// Hurricane Helene Recovery: Ward’s Carp Lake // This week, I went up to volunteer in the N.C. Mountains and met Cookie and Jeff Ward. They’ve been married for over 40 yrs and had lived and owned a fishing pond where they made their living. Jeff’s dad built the business in the 60’s and they had continued the family business and had first met and fell in love with each other at this lake. They made their living setting up people to fish and had four campers that people could rent to spend the night in the mountains on this beautiful property. The people in the community and those traveling made memories here. When the hurricane hit, Jeff stayed up all night to keep an eye on the lake as the waters started to rise. He got a phone call in the middle of the night saying, “The dam is breaking, get out now!” He immediately called his neighbors and told them to get to higher ground. He saved 5 people that night. Within minutes the water rose into their home waist deep as they grabb...