She rescued hundreds of family photographs from Helene’s wrath. Now she’s giving them back
She found the first photo hidden in the wreckage of knocked-down trees, and it clearly showed a happy golden retriever on the back patio — someone’s pet.
She found dozens more on the ground along the Swannanoa River: brides in their wedding gowns, sweethearts holding hands, grandparents smiling from the sofa.
Taylor Schenker came to Asheville to help a friend through her first meeting with FEMA, aiding one of the hundreds who watched Hurricane Helene sweep through and carry their lives down-river.
And while she stood on the Swannanoa, where the water rose as high as the rooftops, she found bits of people’s lives in photograph form, torn from family albums and ripped off walls, left callously behind under the mud and rocks.
She picked them up carefully, wearing gloves, and dusted off the mud. She lay them out flat on the riverbank, hoping the people who snapped those pictures might walk past and find them again.
But she couldn’t leave them.
“I was just losing sleep thinking it could rain,” said Schenker from her home in Canton. “These little photos had been through so much.”
Schenker’s nagging humanity led to Photos from Helene, an Instagram page showing snapshots collected from the piles of debris, plucked out of the broken plywood and crushed bricks where hundreds of people lived with these faces smiling from the mantle.
She collected more than 60 by hand. But as word of her Instagram page spread, search and rescue teams from around Buncombe County began sending more that they’d uncovered, giving Schenker roughly 300 to display and hopefully reunite with the takers.
Helene’s stolen moments of NC victims
In one photo, a young girl holds a dandelion to the camera lens and blows the pods into the wind.
In another, a family of four stands on a dock with the sun setting over the water behind them, while a little boy holds what appears to be a crabbing net.
High school girls hold corsages at the prom. Junior varsity basketball players dribble the ball up the court. Friends press their cheeks together and grin. Uncles raise a glass and drink.
Helene inflicted shockingly personal wounds, and did so in public.
In early October, I stood on a Toe River bridge with Bob Tatum, whose house lay smashed in the water beneath us.
He pointed out his wife’s jewelry box, stuck there in the mud, and the seat cushion from their paddle boat, dangling from a tree branch.
With these mud-smeared pictures, Helene practically bragged about rooting through victims’ dresser drawers to find whatever they held most special.
About 30 families recognize their photos
But so far, Schenker and her Instagram page tracked down roughly 30 families who recognized their loved ones or themselves.
“There’s definitely a lot of hugs,” she said. “They’re getting back their awkward middle school photos. I’ve had a lot of people say, ‘I hadn’t thought about these memories for years, but I’m so grateful they’re back.’”
One encounter stands out.
Schenker posted a picture of two young boys, obviously brothers, and when the family contacted her, she learned that one of them had died young.
“When they lost their house,” she said, “they lost pretty much all the existence of this child being alive. It still gives me chills to think about.
“That was a really good hug.”
If disasters can be overcome, and they can, it will these small acts of kindness repeated thousands of times. It will require that people notice precious things discarded on the ground, and the effort to pick them up.
Taylor Schenker’s pictures recovered the hurricane can be found at instagram.com/photosfromhelene. She invites people to send a direct message through the site or write to PO Box 28, Canton, NC 28716. Found photos may also be mailed to this address.
