Amish Crews Are Heading South To Rebuild Helene-Damaged Homes For 5 Months — And They Need Drivers

We’ve heard a lot about Amish disaster relief in North Carolina following Hurricane Helene, which, time flies, happened over two years ago now (September 2024).

Amish crews from the Midwest and Pennsylvania have given their time and effort to help rebuild in NC mountain towns like Chimney Rock and Bat Cave. As one female Amish volunteer said at the time, “Our heart just felt drawn to come help.”

Now we have a report about similar efforts in NC’s sister state of South Carolina, which also suffered destruction from the massive storm and subsequent flooding. Two years later, parts of the state still have homes waiting on repairs.

Starting next week, a crew of Amish builders will be repairing Helene-damaged homes in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, beginning October 26 and running into next spring. And the county is asking for a helping pair of hands from the drivers out there.

What Spartanburg County Is Asking For

When I first saw the headline, I thought this was about getting down to South Carolina from Ohio. But of course, that’s pretty manageable – it’s a single trip we’re talking about, and can even be done by train or bus.

Rather, what they’re looking for are daily drivers to transport the Amish workers from a local church to the job sites, and then back again. Here’s more from FOX Carolina:

The builders will be deployed throughout the county from Oct. 26 to April 1 to repair homes damaged by Hurricane Helene, with a break for the Christmas holiday.

Volunteers are needed for the 7 a.m. drop-off assignment to either take builders on passenger vans to their job sites from the church or to drop off a trailer at a job site and return. Those arriving before 7 a.m. will be provided a free breakfast.

Trailers and builders will also need to be picked up and returned to the church at 4:30 p.m. A free dinner is offered to those who would like to take advantage of it.

There would presumably be such a need for the duration of the program. Volunteers can sign up through an online form linked in the FOX Carolina report.

I suspect they’ll find enough willing drivers; after all, this is a great help they are providing for the community and like in the North Carolina communities, I’m sure they’re welcomed with open arms. I would also imagine that this will be an ongoing rotation of volunteers from the Amish side, with people coming down to work for time spans measured in weeks rather than months.

And not to state the obvious, but since Amish generally do not own or drive cars, drivers are a necessary thing. Riding in a vehicle is allowed in most groups (though some do not do it except in emergencies) and Amish commonly hire non-Amish drivers, often called “Amish taxis,” for work crews, long trips, and errands beyond buggy range (more on that here and in Haley Straw’s series on driving the Amish).

An Amish Project Led By Disaster Aid Ohio

Now, FOX Carolina did not name the group behind the crews. But Mennonite Disaster Service, which ran an earlier rebuilding project in Spartanburg County, describes its Spartanburg aid response on its project page like this: “This is an Amish Project led by Disaster Aid Ohio.” Its work focus is described with the same brevity: “MDS work will focus on new builds and repairs.”

Disaster Aid Ohio is an Amish disaster relief group based in Holmes County, Ohio. Its members built homes for survivors of the 2019 Memorial Day tornadoes in the Dayton area, according to the Dayton Daily News. We also saw the group in an MDS project in Charm, Ohio (where the image at top comes from; more on that in the video below), where volunteers assembled pre-built homes for disaster victims in West Virginia and Dayton.

Mennonite Disaster Service’s first Spartanburg project wrapped up in spring 2026. Volunteers on that project built three new houses and repaired dozens of others, according to project director Don Lichti. Many of those volunteers came from Mennonite churches in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and other states.

There aren’t a whole lot of other details in the FOX Carolina report as far as how many people will participate, but if it’s going to last five months, you’ll probably have numbers in at least the dozens, though again not all there at the same time.

The West Virginia/Dayton project mentioned above had a total of 55 volunteers over just two days, though that one took place in the Holmes County community as they built the six homes on-site.

In any case, bravo to this group in advance for continuing to do good work that’s been helping a lot of people through tough times. Once again, if you’re in the Spartanburg area and can drive, you can sign up through the online form.