By Jamie Smentkowski
Oct. 22, 2024 – I live in a rural area of Western North Carolina about halfway between Asheville and Marshall. Alexander is situated near the French Broad River in Buncombe County, which was hit the hardest by Hurricane Helene on Sept. 27. The last three weeks have been hard, and I wanted to share my experience. Thankfully, it is from the perspective of someone who was relatively unscathed, but the storm changed the lives of everyone in this region forever.
We are fortunate that although we live near the river, we are up and over into the next valley and didn’t suffer immediate damage. Our pets, vehicles, property and house are all okay, minus some minor flooding in our basement. I have cried many thankful tears knowing that we are alright when so many have lost so much. I’ve always wished we had trees on our property for shade in the Summer but have never been more thankful that we don’t. Our neighbor behind us had something like 20 trees come down and he just got his power back a week ago. Our power was out for a full week. We had no water, Wi-Fi, or cell service. We are so lucky to be on well water, so when our power was restored, so was our water. Two of the three main water treatment plants that source the Asheville area with water were severely damaged and need major repairs and clean up. So many others are still without water and probably will be for another week or two. Those who now have it back are still on a boil advisory. You don’t really think about how much water a household uses to flush toilets, wash hands, do dishes, brush teeth, bathe…but if you ever go through extended loss of water like this, you will never view it the same again. Because most of Asheville is out of water, most people cannot work. I am one of those that will probably miss about six weeks of work due to this (at least). Asheville is a beautiful area that relies on tourism and October is the busiest month. Tourists come to enjoy the fall leaves along the Blue Ridge Parkway, visit the Biltmore, enjoy the Grove Park Inn. It is a month where you work your butt off to make maximum money to squirrel away for the slow Winter.
The thing that made Helene’s damage worse here was the ill-timed predecessor storm coming in from the West that dumped a ton of rain on our area before the hurricane hit. Helene joined this storm and just sat over the mountains and walloped us. The Gulf’s temperature when Helene was strengthening over it was the highest it has ever been recorded so it was hurricane super fuel. Since we are so close to the French Broad River, I cross the same bridge and drive along the river just about anytime I leave the house to go anywhere. Being so in tune with normal levels of the river and knowing even just a few inches of rain in such a short amount of time causes it to rise considerably, I was worried what all this rain would do. I also knew with the ground being fully saturated from all the rain before the hurricane, many trees would come down once the winds came. I don’t think anyone could have fathomed what happened here – the extent of the damage and how far reaching it was. It is hard to wrap your head around and I think unless you live here, no one fully understands what happened and what we’re going through. It was beyond what anyone forecasted. It was record-breaking. It was Biblical. “Once in a 1000-year storm”, they are calling it. Like I said, we are the lucky ones, but mentally, this has changed us forever. It has left a scar on the land and a scar on our hearts. The stories are hard to hear and will stick with me forever. I have also never been prouder to live here and see everyone pull together to help others. All the neighborly love, all the donations, all the volunteering, it is such a beautiful thing to witness.
Some of my family was just here over the summer and we went white water rafting down section nine of the French Broad. Our river guide was telling us about the great flood of 1916 where the river rose 23 feet. She was pointing to spots along the bank to illustrate how high that would be. It was so hard to imagine as we were sitting on the serene, low river on a hot summer day, but just months later, I saw with my own eyes that record being broken. It is hard to look at the river the same way now. The trees along the banks have been washed away and so much debris and trash left in their place. I can’t help but think of all the things swept away and all the damage and loss it caused.
So, this is my experience:
Wednesday, Sept 25 – Rain started in the late afternoon and pretty much never stopped. It dumped on us so fast and severely that I almost canceled my dinner plans with friends at their house. I was scheduled to dog sit for them Oct. 2 and I really wanted to see them, so I attempted to make it over. The driving was treacherous, but I drove slowly and made it. When I got home, my dad called to warn me of how much rain we were slated to get and that there was a hurricane right behind it which could be very, very bad. He warned me not to drive through any standing water unless I saw a car do it first. I am so thankful for his vigilance and putting that on my radar.
Thursday, Sept 26 – The warnings of severe flooding/dangerous driving conditions caused my restaurant and many others to close. People were already sharing videos or cars driving in two or three feet of water in Biltmore Village. I had one outspoken coworker sharing tips in case we lost power. She lived through hurricanes in Florida and also the fires in Paradise, Ca. Due to her vigilance, I filled our bathtub, large pots and whatever other large vessels we had up with water. I charged my phone and went to the grocery store to stock up on stuff, just in case. Again, I drive over the same bridge and along the river daily so seeing how high and violent the water was already getting was truly scary.
Friday, Sept 27 – We woke up to no power. Helene came overnight and was pretty much through the area by midafternoon. It was weirdly warm and sunny but very windy and I remember the air was so fragrant all around because so many trees had fallen. Josh tried to go into work but returned a little while later because there was just no way to get there. Trees and power lines were down everywhere. While trying to find other routes, he got a little cell service and got word that a creek bridge had washed out near the lodge where he works in Maggie Valley. There had also been a mudslide on property and a large fallen tree requiring a crane to remove it, so it was unsafe to come in. Making his way back home, he saw a man along the river evacuating his horses from their low-lying field. He was also trying to tow out his black vintage 1972 Chevy truck. A little later, we ventured out in search of cell service to see if my work was closed and saw the vintage truck abandoned in the driveway. He had been unsuccessful in trying to tow it out. We were trying to get to Weaverville where we thought the highest probability of cell service might be but had to reroute a dozen times because so many trees were down.
We made it to Lowe’s and were able to access a little cell service there. No work. Power was out everywhere. I was nervous to get back home because I knew we would have to go back past the river and over the bridge. I even suggested to Josh that maybe we go the back way through town to Leicester Highway and access our road from the back, so it didn’t involve being next to the river but chances of that long route being clear of downed trees were slim. When we passed the house with the vintage truck on our way back, it had been washed away. We stopped at the bridge and spent about 20 minutes on it just watching all kinds of things float by. We saw lots of large trees, kegs of beer, hissing propane tanks, picnic tables, half of Silver-line Plastics’ inventory being washed down the river. The French Broad flows north so as we watched all this stuff float by. I knew it was all heading to Marshall and Hot Springs. We made it home around 2:30 and a little while later, Josh tried to go to his buddy’s house in Madison County. Again, he came home saying the fire department closed the bridge because the river was slated to crest at its highest level of about 27 feet around 8 p.m. that night. He suggested we go down and see it, so we did, along with many others, and talked to the fire department that was posted there. We could already see water over Old Marshall Highway at the end of the bridge, water lapping against the little white house on the other bank, water up over the railroad tracks… When we left, I wasn’t sure if that little house or bridge would still be standing the next day. Married to a chef and Boy Scout from West Virginia, we felt pretty adept for survival. We have a propane flat top grill and a big smoker oven outside so cooking was doable. For entertainment once it got dark, we played Skipbo in our headlamps.
Saturday, Sept 28 – We ventured back out to try to find cell service, maybe find some ice, gas and more water. The waters had started to recede slightly and the white house and bridge had made it through the night. We headed back to Lowe’s but had no luck at all with finding cell service. There was a long line outside of Lowe’s and already big signs stating “NO MORE WATER” and “SOLD OUT OF GENERATORS”. Gas was also impossible to find. When we pulled up to gas stations that looked busy with lots of cars, we realized the people were evacuees and were just waiting at the pumps for when they hopefully reopened because they didn’t have enough gas to make it anywhere else. Publix was a madhouse and Ingles, our other grocery store, was a ghost town. Mad props to Publix, a Florida based company, who makes generators mandatory in their business models. Without being able to contact anyone or be contacted, I naively tried to go into work. I didn’t want to get in trouble for not being there if we were open (I figured they probably had a generator, too) and I couldn’t reach anyone to let them know I wouldn’t be there. I got myself ready and figured if I could safely make it into town, I would try to get my mind right and work. Ha! I had no idea how bad it was. No idea how wide and far reaching the damage was. No idea about the destruction to Asheville’s water supply. On my way into downtown, I started to get glimpses of how high the river rose there. I never really thought about how the river runs along parts of Highway 26 because you never see it. It was so alarming to see it just a couple feet below the highway and I started seeing businesses underwater. When I saw the closed sign on my restaurant’s back door, I drove over to the River Arts District and viewed the unbelievable flooding and devastation from the Haywood Road Bridge. On my way home, I decided to try the route I would usually take to and from work along the river. It is a miracle that route was cleared enough to pass. There were probably 200 downed trees along just that five-mile stretch along the river.
Sunday, Sept 29 – We were thinking of heading far enough out of town that we could get gas and supplies somewhere else like maybe north in Johnson City, Tenn. but then a neighbor told us the highway was destroyed and you couldn’t get there. We heard word of mouth that there was a little country gas station pumping gas out of the ground – Cash only, 5 gallon limit per household. Josh and I split up and stood separately in line for 45 minutes because we were also trying to get gas for our neighbor’s generator. We grabbed drinking water from our Fire Department and heard that there was cell service up at this church on a big hill up the road. We were finally able to connect to the outside world. Dozens of texts started coming through of people checking on us, saying things like, “Are you guys okay?! We are seeing crazy images from your area!” Once we responded, we started to see the images and hear the news of other towns destroyed by the flood waters. Some of our favorite spots, Hot Springs where we got married, Marshall, Chimney Rock, Swannanoa, Black Mountain, Burnsville, etc. A reoccurring word we kept hearing was, “gone.” The gravity started to sink in about just how bad this was… That was the first time I had heard anything about a death toll. It has been an emotional roller coaster ever since. We went from being in survival mode totally in the dark of what news the outside world was getting to waves of grief, worry, panic. I started having the hardest time sleeping, nightmares, waking up a dozen times in the night. That’s also when I learned of the lack of water to all of Asheville and that I would be without a job for the indefinite future. The Blue Ridge Parkway is closed indefinitely. Major highways will take a year or two to rebuild. It has been an insane few weeks. Back at home, we were running out of flushing water in the tub but before we started filling it with our neighbor’s untreated pool water, I took a cold birdbath with the inch and a half that was left. That night, someone Josh works with got their power back so we were able to borrow his generator. That was a huge morale boost just to run it a couple hours a day to fully charge our phones & headlamps, microwave food, catch the county’s broadcasts on the radio, move our food back to the fridge (all of our ice was starting to melt and finding more was proving impossible).
Over the next several days, I would run up to that church and sit for hours trying to get more information and catch up on hundreds of messages from my coworkers in our work app messaging thread. There were lots of physical and financial resources being shared.
Wednesday, Oct 2 – Day six of no power, water or cell service, we decided to pack up our three dogs, all our dirty laundry and whatever food we didn’t want to lose and get out of town for a few days. We both needed a break for our mental health. We had heard people were able to leave heading east and Josh’s aunt and uncle live on Oak Island, so we went there for a few days. The irony didn’t escape me that we were fleeing hurricane damage in the mountains for the coast. It was still ever present on our minds but being able to get a hug from family, have access to a hot shower and laundry, be able to get on the internet to apply for aid, etc. was such a nice respite from being deep in it. While we were gone, our neighbor let us know the power had come back on.
We got back Monday night and slowly flipped breakers to safely restore our power. We tested our well water for extra peace of mind. We are above elevation from the river so figured it was fine, and it was. Our internet was still out for a few more days. It is hard to put this experience into words. We are so grateful for so much and are trying to do our part as good humans, neighbors and community members. I picked up a friend and old coworker in town who hadn’t showered in 13 days. He did laundry at our place, took a shower and I sent him home with two five-gallon buckets of clean water so he could finally wash his dishes. I’ve been getting together with friends from our dog park to pick all the plastic and debris out of the trees so it looks a little less sad and devastated but the harsh reality is that this is going to be an extremely long road for WNC. The landscape is changed forever. All the lives here have been changed forever. People are still missing. Being able to recover all the dead bodies will probably be impossible as they are sadly crushed and buried under feet upon feet of boulders, mud and twisted trees. You can smell the death and decay and you just pray that it’s an animal or that if it is a person, they can be found so their family can at least have closure and bury them. Many are now homeless or still without power and it is getting cold. The effects of this storm will be felt here for a long time. I am still not back to work yet. Asheville is slowly getting water restored but everything is still on a boil advisory. Regardless, I count my blessings for our lives and our home and am not taking a single thing for granted.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. If you are in a position and want to donate, please consider these organizations. They have been doing great things. Thank you!