- High school students in Western North Carolina are rebuilding homes destroyed by Hurricane Helene, but they've been doing this work years before Helene made landfall.

The housing crisis in Yancey County didn't start with the storm.

It's been building for decades.

This high school decided their students were the ones to fix the problem, but can a high school carpentry class sustain that pace?

And what happens to the neighbors counting on them if they can't?

I'm Melody Hunter-Pillion.

This is "ncIMPACT."

[pensive music] - [Sharon] This house is sitting right on the footprint of the old house.

- [Melody] Her new home nearly complete, Sharon Hughes has made peace with her neighbor, the Cane River.

The new home built by local high school students sits above the river, beside the camper that became her makeshift home, and below the hillside ledge where Sharon scrambled for safety when Helene flooded the river and swept her cottage away.

[river rumbling] - The current, I mean, it created an unbelievable current.

There were actually waves.

There was debris churning underneath like an agitator in an old washing machine.

- [Melody] Sharon says her 120-year-old cottage sat untouched through every documented flood.

She did not expect Helene to bring 1,000-year rainfall totals, inundating Yancey County with the two highest totals in the state.

- This was my sixth flood, so I felt as though I knew the personality of this river.

I knew where the water would go.

I knew how it would react and everything else, and so I really wasn't worried about it.

- [Melody] When the water climbed from the middle of the road to halfway up the cottage foundation in one hour, Sharon sought refuge in her shed.

- I was in that shed for 15 minutes and water was coming up through the floor and it was raised off the ground.

I turned around, and by the time I got back to the house, it was mid-thigh, and I went straight up on the hill with the cat.

- [Melody] Where she watched floodwaters carry the shed and cottage away.

The storm destroyed more than 1,400 homes and buildings in Yancey County, which sustained more housing damage per household than anywhere else in Western North Carolina.

- I can't imagine living anywhere else.

- After the storm, the question facing every displaced family in Yancey County was where would help come from?

For Sharon, the answer came from an unexpected place.

[saw whirring] [hammer thumping] - Go ahead and attach that piece to the floor.

- [Melody] Jeremy Dotts and his students at Mountain Heritage High School build homes right here on campus.

- The building that you are in is the Michael D. Orr Construction Training Facility.

It was the brainchild of Michael Orr and Jim Swaim about 20 some years ago.

- [Melody] The Yancey Mitchell Pillars nonprofit started the program, fundraising for building materials.

Initially partnering with Habitat For Humanity, students built and donated one home each year to neighbors in need, then Helene hit.

- Two weeks after the storm, I knew we were in a situation here where we had a lot of people without homes.

I knew our program was in a unique position to be able to help our community.

I just didn't have the money and I didn't know how we were going to find it.

- [Melody] The answer was closer than he thought.

- I said, "You start building.

I'll find the money."

- Stephanie Johnson launched Rebuilding Hollers from a parking lot after the storm.

What started as food and supplies has grown into a grassroots rebuilding operation, raising nearly $2 million to get displaced families back home.

The school's homes are funded by Rebuilding Hollers, but Rebuilding Hollers is managing hundreds of other families at the same time.

591 requests since the storm, 172 helped so far, and that includes 25 full rebuilds.

And right now, the money to make it all happen is getting harder to find.

Do you ever worry about continued funding and also just the amount of need?

- All the time.

I'm always worried about money.

It is so hard, doing the fundraising now.

Things have really changed.

Everybody thinks we're okay, and that, you know, there's these different programs that are rebuilding homes, but it's just not the case here.

[saw whirring] - [Melody] But while the funding fight continues, the students are still building.

A program that once built one home a year is now building four each year.

- [Jeremy] It was remarkable, incredible, and I hope we can continue at that pace.

- Were you a little bit nervous about having that sort of responsibility?

- Yeah, definitely a little nervous, but it kind of gave me a sense of belonging, like I'm helping people.

I'm actually doing something for people.

It's really awesome.

[saw whirring] - The first house we did, it was, like, really nerve-wracking, because I was like, "I don't want to mess this up.

I don't want to do this wrong."

- [Melody] Their teacher sets a high bar to meet or surpass construction codes.

- The house right here beside us didn't exist nine weeks ago, and this is double the size of the tiny homes that we were building.

So they built a 1,500-square-foot home in nine weeks, which was very, very impressive.

- The other day, the homeowner of this house, she came in and she lost her house during the storm and she has a special needs son, so that makes us feel really good, like, knowing that we're helping that person out.

She did start crying.

I mean, I'm just glad we got to make her happy and give her a place to stay, you know?

- I can go home and sleep easy, knowing that I did something good for somebody at least today, and I know someday it'll come pay me back.

- But for Yancey County, the bigger question isn't just how many homes get built.

It's who will be around to keep building them?

What are you thinking about for the future, and might it include carpentry or welding?

- Absolutely.

Definitely carpentry.

It's funny because growing up with my dad, he's a contractor and I'd always work with him.

I'd tell myself, "Oh, I'm never gonna do this.

I hate this work."

But then you just get accustomed to it and you realize, like, we're impacting people's lives with this and we're giving ourselves a sense of belonging.

- The region doesn't just need more homes.

It needs more people who know how to build them.

In Yancey County, that pipeline starts in high school.

That's a lot of space.

- That's a lot of space.

- And I just love how open the cathedral ceiling is.

- Oh, absolutely.

- While the students build their futures, Sharon is almost ready to move into hers.

The home Sharon is moving into was built by the students at Mountain Heritage High School.

- I went over to the high school to see it the first time.

I did not know it, but they used my CAD drawing, so this is what I actually laid out.

- [Melody] When you saw that, what did you... [Sharon sighs] - I was shocked.

I was shocked and so grateful to be heard.

- [Melody] When Rebuilding Hollers delivered Sharon's house, the students were there.

- And it's just crazy seeing the thing that we built finally being set on a foundation for someone.

- I am so grateful.

Rebuilding Hollers, in conjunction with the high school and the Cougar Carpenters, are such a blessing.

There are no words.

Sorry.

There are no words to explain how this feels.

I never cried over losing everything, but the gratitude breaks me down every time.

- [Melody] One family is almost home, but hundreds are still waiting.

For now, these students keep building.

For "ncIMPACT," I'm Melody Hunter-Pillion.