Communities affected by Helene, Milton, celebrate Halloween

KRista Gamble and her family love Halloween. But this year, as her community in Asheville, North Carolina, was still dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Helen — the Category 4 storm that devastated the city last month — she wanted to make sure families in the area could enjoy the holiday.

“It traumatizes a lot of things that some of these kids have seen or learned,” Gamble says of Helen. “It’s important to let these kids be kids; they’ve had a rough month.”

Helen achieved Florida on September 26 and broke through the south-east. Storm devastated west North CarolinaNearly half of the deaths from Helen were in North Carolina, with 42 in Buncombe County, where Asheville is located, according to Associated Press. Less than two weeks later, Hurricane Milton came ashore in Florida as a Category 3 hurricane, wreaking havoc on communities just beginning to recover from Helen. Officials are still tallying the damage from the two storms, but that’s about it is evaluated cost tens of billions of dollars.

Gamble says she and her family were lucky to have only minimal flooding in their basement, but they were left without power and water for weeks after Helen hit. Gamble says much of Asheville is still under control notice about boiling water as of Tuesday. But as the community sets about rebuilding and cleaning up, people like Gamble are also coming together to help each other find moments of levity, such as celebrating Halloween.

North Carolina celebrates Halloween despite Helen

After Helen, Gamble began collecting donations for Halloween costumes and ended up bringing about 150 of them to the local community in Asheville, which conducted freefall festival on Oct. 27, which included face painting, candy and a costume ride. Gamble was one of several people who organized costume donations or Halloween parties for children and families.

Nearby, the Monte Vista Hotel and local restaurant Goldfinch hosted their first-ever fall festival on Oct. 26, which included, among other activities, a chest or treat, hayrides and even therapy horses. There were also about 400 costumes to choose from. Everything that was offered at the event was provided both from the country and from abroad. The hotel, located in Black Mountain, provided free meals to people in the days following Helen’s attack, and it was dwelling people whose property was damaged in the storm and qualify as survivors of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). FEMA was relief and coordination of relief efforts to states like North Carolina that were affected by Helen.

But the hotel staff wanted to do more.

“I don’t think any of us thought it would last as long as it did in our small town,” says Chloe Green, the hotel’s assistant general manager. Black mountain, like Ashevillewas one of many communities devastated Helen – the storm brought severe flood and damaged numerous properties in the area. Black Mountain is also still under a notice about boiling water as of Tuesday, according to Green.

“We just wanted to relieve the parents who were so worried,” says Ken Floyd, the hotel’s general manager. According to him, about 1.5 thousand people took part in the event.

“We gave away about 200-odd pounds of candy. And to see how the children’s faces light up when they choose their costume…” adds Floyd. “People needed to sit down, relax, eat some food and watch their kids just have a great time, and that’s really … what it’s all about.”

More details: How you can help those affected by Hurricane Helen

Morgen Stanzler, like Gamble, wanted to collect donations for the costumes to help the Black Mountain community, where she and her family have a second home. After Helen, she started putting together Monte Vista Hotel luggage or treat sets and costumes for the festival costume trip.

“I love this place so much,” Stanzler says. “After such a tragedy, I cannot restore the roads, there is little I can do. … (But I wanted to help) the community just find a little bit of joy in the middle of something that’s really devastating.”

After back-to-back storms, Florida residents are pulling together

Shortly after Helen tore through Florida, residents had to start preparing for another storm: Hurricane Milton. Officials appears evacuation orders for millions of people in the Tampa area. Although not as severe as meteorologists expected, Milton brought more destruction the state is a tornado shock parts of the state, and the storm flooded neighborhoods and downed trees.

After Milton, Karen Aucoin, who owns an event and wedding venue at LargoFlorida State in the Tampa Bay area, decided to continue the annual Halloween. Studio 131 has hosted it for the past few years, and this year’s October 13th event featured Box or Treat, a vendor market, and a haunted mansion at the venue. Most of the event was free; the haunted mansion had a $5 fee, but Aucoin says they waived it for people who didn’t have one. According to Aucoin, 100-200 people came to the event. Studio 131 also works with local organizations to collect donations for people affected by hurricanes.

“I just knew, no matter what, we had to do something really good for the community — to give everyone a sense of normalcy,” Aucoin says.

More details: How to help victims of Hurricane Milton

Some Halloween-themed events in the area helped raise money for those affected by the storm. Jerry Caccia, in Seminole, Florida, some of whom experienced significant storm damage from Helen and Milton—was organized by the Rotary Club at Lake Seminole Ghost Cemetery this year. In the past, proceeds from the event have gone to help foster children in the area, but this year the club has decided to donate half to help hurricane victims.

The Oct. 26 event included a haunted graveyard set up in the parking lot of a local mall, candy booths and a costume contest. Kachia dressed up as the “Pumpkin Master” wearing a pumpkin costume and a pumpkin mask. He hoped the event would help people take their mind off the effects of the storm and give them some rest. And he says he thinks that’s just how it happened. About 1,200 people showed up and the club raised nearly $6,000.

People say friends and neighbors went out of their way to ensure children and families could enjoy Halloween, coinciding with how communities came together after two brutal natural disasters.

“Neighbors who didn’t know each other before are now best friends,” Kacia says. “You’ll drive around and there are people who have set up water stations who just want to help. There are people who go around communities with ice and garbage bags and just hand them out to people. When you have a disaster like that, it really brings out—it sounds corny—but it brings out the good in people.”