Hurricane Helene disaster - coping with it.

 Some more news, if you can stand it, from Black Mountain and what it was like living there until I evacuated on Monday. So I missed this meeting.

The Town Meeting - Mon. Sept. 30 2024

In Black Mountain, the modern ways of communicating aren't working after Hurricane Helene. So town leaders are getting information out with a method that's been around for centuries.

 I have seen from afar that town meetings are being held at 3 pm everyday. 

This is my journaling from the outset of when Helene came through our lives, changing them forever!

Sept 27, 2024, Friday

No internet since 6:47 am with all electrical power…so no CPAP or nebulizer, no heat/cool. No coffee!

No cell service since 11:30. Not sure why that happened. But I had just tried to post to FB that the Interstates were closed in Old Fort, and Hendersonville.

I’m eating halfway melted ice cream for lunch./ I have a few things in the freezer that may go bad. They aren’t that important.

Not being able to blog or contact friends or family, either by messages through phone service, or the Facebook which was supposed to be carried by cell if no internet….all avenues are gone.

And without all the crutches I usually have to breathe, I’m doing ok.

Not many coughs so far.

The worst of the weather was about 6:50-maybe 10…but by 11 it definitely was just rain with a bit of little wind. Now at 1:30 it’s dry and calm, and I hear fire trucks taking off. Boy they will have some rescues to do.

I’ve been reading a Louise Penny book, nice and big print by the weak light in bedroom window. Livingroom is too dark with trees outside. The bathroom has great light with its window!! Like I want to sit in there to read.

I’ve had Judy call, and Cathy text, and Helen text, and Teressa text me…but that was before I texted her that I looked like I was losing cell service. That one went through. The next one to Marty to see how he was doing is stuck in the phone. So I’m not carrying it around. It may have half power still, but doesn’t do anything! (I lied, I always carry the phone around, in case the cell service works again!)

Sept 28, 2024, Saturday

Slept fitfully without CPAP. Woke coughing several times. And out of boredom went to bed at 8.

Yesterday afternoon in 70s and after rain had stopped around 5 I saw smoke over on the gathering area outside the office/laundry room.

A half hour later I decided I could go get my mail and see everyone, be a bit friendly. After all, all these folks are in the same boat with me! The smoke was a small bar-b-q grill which was then cooking a hamburger patty and a pot of boiling water, used for instant coffee by Maryanne, the owner of the grill. Hamburger was from Rhonda, my next door neighbor. She offered me some, but I said I had some left over salmon. If I hadn’t, and had figured out what I could share (baked beans?) I would have joined the group of people. It was just a come together with whatever you have.

The other Maryann said she wished she had video-ed earlier when Barry (our maintenance guy) and his wife drove by. The grill had just been lit and was flaming, all these people were around, and Maryanne’s red firebird was parked sort of to shelter the grill from the wind…it was on the driveway, not the wood patio floor (smart). But the joke was Barry smoking his cigarette, and the grill…both of which are against the rules. I imagine people also had some candles lit in the evening (another rule no-no).

I found my iPad could play the whole book I’d just downloaded, and it was all there! No need to be on cell service or wi-fi! So I spent most of the day reading that. And when I finished it, I couldn't download anything else.

Now I’m antsy to go out and take some photos. I’ll just try to get to Lake Tomahawk. Hopefully those roads are clear. There is still no water, no electricity, at 8:30 am. I had NO IDEA what we were really in for.

On Thursday morning (did I already post this?) Black Mountain had had 7.33 inches of rain - BEFORE Helene even came near. She hadn't hit Florida until that night. But our rainfall of 2 consecutive days had already brought the creeks high, and the ground was saturated. Then Helene tore through our mountains and shook all the trees from their roots, and sent gushes of more water than any place could contain. Lake Tomahawk had been lowered to expect more rainfall, but it still flooded.

I have more to say about Saturday activities, later, with photos.

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Sun. morning. Muggy out, sun shining, so far all the damp on the ground means 100% humidity. So I charged phone in the car, talked to Helen, who hasn’t lost cell service at all, texted with cousin, John in Columbia SC, and daughter-in-law, Michelle who’s in CT visiting her sis I guess, and decided I could try to stick it out. As long as I can breathe. In the car with ac if the apt. gets too hot.

Thought of traveling north to visit my son in OH,  but the I-26 in TN is marked as flooded, just as I-40 east to Statesboro is flooded. Geese, I’m stuck in this Helene nightmare.

Don’t expect elec to be restored for 2-3 more days, just my feeling. And hope water will be distributed by Feema tomorrow at least. The water in my faucets may not be fixed for several more days after that. 

I had NO IDEA at that time!

 Not being able to flush is a real problem!

Sorry this is choppy. But I'm trying to sort photos and Windows 11 is giving me fits.

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Some of the residents at Blue Ridge Apts just sitting around or fixing food on the grills.

These residents hid their faces so they wouldn't be identified. 

I asked the residents who had enough water for tomorrow, and nobody raised their hands. So I went downtown (this was on Sat. I think) and asked a policeman who was trying to keep people from going to the police station, if someone would make sure the elderly living at Blue Ridge Apts got water by tomorrow, Sunday! He said everyone is without water. Big help.

Then right adjacent to him were a crowd of people standing by some tables where the Chamber of Commerce were maybe providing information. So I asked them also for water. They suggested they heard there might be water at Ingles Grocery.

So I drove over there, and found in the parking lot many cars and families with children holding empty Ingles plastic bags, hoping the store would open. And there was a big empty space in part of the parking lot surrounded by NC State Trooper's cars and 3 ambulances. I drove next to a manager from Ingles, they always wear white shirts so I found him easily. I asked him about providing water to Blue Ridge Apts. He didn't know when water would be available again. FEMA was due to bring some on Monday...a long way away for elderly folks.

And I found out the cleared circle was for a helicopter to arrive with a patient that a doctor here would treat. I didn't stick around.

More with photos as soon as I sort them.

A Modern Witch by Frank Leyendecker, Life Magazine 💚 1923