Ohio Amish help N.C. customer after flood

VALLE CRUCIS, N.C. (AP) -- An Ohioan who shoes horses for a living recruited a team of carpenters and volunteers within his Amish community to help a North Carolina customer whose horse farm was ravaged by the remnants of Hurricane Ivan.
Ervin Hershberger was at the farm of David and Kim Skinner, shoeing their draft horses, when Ivan struck Sept. 17, inundating many parts of western North Carolina and ultimately killing at least 10 people.
At Chadi Farm, the Skinners' spread in this western Watauga County community, Dutch Creek surged more than 6 feet out of its banks. The raging water ripped apart buildings, scattered fences like matchsticks and filled the barns with several feet of mud.
Hershberger headed home to Mount Hope, Ohio, but pledged to come back with help. On Friday, he did.
Kim Skinner watched gratefully as the couple's barns and fences were restored by 13 Amish volunteers, who arrived at about 9 a.m., after an all-night bus ride, and immediately set to work.
"They're known for having the biggest hearts and the strongest backs," she said as the group toiled.
Does business with Amish
The Skinners have been doing business with the Amish group for about a year. David Skinner said he became acquainted with the community after meeting an Amish farmer at the large horse auction in Mount Hope, northeast of Columbus.
The Skinners buy farm equipment and other handmade Amish gear for Chadi Farm, which specializes in breeding horses, and offers riding lessons and carriage rides. The Skinners also run several Web sites through which Amish goods can be ordered.
Because the Amish value humility, the Skinners' visitors were reluctant to talk much about their work or have their pictures taken up close. Most said they were simply lending a hand to someone they knew.
They also were focused on getting as much done as possible before heading home early Saturday. They needed to be home by today, which their faith teaches is a day of rest with no travel or work allowed.
In an hour, one crew of men working on the arena barn had built walls between five stalls, while another group restoring a fence along the rocky terrain had already reset more than 150 feet of post and boards.
"If it weren't for the stones, we'd be a lot farther," Hershberger said as he used a steel rod to pry a rock blocking a post hole they were trying to dig.
Eager to help
Hershberger, 39, said he had no problem rounding up volunteers from the 18 or so families within his church. One was his father-in-law, Roy Miller, 65, a tarp maker who provides the Skinners with their cloth wagon covers.
"It makes it nice to have help," Miller said. "We had a feeling for them."
David Skinner said he has also been helped by closer neighbors. Area farmers have shown up with heavy machinery to help reshape the farm's flood-scarred terrain, and students from nearby Appalachian State University have cleared away trash and tree limbs.
Others have dropped off meals, so the Skinners could concentrate on getting their place back up and running. David Skinner said that the phone has been ringing constantly with calls from people who have visited the farm, asking if there is anything they can do.
"God has given us a lot to handle," he said, as he watched the Amish women sweep dirt and mud away from the front of one of the barns. "But he has also given us lots of angels to help."