Hurricane Helene took their family house. This week, they got it back.
It took just a few hours for Hurricane Helene to wash Bob Tatum’s home down the Toe River and smash it under a bridge.
And it took Samaritan’s Purse only four months to rebuild it, top to bottom, free of charge.
The Boone-based charity learned of Bob and Edwina Tatum’s plight through The News & Observer’s coverage, how they got no help through insurance and FEMA paid the maximum $42,500 — not nearly enough to replace what they’d lost, which was everything.
So while on vacation, CEO Franklin Graham declared, “We’re building them a new house,” and on Monday, they officially dedicated it right next to the post office on what is essentially the only street in the tiny town of Minneapolis.
“I love the house,” said Bob Tatum, a retired teacher in his 70s, touting the three-bedroom, two-bathroom design. “We can move in anytime. I thought everything was wonderful, and God got the glory for today’s activities.”
From the site in Avery County, Graham said Monday that roughly 100 volunteers had joined the building effort since July, and some came from as far as Idaho to contribute.
“We were having difficulty finding people,” he said. “There’s not like a national register of people who got washed away. There’s a lot of people who have fallen through the cracks and moved on.
“If it wasn’t for folks like you shining a light and telling their story,” he continued, “I don’t know what they would have done.”
Losing everything
The Tatums lived for 30 years along the Toe, normally a quiet trickle, in the not-quite-a-town of Minneapolis with a population of roughly 185.
They fled in the middle of the night as rain from the 2024 storm intensified, grabbing only their dogs and some cash. By morning, their house had been ripped from its foundation and wedged under a bridge. Tatum stood and looked down, picking out his wife’s jewelry box inside the floating wreckage.
Soon, he and Edwina moved in with her 95-year-old mother and began seeking help — giving up after repeated rejections. They had no flood insurance, which they’d never needed, and despite hired experts’ assessments that Helene had hit them with much more than a flood, they came up mostly empty.
“FEMA was able to help, but they’re not set up to replace people’s homes,” said Graham. “FEMA did their job, but the Tatums are just left homeless with just everything they had washed away. Even the horses. We’re set up for this. We have people set up for this. Money wasn’t the issue. Here was a guy and his wife in need. Big need.”
All that remains, Tatum said, is to build a ramp for Edwina’s mother.
They are, however, only one family.
“We hope,” said Graham, “we’ll be doing a lot more of these.”
This story was originally published December 2, 2025 at 9:45 AM.