Chelsea Johnson, the 26-year-old communications supervisor for Saint Joseph East and Saint Joseph London, packs a mean chainsaw.

Since Hurricane Helene hit in late September 2024, she has spent three weekends with volunteer groups in the hollers and mountains of eastern Tennessee and North Carolina—and is planning more return trips. She’s used that chainsaw on fallen trees, cut tree roots from collapsed water lines and drove her SUV to isolated areas to assess needs and pass out supplies. 

“I am all of 5-foot, 1 with the audacity of a 6-foot-tall NBA player,” Chelsea said. 

Besides the switchboards, her job at Saint Joseph encompasses the mass communications and emergency management systems—and she is no stranger to natural disasters. Chelsea, who grew in California, is familiar with wildfires, has provided security for Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in Houston following 2017’s Hurricane Harvey, and helped with Saint Joseph London’s efforts to shelter eastern Kentucky residents following the July 2022 flooding in that region.

“Responding to things like this and volunteering for them has been part of my life for a very long time,” said Chelsea. 

She started as a security guard at St. Joseph East before moving into communications five years ago. Chelsea, who has an certificate in criminal justice and security, calls herself a “Jack of all trades” and enjoys the challenge of her job. “It keeps things interesting—I always have something new to work on and problems to solve. It lets me think outside the box.”

How did she end up so heavily invested in post-Helene disaster relief? It started with those eastern Kentucky floods. “I remember how awful it was for us so when Helene came through, I wanted to go out there and I wanted to help,” she said.

Chelsea’s first post-Helene trip was to east Tennessee with Richmond Boy Scout Troop 118—her little brother’s troop. They were dispatched to help a pastor in Chuckey, Tennessee, where the initial influx of volunteers had left after water and power services were restored. After helping the pastor re-pack shipping container-type boxes of relief supplies for distribution, they moved on to a farm where affected people were housed and supplies distributed. The farm land and much of its infrastructure—were wiped out. 

“We helped them dig the fencing out for a couple of days so they could rebuild their goat pen and get the goats out of the garage,” she said.

The following weekend Chelsea went to Fletcher, North Carolina—accompanied by her Saint Joseph co-workers Brittany and Seth Gonzalez—with a chainsaw team from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “I was clearing trees out of water lines and out of roadways and helping some of the residents kind of clean their life up, clear their properties,” she said.

Her third trip, the first weekend of November, “was the best weekend of all in terms of getting things done,” she said. Chelsea went to Black Mountain and Swannanoa in North Carolina with volunteers from Cajun Navy Relief. She was tasked with finding people whose needs had still not been met, which meant driving through the area, along the river. On her travels, she was able to network and bring together a couple of volunteer groups—including one from Hazard, Kentucky, to plug supply gaps in the hardest-hit areas. 

Chelsea said the work is made easier by being part of “a big enough team that you have people to lean on. … So I’m never short of help when I’m out there working, and it makes it easier not to be afraid of a 36-inch chainsaw."

Exposure to the physical devastation no longer fazes her. But she said when she talks to people in those areas, it becomes emotionally more difficult to see those sights: “It hits different, because you know the people.”

She thinks of the families living in tents, the kids in the camps “playing with a soccer ball in the middle of what looked like an apocalypse.” The man living in a camper who had no other clothing but did not want to tell anyone. The mother whose baby had sensitivity issues and was suffering from the effects of the regular food and wipes.

Chelsea said throughout her trips to provide disaster relief, she has taken Saint Joseph’s values to heart.

“I have had multiple moments while I’m out there where I’ve remembered the values that we talk about and that we crafted. This is what we are talking about when we say ‘the spirit of service.’  This is humankindness.

“It really brings it home just how important the little things are—serving those who are disadvantaged, where there are additional barriers. Even the language we use as an organization to talk about roadblocks and things our patients run into trying to receive care and how we can alleviate those. It is the same approach: You go there and you offer aid and you are there to serve. And it’s not about you as a person, it’s about this community as a whole.”

Chelsea emphasized that there is still so much need in these areas, with some residents still cut off, without jobs or money, and areas without power, potable water and road access. She worries about what happens after she heads home after each trip.

“I know I fixed it for a day and provided a little bit of relief, but there is so much more need here than what me and my little Nissan Rogue could provide,” she said. 

In those flood-ravaged areas, Chelsea said she sees homemade signs of encouragement hanging off bridges, painted on downed rooftops and propped against trees, reflecting the resilience and spirit of the people who live there. 

“Every person I’ve talked to and touched has been so incredibly kind and so grateful for everyone’s help and there’s so much need still in this area, and the volunteers have kind of dried up.

“These communities are banding together—they’re not leaving anyone behind. They’re going to make sure every single one of their neighbors gets back on their feet and every single one of their lost is recovered. They need boots on the ground with them to make that happen. They need people to keep coming.”

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