ASHEVILLE, N.C. — A lifelong Jacksonville resident and owner of Treemendous BBQ mobilized his restaurant operations to help feed thousands of people in Asheville, North Carolina impacted by Hurricane Helene.
Terry Rountree told First Coast News Thursday he reached out to his friends on Facebook earlier this week asking for donations before the trip. He said he raised around $12,000.
Rountree and his team arrived in Asheville Tuesday with their van and supplies and since then, estimates that they've fed around 5,000 people.
For Rountree, the trip to Asheville was personal, as he lost his brother-in-law in a flood in Tennessee in 2021.
So far, the death toll for Hurricane Helene has reached 200 and is likely to keep rising. It is the deadliest hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland since Katrina, in 2005.
On Wednesday, Ed Malin, the owner of Angie's Subs in Jacksonville Beach, also personally delivered supplies to hurricane victims in North Carolina. Stacks of water bottles, diapers, baby formula and toilet paper were loaded into a truck he drove up to the area on Wednesday.
Treemendous BBQ is located at 8927 Herlong Road.
