rising, donations through Appalachian United Initiative, uh donate to Samaritan's Purse, they've been a huge help. Uh God's Warehouse, a lot of people haven't heard of them, and they have supplied materials for almost every rebuilding effort that we've done. We've built houses, we've built bridges. Uh it's it's incredible the support that we've had. I mean, it it's easy to look at a few people like me and Jake and say, well, y'all have been out there doing it. We couldn't do it without the support network that we've had. Samaritan's Purse, United Way.

SPEAKER_04:

I mean, it's been Yeah, we've had the United Cajun Navy on here and uh and so many different organizations. And through Jake at Helene Rising is where uh he gave us your name to contact and come be with us. Well well, Wes, I I can't say thank you enough, and I'd love to talk for about three days about this and hear your stories. And you talk about the need for publicity and and we're committed here at WHKP to stay the course because uh it's not over by a long shot. And so uh we got a uh certificate there that we just want to say thank you and uh we do yeah, we do.

SPEAKER_01:

We want to say thank you, everybody.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, there's a couple of free meals in there when you're in town. Don't you know we got lunch for you. But thank you again for coming to visit with us. Driving from Elizabethan, Tennessee this morning to be with us. Thank you. Well, thank y'all.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you for everything. You're amazing.

SPEAKER_04:

All right. Uh Taylor, we got about a minute left to uh recap Henderson County real estate happenings. Do that for us.

SPEAKER_01:

I will. Well, really, I'd I'd love to say if you'd like to nominate someone for next week's Hometown Hero or for any week, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit us at realestatebygreg.com to submit your nomination and learn more about what's happening in the community. Or you can give um us a call at the office at 828-393-0134, or you can call Randy, Randy with your phone number.

SPEAKER_04:

Uh, you can call us here at WHKP. Uh our email address is info at WHKP.com. Uh send us an email. There's the best way to get in touch with us, and we'll be back with you next Friday morning with another George Real Estate Group, Hometown Hero. The George Real Estate Group is located in Flat Rock, North Carolina, near Hendersonville in Henderson County. You can find them online at realestatebygreg.com. The George Real Estate Group can be reached at 828-3930134 or stop by their office at 2720 Greenville Highway, Flat Rock, North Carolina. Tune in live each week on Thursdays at 1005 AM on WHKP 107.7 FM and 1450 AM, or stream online at WHKP.com, 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.

SPEAKER_00:

You've built a lifetime of strength, wisdom, and independence. And here's the best part: you still have it. Every decision, every step, every next chapter is yours to choose. Selling your home isn't about letting go, it's about opening the door to more freedom, more time for what you love, more energy for the people and passions that matter most. At the George Real Estate Group, we believe independence isn't behind you. It's right here, right now. Our team goes beyond buying and selling. We're here to help you protect your wealth, preserve your legacy, and make sure Uncle Sam doesn't become your biggest benefactor. We'll guide you every step of the way towards your next chapter, your next opportunity, and your freedom on your terms. Call us at 828 393 0134. Find us online at realestatebygreg.com.