[soft music] I would have never thought that I would be, for a month, you know, picking up the pieces of my home and my life would be indefinitely changed from those few hours in that morning.

So, maybe that was naive of me to think that.

You really only have a couple choices.

Either you let an event like that become the end of you, or you're just gonna die now, or you're gonna stop and give up.

I've got a family, you know, I've got a job, got my cats, you know, I have things.

I'm not completely broken.

I grew up in West Asheville.

It's a beautiful place to live.

You're in like a valley up in the mountains.

There's a lot to see and do.

And I've always had a passion for cooking.

When I had the opportunity to take over the Tomato Jam Cafe, it was a beautiful thing for my family to feel something they could take pride in.

And I ended up winning first place, which was the title of top chef in Western North Carolina.

We got picked up by Food Network.

That was the rise of, you know, my professional career as a chef.

It's not about the money.

It's about the sacrifices and the personal investment.

You know, the weeks that I worked 65 hours, the nights that I missed out because I stayed three hours at work to make a little extra money.

So yeah, it's hard.

I had a guy that was ready to buy this truck from me.

And man, something down in me just said, you might need it.

And I'll be damned if three weeks later, I wasn't escaping with my family and my cats in it to get them out of this hurricane alive.

Grateful to get my family out of the neighborhood here.

[truck engine roaring] Here's the basketball goal I bought for my boys a couple of years ago.

I recognize that.

That's about a 12 by 24 foot building that's perched up on top of a couple of vehicles.

And some things it's hard to even recognize.

I think one of the fearful things is that how many little things will I not remember because I don't have the small little material thing to remember it by.

My kids who spent 20 years in the only house they've ever lived in.

The ornaments they made to hang on your tree.

The pottery they made in fifth grade.

It's cap and gown is covered in mud, you know.

[birds chirping] - Crazy, you come out here and it's, you hear the birds and the cars driving by.

It's feels pretty peaceful right now, but obviously there's evidence of another time when it wasn't so peaceful.

I know very easily that my life could be different the next day.

And I woke up one day and my life was different.

It's easy to say that people aren't responding quick enough when you're sitting here and you have nothing and you're like, why aren't people coming to help me?

And I think that overall, you know, for a pretty terrible thing to happen, there's been some real beauty in a lot of the people coming together, being willing to do whatever it takes.

That makes them pretty great, I think.

[people chattering] - We have a motive task today, so we can go back out and give everyone hope.

That is our purpose, correct?

- Correct.

- And I love you all for it.

My concern is your safety and everyone else's.

If we have mudslides, we cannot help these people if we're trapped on that side too.

But that is what we're facing with inclement weather.

Get them out of this, which is coming.

Everybody nod your heads.

You understand me in your wake?

- Happy.

- All right.

People, you are absolute rock stars, heroes.

You deserve that title.

You all do.

As long as you have your time, your energy, and your will.

I can't thank you enough.

[people applauding] - Good to work, people.

- We have an incredibly dedicated volunteer staff.

Everybody has a life.

We all have kids.

And our staff that have been out there for days on end, suffering exhaustion.

One group has been out there 16 days, camping in the woods, will not come in.

I can't make them come in 'cause they're volunteers, but they're that dedicated.

Working every day, including last night, they cleared a landslide at 3 a.m.

So that's how dedicated people are to rebuilding this community.

- If we can get 20 people in this area that want breakfast this morning, I got enough to take care of.

- I got you.

Well, there's a really great spot kind of where we're about to head down to.

What's your name?

- Farron.

- Farron, I'm Daniel.

- I'm Daniel.

- I'm Farron.

- Right here.

- There's the federal response.

There's the state response.

And then the response from just people that aren't getting paid to help.

I mean, considering what was going on, I think they responded in an appropriate amount of time.

I got a call from a FEMA inspector on the following Sundays, and I've talked to them numerous times since then.

I mean, that's kind of the town that we live in.

Dump trucks, chainsaws, and they were searching for people.

All the free meals being cooked, and nobody had told anybody to do this.

I think that that's what something like this can do is bring people together.

And it was just the most amazing community response that you could ever imagine.

- Been a professional chef for 14 years.

And as soon as I realized I was laid off, my literal first thought was cook.

'Cause I'm doing this solo.

- Two?

- Yep, that's what it's like.

So, what do you have here?

- Picadillo, it's a comfort food from Cuba.

I have the vegan option, the non-vegan option.

Avocado on both?

- Yes, please.

- All right, love, anything else?

You need utensils?

Tell him I said hi, and I'm so glad that the puppy is doing better.

[people chattering] - My biggest concern, especially for the people of Swannanoa, is that we're gonna get forgotten.

The word needs to go out.

People need to be aware of what's going on.

- You can't walk around in a house that's full of slippery, cold mud.

It's dangerous, it's toxic.

But that's kind of the new normal, is just everything's difficult, and so the volunteers now just kind of come in small waves, which is a sign that the world moves pretty quickly, media moves fast, and I can just only hope that we're not being forgotten about yet.

It's important to stay on people's radars.

We're still struggling here.

- These people don't have a life now, so they have nothing to go back to, and people forget, I've already seen it.

I've talked to people as far away as Vermont, and they're like, "Well, we haven't seen a thing.

"We thought it was all finished."

Not a clue, so don't forget them.

That's my biggest message, don't forget 'em.

- You know, hopefully, by the early summer, I'll be back in my house, and I'm willing to be patient enough to earn that experience again.

[gentle music] ♪ [gentle music fades]