Finding Home After Hurricane Helene

Written By Baylee Sanders

2025 was the year that I accidentally became an author and the Lord did a lot of really big things in my life. But before I tell you that story, I want you to hear about where I came from and how the Lord led me to the release day of my first book, Coming Home With Shouts of Joy. 

I’m a small-town girl from Burnsville, North Carolina, home to the highest peak east of the Mississippi, Mt. Mitchell. My childhood was a pure and sweet one full of family gatherings with my gaggle of cousins, time spent outdoors camping at Black Mountain Campground, perpetually having my nose in a book, and faithfully attending Elk Shoal Baptist Church. 

I cannot remember a time when I didn’t know the name of Jesus. I was raised in a loving home that prioritized going to a church that has a heart for making sure whoever entered their doors leaves having heard the name of Jesus and how He died for our sins. I accepted Christ as my savior at a very young age, and while I may not have always lived out my faith to the fullest since that moment, I do fully believe my journey with the Lord can be traced back to that moment of confessing my need for a savior as a seven-year-old girl kneeling at the altar. 

From that moment on, my life unfurled in a pretty typical manner. I had elementary school innocence, the awkward middle school years, and a boy-crazy high school experience full of soul-searching, heartbreak, and identity-seeking all while trying to grow my relationship with the Lord at the same time. High school gave way to college, which is where I really built upon the solid foundation of faith that was established in my childhood. 

Appalachian State was the only university I wanted to attend, but when I opened my acceptance email, I had no idea just how much the Lord was planning for my life. The girl who walked on campus as a student for the first time in August of 2018 was not the same woman who walked across the stage to receive her diploma in December of 2021. I came to college as a small-town girl who loved Jesus but wasn’t sure how to serve Him, and I left as a married woman who was ready to jump headfirst into a career in ministry. During my time at App State, I was a part of Church in the Harvest, a house church that came out of Baptist Campus Ministries. It was in this ministry that I learned how to share the Gospel, what true discipleship looks like, and how to live on mission for the Kingdom. God used my time there to really change my life. 

I have so many stories from college and early adulthood that I could share to testify to how the Lord has worked in my life, but one of the most remarkable ones is how the Lord worked in my life during Hurricane Helene and all the devastation that came after. 

Like many of us, I had no clue just how much my life was going to change when it started to rain on September 27th, 2024. The morning of the 27th started off like any other day until my husband said he was not going into work because of the hurricane. He hardly ever misses work due to weather, so that was my first clue that this storm might be bigger than we all thought. We turned on the news, and as we heard reports of major flooding, my phone began to be bombarded with texts from my mom and brother back in Burnsville checking in on us. As I assured them that we were okay so far, I got a phone call from my dad that instantly changed everything. 

My dad is a deputy for the Mitchell County Sheriff ’s Office, and he spent September 27th just like he spends every day that he puts on his uniform: putting his life on the line to serve and protect the people of Mitchell County. My dad spent that harrowing morning out in the wind and the rain, cutting trees out of the roads so rescue services could keep moving to go help those in need. At around 6:30 that morning, my dad’s chainsaw suddenly stopped working. The pause in momentum made my dad take a step back so he could examine his chainsaw. Mere seconds after he stepped back, a tree fell in the exact spot he had just stood. Had his chainsaw not stopped working, that tree would have surely taken my dad’s life that day. I know, without a shadow of doubt, that my Jesus was the one who made the chainsaw stop working and saved my dad’s life. 

When I answered my dad’s call, he told me that story and begged me to stay inside and stay careful. After telling him how much I loved him, I hung up the phone and stood in my kitchen in utter shock. This storm was deadly, and I had no idea just how bad things were about to get. Shortly after that call, our power went out and then the cell towers went down too, casting us into utter darkness. 

My husband and I came through the storm with no damage, but when the sun came out and our cell service returned, I had radio silence from my family for three days. For three days my dad’s phone call played on an endless loop in my head, spiraling me into a complete panic over if my family in Burnsville survived the storm or not. I finally heard back from them and was relieved to find out that everyone survived and had only very minimal damage from the storm. 

Physically we were all okay, but mentally? That was another story.The months that followed the storm were spent trying to wrap my head around everything that happened while simultaneously trying to get back to “normal” life and all of my responsibilities. I’d have good days where I’d go throughout my day without even thinking about Helene; then I’d have days full of survivor’s guilt, feelings of deep sorrow and loss, or bad weather days that left me reeling and feeling panicky. 

Finally, in February 2025, I couldn’t take it anymore and I cried out to God, begging Him to bring healing to my weary heart. Moments after praying, I pulled out my journal and wrote a poem reflecting on the day of the hurricane. One poem quickly turned into three, and when I closed my journal, I sat back, stunned by what had just happened. I’ve never been one to enjoy poetry, and I had never written a poem of my own free will before that moment. 

A few days passed and I found myself unable to stop thinking about the poems, and I was itching to keep writing. I asked the Lord what He was doing and He gave me a very clear response. I was to keep writing poems about Helene, and eventually they would turn into a collection of poetry split into two parts. Part one would be my story, a retelling of my experiences during and after the storm. It would be dark, raw, and honest. Part two would be God’s story, a space where I bring God into the narrative and ask Him where He was during the hurricane. It would be light, hopeful, and point others to Christ. 

Armed with a clear vision from God, I wrote. I wrote poems in my journal for three weeks straight. After that, I spent the summer editing the poems and putting them all together into a book. Coming Home With Shouts of Joy is the result of hard work, vulnerability, faithful obedience, and most of all, answered prayers from the Lord. When the book was released on Amazon on September 27, 2025, the one-year anniversary of the hurricane, all I could do was stand back in awe of all the Lord had done. Writing those poems brought so much healing to my heart. They also gave me a way to offer hope and the love of Christ to others who lived through Helene too. 

Most importantly, the process of putting together my book taught me how to listen to the Lord and the importance of saying “yes” to whatever He puts on the table. I still don’t feel qualified to consider myself an author, but I think that’s kind of the point. I never could have done this in my own strength. I did it because I was relying on the Lord, and I trusted that He would guide me every step of the way. I knew that He would provide what I needed to accomplish what He called me to do. And He did! 

We all have things we know the Lord is calling us to do. It may be as big as moving overseas to share the Gospel, or it may be as small as asking your coworker how they are actually doing and not accepting “fine” as an answer. We are called to love what Jesus loves and to do what Jesus does, and the only way we can do that is by putting our trust in Him and faithfully saying yes. Even when we’re scared. 

I said that 2025 is the year I accidentally became an author, but I know that was no accident. Just because authoring a collection of poetry is something I never imagined myself doing, doesn’t mean that it wasn’t in God’s plan. I firmly believe that God uses all things in our lives for His glory, and sometimes that means we do things we never thought we would do. Am I glad that I experienced Hurricane Helene? 

Absolutely not. If I could have chosen, I would have never let the storm happen. But I am glad that God works all things for good and that He used the hurricane to teach me so many things. I would not be the woman I am today if I hadn’t lived through the storm. My prayer is that my story reminds you that God is present for even your darkest, hardest moments and that saying yes to whatever God is telling you will absolutely always be worth it. 

If you want to read Coming Home With Shouts of Joy, you can purchase copies on Amazon or at my website: www.authorbayleesanders.com.