Hurricane Helene

MChambers said:
Glad you got out. Hope Mountain Devil is okay.
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Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15 said:
Checking in from Asheville. I can't overstate how bad it is in places. My family is okay. Our neighbors are helping one another. We have no gas. No water. No electricity. I don't know where donations are being taken, but please please consider. There are many small towns that don't exist anymore. The devastation is insane.

I will check in as able.
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Mountain - glad you are okay.

I live in Maggie Valley, 30 miles to the West. We didn't get it near as bad as Asheville did. For us, Soco Road/Dellwood, the main road thru Maggie was a river of mud and muck Friday morning. We walked down there Friday at about 2:00pm, an hour or so after it stopped raining, and there was mud and debris everywhere, storm drains clogged, and an assortment of wooden rocking chairs, gas grills, furniture cushions, a microwave, plastic chairs, and just general debris lining the road. The Hazelwood section of Waynesville was flooding at about 11:00am Friday and there were reports (that turned out to be untrue, I believe) that the Lake Junaluska dam was failing (water was going around it though). We were in Waynesville Saturday and there were sheds and cars in the creek. My daughter is a 4th grade teacher here locally, and we spent hours Saturday driving around for her to check on her students individually and see what they needed. They and their families all had been impacted, some more than others. We, and she, are very fortunate to have power and water. And food. But no internet, rarely have cell service, and maybe 1 out of every texts goes thru. As you know all to well, Asheville is much, much worse. And for the first 72 hours it was impossible to know due to no internet and folks couldn't communicate. Yesterday I waited 60 minutes for gas and then drove 90 miles to North GA and am staying w/my other daughter who has internet to try to work. Amount of domestic water infrastructure in Asheville that needs to be replaced is staggering. Talked to a friend today who walked by the River Arts District Friday afternoon and said most of it is gone, too. I will say I've heard thru folks at work how folks are genuinely coming together to help one another, but there are just a tremendous amount of needs. Our company is helping to turn the old Gold's Gym on Hendersonville Road into an emergency evacuation shelter for the Red Cross. Should start receiving folks today.

But the need is great, and recovery will come in weeks, months, and eventually years. Not days.
 
Long-time lurker, first-time poster, checking in from Black Mountain and apologizing in advance for the long post. I suppose many natural disasters are like this: normal-looking in one place, obliteration just steps away. My c. 1915 house made it through fine, with a few inches of clear groundwater in the basement from a usually-dormant spring underneath, now dissipated. Meanwhile, several neighbors just a few yards away had nasty floodwater in their living areas from a small ditch that turned into a raging river. Anything within 100-200 yards of the Swannanoa River in Black Mountain, Swannanoa and Asheville was at best badly damaged, at worst swept away. Contrary to news reports, even on Friday, we could get decent cell reception access in certain areas. In addition, one of my sons and I were able to leave the area via I-26 E with minimal difficulties on Sunday afternoon. Power is now back on in good bit of the central Black Mountain area, and since downtown is not near the river, buildings there are in good shape. The main drag of Swannanoa along US 70 is devastated. The main concern for my family personally is the municipal water supply, which will take weeks to restore. The secondary concern is my employer, MANNA FoodBank, which serves 16 counties in WNC. The MANNA warehouses were next to the river in East AVL. I repeat, were. Our facility is destroyed, and any potentially salvageable food is inaccessible. For the immediate future, we will be operating out of donated office space in S Avl and warehouse space in Mills Ruver. I know many of you have already donated to relief organizations, and I urge you to continue to give as your heart leads.
 
Another long day here….
After dealing with Hurricane Ian a couple of years ago, and now Helene, I’d like to share some quick thoughts regarding Asheville, and western NC in general.
Try not to get distracted when the next something takes their plight off our media radar. That will happen, we will all get busy with life and the news will trend to the next big thing, likely a Middle East war or the closing days of the election.
They will still be in the trenches. In really tough conditions.
We’re dealing with our flooded homes and businesses here in Florida now, but most of us at least have power and AC now while we work to put things back together, except those in the direct path, of course.
They need serious help in Asheville, and will for months.
My experience was after the adrenaline of the first week wears off, some depression will set in for those affected. You get a hopeless feeling no matter how optimistic a person you are in these things.
It was brutal during Ian when we had no power for about two weeks, no showers, no comfortable meals, and after the first week we honestly felt like the rest of the country forgot about us.
I realized i was guilty of that after Katrina myself, I did some charity things early on for them but then gradually drifted away from their problems to whatever the next thing was I got involved with back then.
I remember thinking during Ian about those in Katrina who suffered and that I didn’t do enough back in those days.
I guess what I’m trying to relay is that they will need help for months, long after the initial shine fades away and we should all stay diligent in helping them get through it.
 
Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15 said:
Checking in from Asheville. I can't overstate how bad it is in places. My family is okay. Our neighbors are helping one another. We have no gas. No water. No electricity. I don't know where donations are being taken, but please please consider. There are many small towns that don't exist anymore. The devastation is insane.

I will check in as able.
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So, so glad to hear you are okay!
 
Green Wave Dukie said:
Mountain - glad you are okay.

I live in Maggie Valley, 30 miles to the West. We didn't get it near as bad as Asheville did. For us, Soco Road/Dellwood, the main road thru Maggie was a river of mud and muck Friday morning. We walked down there Friday at about 2:00pm, an hour or so after it stopped raining, and there was mud and debris everywhere, storm drains clogged, and an assortment of wooden rocking chairs, gas grills, furniture cushions, a microwave, plastic chairs, and just general debris lining the road. The Hazelwood section of Waynesville was flooding at about 11:00am Friday and there were reports (that turned out to be untrue, I believe) that the Lake Junaluska dam was failing (water was going around it though). We were in Waynesville Saturday and there were sheds and cars in the creek. My daughter is a 4th grade teacher here locally, and we spent hours Saturday driving around for her to check on her students individually and see what they needed. They and their families all had been impacted, some more than others. We, and she, are very fortunate to have power and water. And food. But no internet, rarely have cell service, and maybe 1 out of every texts goes thru. As you know all to well, Asheville is much, much worse. And for the first 72 hours it was impossible to know due to no internet and folks couldn't communicate. Yesterday I waited 60 minutes for gas and then drove 90 miles to North GA and am staying w/my other daughter who has internet to try to work. Amount of domestic water infrastructure in Asheville that needs to be replaced is staggering. Talked to a friend today who walked by the River Arts District Friday afternoon and said most of it is gone, too. I will say I've heard thru folks at work how folks are genuinely coming together to help one another, but there are just a tremendous amount of needs. Our company is helping to turn the old Gold's Gym on Hendersonville Road into an emergency evacuation shelter for the Red Cross. Should start receiving folks today.

But the need is great, and recovery will come in weeks, months, and eventually years. Not days.
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Thank you for the report. One of my brothers has a place in Maggie but was home in Orlando at the time.

Bless your daughter and you for checking on her students. They will remember that they had a caring teacher all their lives.
 
BlueRidgeDevil said:
Long-time lurker, first-time poster, checking in from Black Mountain and apologizing in advance for the long post. I suppose many natural disasters are like this: normal-looking in one place, obliteration just steps away. My c. 1915 house made it through fine, with a few inches of clear groundwater in the basement from a usually-dormant spring underneath, now dissipated. Meanwhile, several neighbors just a few yards away had nasty floodwater in their living areas from a small ditch that turned into a raging river. Anything within 100-200 yards of the Swannanoa River in Black Mountain, Swannanoa and Asheville was at best badly damaged, at worst swept away. Contrary to news reports, even on Friday, we could get decent cell reception access in certain areas. In addition, one of my sons and I were able to leave the area via I-26 E with minimal difficulties on Sunday afternoon. Power is now back on in good bit of the central Black Mountain area, and since downtown is not near the river, buildings there are in good shape. The main drag of Swannanoa along US 70 is devastated. The main concern for my family personally is the municipal water supply, which will take weeks to restore. The secondary concern is my employer, MANNA FoodBank, which serves 16 counties in WNC. The MANNA warehouses were next to the river in East AVL. I repeat, were. Our facility is destroyed, and any potentially salvageable food is inaccessible. For the immediate future, we will be operating out of donated office space in S Avl and warehouse space in Mills Ruver. I know many of you have already donated to relief organizations, and I urge you to continue to give as your heart leads.
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Thanks for sharing. I am glad you came out okay in the storm personally and very sorry to hear about the warehouse losses. Hopefully aid will help get the services restarted ASAP!
 
PSurprise said:
The reports from Asheville about the devastation are real. We got lucky with only 1 large tree falling correctly away from our house while a neighbor had a large oak through their bedroom. Thankfully everyone was okay. Power went out Friday morning, water went out Saturday morning. Wife and kids made it to relatives in Charleston, but wife didn't get gas before the storm so I've only got about 100 miles until I'm empty; so not far enough to not get stranded somewhere, and I don't want to wait 3 hours for gas and then the station runs out. We just got power back on near Reynolds High School yesterday. Thankfully I filled a tub with water before it went out. Maaaany buildings/businesses are gone. The Town of Chimney Rock is essentially gone. There will be significantly fewer breweries for a while. I can't imagine schools going back before at least a month from now with the road and infrastructure conditions the way they are. They are still looking for people all over the city. Just awful
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Hang in there. We lost water Friday to mid-day on Sunday. I was able to fill 6 buckets from our neighbors pool for flushing. It’s ironic and unnerving to need water following a hurricane. Really appreciate not needing a bucket of water in the bathroom now:). I have everything I need to survive without electricity (except I did have to wait 2-hours to buy gas for my generator) but having no water sux. We are still under a boil water advisory but I have 3 cases of bottled water. We’re only boiling to hand wash pots and pans. You’re dealing with much much worse. Hope things start to improve there soon.
 
We
brevity said:
I usually quote On3's Jamie Shaw for basketball recruiting information, but today he posted a couple of local relief organizations in Asheville and Waynesville:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1841458571965259821
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Definitely will be contributing.
On a side note the neurologist from Asheville at the practice my daughter works at has been found and is OK .

Hopefully the news keeps reporting so people don't move on from this and continue to donate and help out.
 
I'm in the Elkin area. Lost power for 2 1/2 days but no major damage here except the downtown area around the river was flooded but that's not unusual for high rainfall events.

My girlfriend and I are headed to Costco Friday night to load up my truck with as much stuff as we can haul and head to Ashe County on Saturday. Her family is up there and we will drop off the supplies and go help them with cleanup.

The scope of this is what's amazing. Asheville is getting most of the attention and rightfully so but almost every small mountain community along the entire Blue Ridge escarpment has been impacted by this. Good luck to all of you living through this.
 
Finally heard from the East Asheville family this morning. They’re ok. As long as they can down Riceville Rd to US 70 and get gas for the generator, they’ll have power. No flooding in their neighborhood. Helicopter came to their cul-de-sac yesterday to do a welfare check on their 93-year-old neighbor.

Black Mountain family was able to bug out. They’re staying with friends in South Carolina. Haven’t heard whether they or any other members of the band lost gear to flooding, but it’s highly likely that a lot of Asheville musicians lost everything.

Still haven’t heard from my friend in Brevard.
 
OldPhiKap said:
Augusta National donates $5 million to area disaster relief.
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Well, I guess it's something. They make about $150M every Masters, and $5M is less than $20K per member. The initiation fee alone is at least 10X that, maybe 20X.

Not that it won't help, but I'm not sure it's worth an announcement.
 
My understanding is that the French Broad River is usually at 2 feet. Previous high (1916 or something) was 21 feet. I have heard it hit 30 feet.

No one was prepared for this level of destruction. The River Arts District (our funky industrial-cum-studio/brewery area) is gone. The small business I ran for ten years is gone, crumbled, they found a body in the building (not anyone associated with the store).

And we didn't get the worst of the worst.

Swannanoa (I spent four years there) was decimated. Chimney Rock was underwater. Marshall is gone. Hot Springs is gone.

I'm sure many other smaller mountain communities are in a similar state.

Infrastructure in Buncombe County is starting to return. Some stores are getting supplies, some are even accepting credit cards (who the heck carries cash these days???). Search and Rescue has been a massive undertaking. Reconnecting electricity and water will be a massive undertaking.

Edit: comms are so bad it took me four hours to post this
 
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Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15 said:
My understanding is that the French Broad River is usually at 2 feet. Previous high (1916 or something) was 21 feet. I have heard it hit 30 feet.

No one was prepared for this level of destruction. The River Arts District (our funky industrial-cum-studio/brewery area) is gone. The small business I ran for ten years is gone, crumbled, they found a body in the building (not anyone associated with the store).

And we didn't get the worst of the worst.

Swannanoa (I spent four years there) was decimated. Chimney Rock was underwater. Marshall is gone. Hot Springs is gone.

I'm sure many other smaller mountain communities are in a similar state.

Infrastructure in Buncombe County is starting to return. Some stores are getting supplies, some are even accepting credit cards (who the heck carries cash these days???). Search and Rescue has been a massive undertaking. Reconnecting electricity and water will be a massive undertaking.

Edit: comms are so bad it took me four hours to post this
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Just be safe. Good thoughts.
 
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