It is fallen electric wires. It is churches covered in water. It is lost loved ones and no shelter. It is mud becoming carpet, streaking across the walls and through shattered windows. It is dark with electric wires crushed in the ground. 

It led to a bright stadium, people spread from the floor to the rafters, superstars raising money and people helping each other. It led to the Concert for Carolina to help Hurricane Helene victims. 

Theater-size screens face every direction in the center of the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C. The ground, usually covered with turf for the Carolina Panthers football team, is instead covered with boots, heels, Nikes, of people who gathered with a purpose greater than seeing their favorite country stars perform.

And there are some big stars: Eric Church, Scotty McCreery and Keith Urban to name a few. Luke Combs, the mastermind behind the whole event, which raised around $24.5 million, is an N.C. native who is proud to give back to the community that raised him. 

Those mountain towns need the support and charity. 

Talula Perry, a freshman at Guilford College, is a native to Asheville, N.C., an area that was hit particularly hard by the hurricane. She knows of one house right next to the Swannanoa River that was ripped away by the current. That house is one of thousands to stand now, only in the memories of those who used to call them home.

Shelter is only one on the long list of worries after the hurricane. Basic needs, food and clean water, clothes, are nonexistent after the floods tore away people’s lives.

Luke Combs stated that his portion of the proceeds from the concert were split evenly between charities like Samaritans Purse, Manna Food Bank in Buncombe County and Eblen Charities to name a few. Those proceeds are largely focused on providing food.

Another plan for the proceeds is the Blueprint for the Blue Ridge created by Eric Church, which plans to build at least 100 homes in Western N.C. 

It is not just famous Carolinians raising money and other materials for the towns and cities in their state. 

According to Levi Walker, a freshman who came to Guilford College from Allegheny County, mini-charities are also springing up. He said, “There are fire stations in Allegheny that you can donate food too and people can just walk in and act like it’s basically a supermarket for cheap.” 

Damages from the hurricane are estimated to be around $54 billion, and Walker recognizes that any attempts, even a $24.5 million attempt, to help may seem small in the face of so much destruction, but small things add up. He said, “It’s really sweet, and the efforts are 100% appreciated.” 

Other small efforts that make a big impact on those they are helping are St. Louis Missionary Baptist Church and a local school that started a clothing and food drive near Dobson, N.C. A senior at Guilford College, Jacob Mitchell, said, “My hometown [Dobson] is doing a good job of providing for themselves, but also for others.” 

Mitchell is also a huge proponent for community service, especially when it is personal, and most of the celebrities who performed at the Concert for Carolina consider N.C. their home. Mitchell said, “When it’s close to home, you can’t do anything but care. So it’s been really cool to see people rally around that.” 

National celebrities served as that rallying point. Small towns, hundreds of years in the making, were devastated by Hurricane Helene, but that could not sweep away the long-standing culture of music and service. 

Homes, food, clothes, medicine, water and overall awareness were all raised by this concert. Those are all temporal things, and the greater sense of community remains. Only a small piece of this familial sense, with its roots that reach deeper and higher than the floods could travel, was demonstrated by the concert.