Power has come back for most of us in our immediate community over the last week. Little sections of homes bit by bit, a few hours or a day or so apart. As things gradually began to feel more normal we decided to venture out to check friends further out, past Burnsville where we heard some of the worst had happened. Still no cell or internet in our area but oddly enough we were able to find a pocket of service about a mile down the road at another neighbor we checked in with. There I was able to make a quick call to our parents to let them know we were ok. They had been worried and they shared the crazy news that our area was all over the national news, saying this may be one of the worst natural disasters ever. So surreal, it was hard to wrap our heads around it since we were just about untouched. There was evidence of a tornado that had circumferenced our neighborhood - tree tops snapped like toothpicks and thrown in a very distinct pattern almost in a circle between all our homes. We were thankful that all of us had been spared the worst and as we’ve heard more, this wasn’t the only tornado to touch down in the area during the storm.
It was heading down the opposite side of the mountain that we found some evidence of any kind of destruction. Trees that had at this point been cut and pulled off of at least one side of the road, turning it into a one lane in areas. We drove under a tree still overhanging the road and past a portion that had slid down the hill taking the guard rail with it. But it was nothing compared to driving over the bridge into Burnsville. The Cane River, a small insignificant thing that I honestly didn’t even notice we drove over, had risen over the bridge and flooded the low area to one side. Houses, a park… covered with mud and debris and uprooted trees. The bridge itself was down from 4 to two lanes with piles of mud and debris on each side with everything from a boat to car parts and building materials. Anything close to the river had been touched in some way. Burnsville itself, set higher, seemed relatively untouched except for the fact that we learned its reservoir and the infrastructure that the city water was gone.
We passed Burnsville and headed on into Green Mountain. Past a friend’s driveway where the culvert to their home had been washed away, a temporary bridge spanning the water now.
Trees were down everywhere. Sinkholes had taken out pieces of road and pressed the traffic into one lane - at least where we were there was still at least that. Our friends were relatively unaffected except for tree damage. They had been the ones up above the football field of water. We were collecting them all for showers and laundry and they asked if we wanted to see the Toe River and Green Mountain - the place we had gone tubing this summer. We trekked down the hill, parking towards the bottom before we hit the mud, and walked to the riverfront. It was hard to take it in. The same river we floated was not what was before us. The place we had exclaimed over just a few months ago, “WNC has some beautiful spots” was devastated. The river sides caved in, just about anything you could imagine washed up on its banks. We turned left to head into what was once downtown and slid down the muddy road. The pavement caved in over numerous places.
Two old homes, probably nearly 100 years old filled with mud, porch ripped off, windows smashed in. I don’t even want to know what it looked like indoors. The General Store had a tree in it, the post office, the church, all suffered major damage. A 96-year- old woman sat in a wheelchair outside the store with her daughter. Hers was one of the houses that stood there, where she had waited on the top floor for hours for the waters to subside. Poor thing terrified, alone, no water and no food for who knows how long until someone found her. Another woman her age, trapped at the top of the general store. Obviously upset, we left her alone and walked to the bridge… or what was left of it. The pieces of it lay on the banks of the river along with pavement and cement the size of a car.
It was just unreal. Like I was watching a movie on a life-sized screen. It just wasn’t right. We all settled into a stunned silence as we made our way back up the hill and worried out loud about their daughter’s boyfriend’s family. Still not heard from, stuck on the other side of the next bridge that was impassible. It was hard to believe that it really happened as we drove back to our safe little oasis where it seemed like it had been nothing more than a rainstorm.
We fed our friends pizza that night and invited the neighborhood again. The teen boys had a hankering for something fun to do with their hands and dug some of the apples out of our barn along with the press and made cider for everyone. Some of us chopped apples and some made pizza and some stoked the fire. We talked and laughed and talked some more. I think everyone needed normalcy after the things they had seen and heard over the past few days. It was good to do it all with the lights on and no rain so we could sit around the fire. We were there late until the little ones started falling asleep on laps and people began to drift to their cars and head home.
The next day Tim headed into Weaverville to check on families in our church. Circumnavigating blocked roads and driving over plenty of electrical cards, he made it to the church but no further. The other side of the road which ran along Reems Creek was in rough shape. Houses swamped in mud, campers on their sides in the water, roads washed away… I’m thankful our little church was up on a hill. He wasn’t able to get to our pastor’s home as it was blocked by trees. A few families were home and filled him in on everyone they knew were ok. But he headed home soon. We were still wary about spending too much time driving around as the gas situation still had people waiting in line at the gas pumps for hours at the stations lucky enough to have power. We knew of a few families that had waited for hours only to be turned away at the last moment because it was gone. We also didn’t want to get in the way of those who were out there doing the real work that needed doing, our emergency personnel who had been working around the clock to get things put to rights and getting people to safety. We really couldn’t quite imagine what had really happened as it was all speculation based on the few areas we had seen. Rumors floated around but no one had any real info. We kept ourselves busy at home catching up on things we hadn’t been able to do without light and running water. I kept the laundry going nonstop. We had been warned that the electricity would probably go out again, so to be ready for the next outage. After hearing from a friend that he found a back way up to Erwin TN to get out for gas and groceries, Tim made plans to head up the next day and get a few things along with filling up ALL our gas cans. And that night cell service kicked on! Not great, a little spotty, but we spent the evening checking in on anyone we could think of in the area. He made plans with a friend to head up to Erwin the next morning. I collected a list from the neighbors of any items they needed - everything everywhere was closed. But if we could make it to TN where there was electricity, rumor had it we could find whatever we needed.
With everything closed within a 30 mile radius, no gas stations, no groceries, it seemed like a good idea to take advantage of anything I had available on our place so I took the time to freeze my kale and basil and collect our pumpkins and squash from the garden. We also worked on pressing more of our apples and helped a neighbor press hers as well. It was a good day spent putting up food and preparing for whatever lay ahead.
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