Smoky Blue

Five hundred miles from America’s Gulf Coast, the mountains of North Carolina’s Blue Ridge seemed safe until Hurricane Helene tore across six states with unabated fury. The flood washed away homes and lives in rivers of mud, leaving a staggering death toll. And in its wake, unimaginable destruction.

When an estranged family member vanished near Black Mountain, Gerry Frey asked, “Are we our brother’s keeper?” The answer was clear: they had to find him.

From Texas to the Appalachian mountains, Gerry and Cate’s family navigated government roadblocks, poisoned water, and a mud-choked landscape to join volunteer organizations to go where roads no longer existed.

"Smoky Blue: The Rescue on Black Mountain" is a gut-punching tale of Americans thrust back into a pioneering struggle with no official help in sight. This fictional odyssey views one of America’s greatest natural disasters through the lens of faith and perseverance.

Smoky Blue is the most recent chapter in the last chance boomer romance of a former film star and his faithful, firebrand wife.