Bbblllleeeaaarrrrppphhhtttt!!!- Yawn, stretch, scratch, repeat- Let’s have some coffee!
What a week. What a month. Two hurricanes, war in the Middle East and John Gierach died. One more horseman and it’s an apocalypse. I worked Monday and Tuesday, but I hit up my friend Louis who got flooded out and nearly died himself in west North Carolina. I wanted to see if I could bring some supplies up and give him a hand.
The answer was “don’t bring supplies, everyone has enough, and the distribution centers are overwhelmed.” It was just as well as I had limited time, having just returned from a two week visit to my daughter in Italy. I loaded up some demolition tools, some extra gas, a cube of water, protein bars, a chainsaw with fuel and bar oil just in case, and headed up Wednesday morning to help.
As I drove up the damage soon became apparent. We had trees down in my area of northeast Georgia, as in any storm, but once I crossed into South Carolina there were trees down everywhere, some still on top of homes and cars. The closer I got to Asheville, the worse the damage became. Honestly the interstate is routed in such a way that you don’t see a lot, but anywhere you crossed a river damage was evident- debris, downed trees, battered vehicles, and random wrecked shipping containers. When I went through Burnsville and turned off to head up to Louis’ place, the damage was everywhere in the creek bottoms. Homes and cars plastered in mud, creek beds full of crushed cars, and piles of mud that had been cleared from the roads by heavy equipment. One mountainside on the way out had been struck by a tornado and every tree on it had been knocked down or snapped off halfway up. It was good to see along the route that every school, church, and fire station had pallets of food and water sitting around, and most had a cook tent going handing out free hot meals to the locals. I also saw groups of volunteers being organized for work.
On arriving at Louis’ place I was pleased to see a work party of 7 working hard to remove all the drywall and plaster board from his lower level. It was hard work, and we had to build a ramp to get wheelbarrow loads of debris up out of the lower level. As the day progressed the pile of debris outside grew and grew. It’s amazing how much material it takes to build a place, and how much work it is to remove it. Louis had already worked many days prior removing the ceiling tiles from the floor, all of which came down after the water receded and stuck to the tile floor like glue. Then they had to scrape up and remove several inches of mud.
The work party was diverse. Louis, of course, two of his neighbors from up the hill who were packing heat, a friend from Virginia who came up to help, and another from Atlanta, a volunteer from Asheville, and myself. I hope I’m not leaving anyone out. From time to time a military or civilian helicopter flew overhead on search and rescue missions, or dropping food into the more remote valleys. We worked steady and hard, stopping at noon for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, then tore the ceiling lath strips down and the drywall above that. Everything was covered in a fine coating of white mold.
A couple people left, and around three o’clock we had a beer. Then we finished getting the last of the debris out and had another beer. I texted my boss to say I wouldn’t be back that night, and he told me to take the next day off, which I accepted with gratitude. When work was done Louis and I went up the hill with the two neighbor guys, Rick and Joe. Louis was staying at a guest house on their property that they had offered to Louis to stay in. He hooked up his generator to the cabin, which powered a water heater for a shower. Then we went down to the main house where Rick’s mom made grilled pizzas for everyone. For being deep in the heart of a disaster area, we were living well.
Thursday morning Louis and I went back down and tore out some more drywall and plaster that had been overlooked, cleaned up the floors some more, but by noon we were both pretty gassed. I needed to get home, so shook his hand, wished him luck, and drove back out of the valley.
Before all this I went for a short drive down to the river to take a few pics. The devastation on the North Toe river is pretty astounding. Like most Southeastern rivers its banks are normally heavily vegetated to the water’s edge. Now the banks are swept clean of all vegetation for a hundred feet on both sides. The railroad tracks thirty feet above the river are hanging where the current scoured the bed from beneath the tracks. Massive debris piles lay everywhere, mud two feet deep lay on either side of the road, piled high where heavy equipment had moved it off the road. We’ve all seen images of the destruction but it’s difficult to comprehend till you witness it.
Meanwhile, Marsha’s father down near Sarasota Florida refused to evacuate as Hurricane Milton jacked to a monster category 5 storm before coming ashore just miles from his home south of Sarasota as a category 3. His home is in evacuation zone D, and built to the most stringent standards, so we knew he would be okay as long as he didn’t flood. It made for a tense week, but we got word the next morning that he was fine and his power was back on already. Between it all I’m about exhausted from these storms, and I didn’t actually have to go through either of them.
In the course of doom scrolling Reddit this week I came across an artist who took a stunning pic of the northern lights over the destruction in Asheville. He shared a link to his website and he’s quite a talented photographer. If you want to support a local affected by Helene, check out his work, maybe purchase a print. I didn’t get permission to share his photos so you’ll have to click on the link. Asheville had an area known as the River Arts District, which as you can guess was completely flooded, leaving a whole bunch of artists with their livelihoods destroyed and no means of income, so if you can track down a local artist and buy something that’s not a bad way to help. His business is Tim Reaves Photography and you can view his work here- https://fineartamerica.com/featured/call-it-a-grief-ritual-tim-reaves.html?newartwork=true
One other thing I want to address is the disinformation campaign surrounding this disaster. Here’s what I can tell you from being there and from firsthand accounts from people who went through the storm and aftermath, including locals who don’t vote left- the Army and National Guard showed up the next day after the storm and began clearing roads and rescuing folks. Helicopters started flying SAR missions that Saturday afternoon (first day post storm) and an army officer told Louis they rescued over 500 people that first night. According to Louis and the neighbors they couldn’t sleep that first night due to the roar of military choppers constantly in the air
I witnessed both civilian and military aircraft continuing to deliver supplies and search for people while I was there. FEMA, the National Guard, and the Army were present everywhere performing a variety of important work. Churches and Fire Stations were loaded up with supplies.
What is NOT happening is looting or vigilantism. The government is not seizing anyone’s land. The government does NOT control the weather or create storms to hurt a certain constituency. As a matter of fact Asheville and a major part of the disaster area actually vote blue, so I don’t know why the Democrats or They would send a storm there. If a rumor sounds fantastic it is- don’t believe it and don’t spread it. The only thing I witnessed in the disaster area is everyone working together to help each other. It’s a disaster- recovery is not going to be instant, glitches are going to happen, mistakes will be made, and some bureaucrats will bureaucrat. But the overwhelming story is of a community coming together to get through this, and a disaster response that is well coordinated, and working 24/7 to restore basic services and infrastructure.
To those who think the government engineered the storm to confiscate land and mine lithium- this is bullshit. Knock it off. The government has never hesitated to exercise eminent domain when they want to. They did it to build the interstate system, and they did it in this area when the TVA came in and built the reservoirs. They don’t need to engineer a bullshit excuse. I don’t know all the motivations of this rumor mill spreading false stories, but it’s hurting people already devastated by a terrible catastrophe, and hampering the efforts of government and local officials who are actually there helping.
Moving on.
We are deep in the heart of deer season now. Dead bucks have started to show up on the roadsides. I’m going to try to get out Wednesday. I’m hoping for two this year. I may not be as picky as I was last year. It’s always good to restock the freezer with some fresh meat.
Other than all that the horses are good, the weather in Georgia is beautiful and I’m looking forward to some sweatshirt weather this week. My coffee is done and it’s time to go to work.
Let’s get after it.
I don't ever scroll by now without reading Monday morning coffee. Always a pleasure to read, and thank you for putting out an honest update about what's happening in North Carolina.