Recovery Ranch volunteers help with Florence recovery in Cumberland County

By Gilbert Baez, WRAL reporter

Clifton Hall has lived in his Spring Lake home on Brinkley Drive for 22 years. In two days, Hurricane Florence just about washed it all way.

“It’s been gutted, and after that, it has to dry, and then you have to proof it for mold and mildew and stuff like that,” Hall said.

William Upchurch lives on Brinkley Drive, too. He said he’ll never forget the day Hurricane Florence caused the Little River to spill over and run down his street.

“It looked like a lake, looked like you could have a boat out here and go fishing,” Upchurch said.

A volunteer group has come from California to help.

The 42 volunteers from Recovery Ranch are sober recovering alcoholics or substance abusers. They remember the people who reached out to help them get their lives back on track.

Now they’re doing the same 2,600 miles away from home.

“We want to go in there and help them gut their home to get everything out,” volunteer Joe Courtney said, “really, the hard part of the labor they don’t have the resources to do, and that’s why we want to jump in and provide that for them.”

Many of the Recovery Ranch volunteers were in Cumberland County two years ago helping with Hurricane Matthew recovery.

The volunteers have spent the past week clawing away at wet drywall and putting everything, including the kitchen sink, in the driveway.

Residents in the neighborhood say it’s help they’ll never forget.

“I don’t have the words to explain that they’ve actually come and pitched in and have stayed as long as they’ve stayed,” Hall said.