In late September, Michael Toberer led about a dozen mules into the North Carolina mountains. Toberer and his team slogged through mud and garbage. They navigated around fallen trees and boulders in eroded creek beds. They were on a mission to reach the places hit hardest by Hurricane Helene. With roads and bridges blocked or wiped out—especially in rural areas—reaching folks needing assistance could be done only on foot or by helicopter.
While the chop-chop-chop of Chinooks and Black Hawks periodically passed overhead, the team hoofed in help around Chimney Rock and Black Mountain—both in North Carolina—as well as areas in eastern Tennessee. They brought supplies through land scarred by tumbled rocks and narrow trails cut out just ahead of them by volunteers with chainsaws.
For the past 12 years, Michael and Michele Toberer have trained military groups to use mule teams. Sometimes soldiers deploy on missions to areas that vehicles can’t reach. Pack mules can haul gear through tight spots and over rough terrain.
Just before the floods and landslides that Helene delivered, Michael planned to lead a training session in South Carolina. The mules were packed up, but as record-level rains fell, Michael canceled the trip. He rerouted his team to the devastated areas. His wife took command at their ranch in Mount Ulla, a community in North Carolina east of the hurricane’s path of destruction.
Through Facebook, Michele asked North Carolina residents to comment with their needs. She passed them along to Michael.
“Every message I opened, I wanted to just call him and say, ‘Stop, turn around, go this way,” says Michele. “We felt that we weren’t doing enough.”
But they’ve been encouraged even in the toughest moments. Michael recalls an elderly woman who had been stuck in her house for over a week. She giggled as she ate peanut butter crackers, thrilled to see another face after so long.
At first, the mules delivered emergency supplies like food, water, and medicine. Once cleanup began, requests came for pressure washers and propane for cooking.
As North Carolina rebuilds, the Toberers say they are in for the long haul. It will be months or years before the area returns to anything like “normal.”
“I think that we have found a kind of a calling,” says Michele.
Mountain Mule Packers plans to register as a 501(c)3 or an official nonprofit.
Michele says they are “just trying to follow what God has planned for this. We constantly are being connected with more people that need help.”
by Bekah McCallum in Duluth, Georgia
Why? God may use our gifts in ways we never imagined. We can pray to be ready to go where and when He sends us. (Isaiah 6:8)
