Floyd business gives housing to North Carolina family after Hurricane Helene

FLOYD, Va. (WDBJ) – As communities continue to grapple with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, one family from Asheville is finding refuge in one of our hometowns.

“When we went out of our neighborhood for the first time, it’s bad enough seeing it in the form of a video, but it’s even worse when you’re seeing it in real life,” Miles Kexel, son, said.

The Kexel family is from Asheville, North Carolina, one of the areas hit hardest by Hurricane Helene.

“It was so much bigger than we had expected, and there wasn’t a lot of warning,” Torin Kexel, dad, said.

The family lost the business they own, The Flying Bike. It’s an electric bike tour and rental business serving Asheville. The building was completely submerged under water.

“The water mark is almost to the second floor,” Miles said.

Their house is still not livable, more than a week later there is no power or water.

“The first three-days were really scary,” Torin said. “There was no cell service. There was no way to even know what was going on in the city, except what we could hear on the radio. The trees had knocked powerlines down all over our neighborhood so we couldn’t get out.”

Eventually enough of the road was cleared and they were able to make their way to Floyd, Virginia. That’s where The Book House was waiting with open arms to take them in.

“Our mission is to be a home for the literary arts, for our community, and be a place to build community and be hospitable,” Leah Cantrell, Co-owner of The Book House said. “So, it just made sense to open this up and make it an actual home.”

The offer was made without hesitation.

“My friend Leah is a friend from childhood,” Alice Kexel, mom, said. “So, it was a natural choice to be able to come somewhere else and have some community and support.”

With Asheville’s water system projected to take weeks to repair, the Kexel’s face an uncertain timeline for returning home.

“We know that is going to be years, if not decades long recovery for Asheville,” Torin said. “So, being able to just take care of ourselves in this timeframe will allow us to come back and we will be part of rebuilding our community and we will continue to help people for a long time.”

Until then, they are grateful to the community of Floyd for taking them in.

“It is impossible to put into words what it means to be loved and supported when you’re down,” Torin said. “We are in a spot where we need support, and it is humbling. We promise we are going to pay it back when we are on our feet again.”

There’s a GoFundMe to help the family build back all that they lost.

Click here if you would like to help the family.

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