She hopes to become a resource within her neighborhood and help others prepare for future emergencies.

“Before Helene, I knew some very simple things, like the importance of having a supply of water of food,” Stigleman said. “Since then, I’ve learned the importance of getting to know my neighbors. I am a strong introvert, but my experience working in supply hubs and now with this class, I’ve really come to understand the importance of building a strong communication network within your immediate community.”

Growing up in Oklahoma, Marsha Morgan was familiar with the disruption and devastation of tornadoes, and she lived in Loma Prieta, California during the 1989 earthquake that claimed 63 lives and injured nearly 4,000 people. While she had no formal disaster response training, the Ridgecrest resident worked quickly to help area residents after Helene.

“My friend Chris was helping a widowed woman who lived up the mountain from us, taking her water and helping cut away some trees from the road to her house,” Morgan said. “With her up there, I started coming into Swannanoa and Black Mountain and soon after that, we started to delivering supplies to people in the area.”

She was given two hot boxes and began taking meals to isolated neighborhoods around the Swannanoa Valley.

“It felt like the Lord tapped me on my shoulder and said, ‘go to Old Fort,’” Morgan said. “At that point, I drove down there in my little Kia Soul, and the first day I showed up down there I was given the nickname ‘the Chick-Fil-A angel.”

She delivered hot food to storm victims hot food for months after the storm.

“I’m a little bit of a nomad, so I’ve been all over the place, but I have never met people more humble than the people I encountered here,” Morgan said. “I’ll never forget one day that I was driving around and saw a lady in a parking lot. I asked her if she wanted a sandwich and how many people were in her family.

“She told me there were three of them, but the could share one sandwich,” she continued. “I told her I had almost 150 sandwiches with me, and whatever they needed I wanted to give them. I was touched to think how she was thinking of there being enough for others while she herself was hungry.”

Morgan learned about the CERT program on social media and wasted no time before submitting her application.

“One thing that really sticks with me after Helene is that people need comfort,” she said. “I thought this class would help me better understand how to help.”

The diverse perspectives she has encountered in the course reinforces the need for a local CERT program, according to Morgan.

“God bless them for starting this, because I think it will be a big resource for the police and fire departments, and especially the surrounding community,” she said. “To know there are people in your neighborhood trained to assist. If it hadn’t been for people helping other people during this storm, things would have been a lot different. The CERT team is a great way to do that in an organized way with trained citizens right in your neighborhood.”

The charter members of the team plan to open another basic training to 25 people who “live, work or worship” in the Town of Black Mountain around January of 2026.

“When you look back at Helene, we could have had CERT members throughout our community could have been communicating on radios and assessing their neighbors, for both injuries and damage. That would have allowed them to communicate that information with our responding agencies,” Dr. Coin said. “That would have allowed these agencies to target specific areas for response, and enhanced communication to areas further from town, who couldn’t necessarily walk in to get updates.”

The program, according to Billstrom, provides structure to the concept of neighbors helping neighbors.

“It will be a little challenging, but we do take a big tent approach,” he said. “We do need people to help with search and rescue, but we also need people to organize their block, or even pass out water bottles. It was truly amazing to see how this community during Helene, and if we can harness that and give it an extra level of efficiency, that helps everyone be more prepared for the future.”