It is hard to put into words the impact that Helene had and continues to have on Western North Carolina. We are all changed. Some of us have returned to a new but comfortable normal and others are still living in tents with no running water or power. Many are still without jobs. Many still don't have access to help. Most of us are amazed by the love and support private citizens of the world have showered on us.
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| More of the Blue Ridge parkway has opened, but it is still heavily damaged. |
A few Stats as it stands today ~
- There were 8,000 private bridges and roads destroyed in Helene. Today 7,000 roads and bridges are still destroyed leaving thousands of people without access to fire and EMS rescue services. Yes, their houses are intact...but when a crisis strikes there is no way for help to get to them.
- More than 180,000 homes were destroyed in Western North Carolina.
- Ninety percent of home owners who lost their home didn't live in a flood plane so they didn't have flood insurance. That means that home insurance won't help them. Unfortunately, our current administration won't help them either. People are relying on private donations.
- The federal government has only released 7% of the funds it gave to Sandy or Katrina survivors and cities to rebuild even though Sandy was significantly smaller and Katrina was similar to Helene. The federal government usually provides about 50% of recovery fees. WNC has received 8% to date of the overall cost in damages. Appalachia is a very poor part of the country and many of us feel utterly forgotten.
- At least 108 died (we don't have a good count of how many homeless were lost that often lived near the rivers) 43 of those deaths came from my county.
- Our community has collective PTSD. Rain storms send everyone to worrying.
- Our water treatment system that serves Asheville is temporary. It costs 6 million dollars a month to run the temporary system. FEMA is currently saying that they will not continue to fund the temporary system. As of today, there is a lot of confusion about what happens when FEMA pulls out on Oct. 1...just a few short days from now. The worst case scenario is that we will only have chlorinated raw water (not drinkable but our toilets will still flush).
- Most people I know, including ourselves are still drinking and cooking with bottled water.
- There are so many areas we haven't been able to visit because the public roads are still closed and the routes around are for residents only or take triple the time to travel. For instance, we live about 35 minutes from Chimney rock, but the most common way to get there is washed away. It now takes almost two hours to get there.
- Private organizations ~ Spokes of Hope, The Amish, Samaritans Purse, Beloved, Precision Grading and so many more have really helped. There are individuals who arrived here the first week and are still here trying to help.
- The unemployment rate in our county was 2.5 percent before Helene and sored to 10% after Helene. That number has come down to about 5%...partially because so many have left.
- There were over 2,000 landslides in WNC. Officials stopped counting at 2,000 because there was more important work to do. Landslides killed about 50% of the people that fateful day.
ALL THE PICTURES IN THIS POST WERE TAKEN OVER THE LAST THREE DAYS.
This is what much of the area still looks like with in 2 to 5 miles of our home.
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| Landslide |
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Landslide
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| caved in roof in the river arts distract that used to house artist galleries |
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| So many parks lay dormant for now |
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| A favorite playground sits waiting for the joyful sounds of children again. |
Recovery is slow...so slow and so will never come back. There are patches and blank areas where nothing remains. However, there is patches of rebuilding and relocating going on. Mountain people are strong and we are doing our best to recover with very limited resources.
Don't forget us.
Blessings, Dawn
