$10M debt relief initiative aids 6,500 WNC residents impacted by Hurricane Helene

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — $10 million worth of debt forgiveness is coming to thousands of Western North Carolina residents who are still reeling from the destruction that Hurricane Helene left behind.

Verizon has partnered with the public benefit corporation "ForgiveCo" to forgive debt to 6,500 residents who were impacted.

Also collaborating is renowned North Carolina Tar Heels basketball coach and Asheville native Roy Williams. He has signed on to directly call Helene-impacted families to share the news of their debt being relieved.

Leigh Anne Lanier, Verizon Consumer Group market president, said that this is about Verizon being a good corporate neighbor.

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"We know the biggest impacted areas were around 39 counties, so the recipients will have all of that value in their home areas," Lanier said.

Lanier said that this is a journey to rebuild the region and that they wanted to do more.

Craig Antico, CEO of ForgiveCo, said that Verizon reached out to make it possible to wipe out debt. All of the 39 counties that were hit were put into an Excel spreadsheet and randomly chosen.

"When they get them, they're like, 'What?' They don’t know. They didn’t have to apply or anything. They just get this forgiveness as a gift," he said.

All of the recipients were notified Friday morning through phone calls, texts, emails and letters.

News 13 spoke with one of the recipients, Timothy Luker, who was a patient at Mission Hospital when the storm hit. He spent a week at the hospital and had no idea what he was going home to. Luker said his home was flooded and his driveway was washed out.

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"It was just not a great situation, but I didn't have any other choice but to live there," Luker said.

He spent the last four months rebuilding and with that cost on top of the hospital bills, he said it has been chaos.

"The bills – it's amazing how fast they can pile up on you when you're trying to spend money on living day-to-day and trying to build your life back, too," he said.

At first, Luker said it was hard to believe, but then he looked into it and saw that Verizon and ForgiveCo had really paid off his debt. He said it was a huge weight lifted off of his shoulders after the storm.

"That's huge when you have to spend thousands of dollars and you have to make a decision on if you're going to eat this week or spend money on building material," he said.

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Luker said that he is humbled and he never thought a corporation would have come through for him in this way.

"I didn't think Verizon was going to come in and save the day, that's for sure. I'm just glad they did," he said.

Verizon representatives said that the goal was to do more than just reconnect phones, and that they are hopeful this will show residents who have still been reeling from the storm that the community is here for them and they will not be forgotten.