UNICOI COUNTY, Tenn. — Several dozen people gathered in the new fellowship hall at Unaka Springs Freewill Baptist Church in Erwin on Sunday morning to celebrate the successful replacement of the church's old hall, which was destroyed by Hurricane Helene.

They held a Sunday service full of memories from the historic storm, and also shared aspirations for the church's future and blessings. They said the bonds that many of them formed working together on the project have been brought into their lives.

"I couldn't do it," Dewey Edwards, a trustee of the church, said. "We couldn't afford it, but God could. It's amazing what He can do when you take the limits off of God."

Edwards said the flooding damage was unlike anything he'd ever seen.

It swelled the Nolichucky River, uprooted the old

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