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- [00:00]
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- [00:25]
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- [00:57]
Emily Gracie
Hi everyone. Welcome to off the Radar. I'm your host, Emily Gracie. Today's episode is going to feel a little bit different and a little more somber than usual. That's because we're covering something that's unique and tragic in the weather world. We're diving into something that shook me to my core. Hurricane Helene's Devastating Impact on Asheville, North Carolina. You might be wondering Asheville a hurricane?
- [01:20]
Jason Boyer
I know. I was shocked too.
- [01:21]
Emily Gracie
The city is nestled in the mountains and far from the coast and was supposed to be a climate haven. But Helene had other plans, leaving behind what the mayor called a post apocalyptic scene. I lived in Asheville for four years and like many others, watching the scene unfold and the images come in while trying to contact my friends in the area was unnerving. This isn't Asheville's first rodeo with natural disasters, though, but Helene was a whole different beast. In this episode, we'll hear directly from survivors. Their stories of resilience in the face of this unexpected catastrophe are both heartbreaking and inspiring. We'll chat with a local meteorologist who wore two hats during Helene. He not only weathered the storm himself with his family, but also had the crucial task of keeping Asheville's residents informed and safe throughout the ordeal. We'll start today with the story of a family in Lake lure.
- [02:20]
Narrator
On Thursday, September 26, the Category 4 hurricane was moving onshore near Perry, Florida, about 400 miles north of there. Heavy rain was starting to fall in Lake Lure, North Carolina, where Ashton Rice and her husband Nick own a pottery had heard on the news that Hurricane Helene would be impacting the area.
- [02:46]
Ashton Rice
So I got here and I told my husband, I said, I heard on the news that the hurricane would. Might possibly affect Chimney Rock. And he looked at me and he was like, that's crazy. There's no way that a hurricane is going to come to this area. So Thursday, we actually were in here doing pottery, and we were sitting at the table, and it was like about 6 or 7, and it was already raining. And I think we finished painting our mugs about an hour or two after. And when we walked to the front, the rain was already at our little sidewalk that you walk up to get into our studio. Look at that.
- [03:23]
Jason Boyer
On the road.
- [03:24]
Ashton Rice
Holy cow.
- [03:29]
Narrator
As the evening went on, conditions started getting worse. That's when they decided to leave their home and go seek shelter with friends.
- [03:39]
Ashton Rice
So finally, I think it was like 1am we went to sleep, and when we woke up to sirens, it was the sirens off of the dam. You couldn't really hear exactly what he was saying off of the siren because of how loud the wind and the rain and the water rushing was. But it was something along the lines of seek higher ground, evacuate now. Well, we couldn't. My gosh, you can't even see the table now. Look, this is just for reference. That's a door. The landslide had already, like, took the road with it around the dam because it had gone six feet out of side of the dam. The water had. So it was flowing around it, and it took that road with it. So we couldn't get out because the only way in was going across the damn. Oh, my gosh. Oh, yeah, look at your stairs. Just in case you want to go down on your dog. So we walked up the road a little bit, and Nick was like, maybe we can go the back way. Well, there were trees down as far as the eye could see, and there was no going the back way. Seeing all of the things we saw in the water. That's the roof of it. It's sunk. Things were going over the damn.
- [04:58]
Nick Rice
Oh, it's a.
- [04:58]
Ashton Rice
No, look, it's a. It's a trailer. It's a trailer. It just fell over. It started sinking in around, like, lunchtime. That things were not going to get any better anytime soon because of how many people were on that road. And we were the ones with the generator. We were feeding everybody. We were running out of food and water. And me and my husband looked at each other. We were like, we're gonna have to kayak to our studio to get the food that we know we bought.
- [05:28]
Narrator
So they made the difficult decision to leave their nine year old son with friends and kayak across the lake to get supplies from their studio.
- [05:36]
Ashton Rice
I definitely felt weird leaving Liam, but I knew I didn't want him in the kayak with us. I think that probably upset him a little bit just because he didn't know, like if mom and dad were coming back or what was going on. So we kayaked across the lake to our studio, which was. It took a good like 30, 45 minutes to get here. Of course there was a lot of things in the water. There were some things that we didn't know what they were.
- [06:09]
Narrator
They made it to the other side of Lake Lure and started the trek up the mountain to the studio.
- [06:15]
Ashton Rice
There were trees and power lines down everywhere. Like we had to climb over some, climb under some. It's gone, it's gone. You can see. Oh, watch out for that power line. No, it's not.
- [06:26]
Jason Boyer
It's not live. What made you decide to pull out your phone and record?
- [06:30]
Ashton Rice
I honestly thought, I'll record this and send it to my mom because I knew that she lived in Trotters Rest, South Carolina, and I knew she would have been worried. So I was like, I'll just send these to her when I get cell phone service and it won't be a big deal. Well, honestly, I never thought recording it all, that I would be putting it together piece by piece for people to watch and that it would get that much attention because I really didn't think that. I thought everyone would already know. I thought like news crews would be recording. I just thought that I would just be another person telling someone a story. But to know that nobody even knew this is so crazy what was going on. And they were seeing it firsthand through my videos, the whole. I know the whole. And also when I got out and got service and saw other pictures and videos, it just. It broke me. I finally had a moment to myself where I could just sit down and take it all in. And it's devastating, it's heartbreaking. There's no sign of life. There's nobody outside. You don't hear birds. You didn't hear anything rustling in the leaves. You didn't hear anything. All you heard was helicopters and sirens. And honestly, this might sound crazy, but I still hear that siren in my head that was playing on the dam every day. It's just crazy to think that something so structural, as far as a house built on a firm, solid ground can be taken away by water is. It's just. It's terrifying, really. After the hurricane, there has been so many people helping people that it just gives you faith in humanity again, if that makes any sense. There will be people going down the road, and they'll just stop and say, are y'all okay? Do you need water? There's been plenty of people that have reached out to me that don't even live in North Carolina, that want to send things to us via post office or they'll drive three hours. I'll drive three hours to bring you a blanket. Like, it's just so nice to know that strangers are willing to put their best foot forward to help other people.
- [08:56]
Narrator
How's your son doing?
- [08:58]
Ashton Rice
He's afraid to let me out of his sight. I'm assuming that's from him who went on the kayaks and the canoes and left him there with Frank. I'm assuming that probably is what caused all of that. It's almost like he's afraid another shoe's gonna drop. It's really hard to, I guess, pick your life up where it left off. It's almost like we woke up and our world was turned upside down. It's almost like we're afraid to even watch tv, for instance, because it feels weird finding joy in watching tv. It feels like we're not supposed to be happy yet.
- [09:36]
Narrator
Each day is getting a little bit easier. In Lake Lure in western North Carolina, on day 15, at Ashton's home, she got some good news.
- [09:45]
Ashton Rice
We have power. We have power. We have shoes. We have clothes. We ate a warm meal. But to have power is like. Honestly, I know this is probably a stretch, but like a miracle, because they have so much work to do that I'm just blessed that they got our power back on. I'm trying to hold it together, y'all. I don't even have words. No words. Just grateful. Humble grateful. God is here, y'all.
- [10:30]
Emily Gracie
One way you can help those impacted by Hurricane Helene is to support small businesses like Ashton's. Check out her website, inthepotters hands.com. their mugs are beautiful, and they even take custom orders. Next up, I'm talking to Jason Boyer. Jason is the chief meteorologist at Asheville's only TV station, WLOS News 13. I've known Jason for over 20 years because when I was a student at UNC Asheville, I actually interned at WLOS, and at the time, he was the weekend meteorologist. So Jason knows Asheville well. He knows the history, the weather, the infrastructure, and he knows the people. And I'm grateful that he took the time today to sit down and talk to me about what happened in his city just a few weeks ago.
- [11:20]
Jason Boyer
Jason Boyer, thanks so much for talking to me today about Helene. I know this is kind of fresh and still pretty traumatic for all of you guys there in the Asheville area, but you have an interesting perspective because you lived it, but you also worked it. So I want to talk all about Helene and the timeline of what you went through and welcome you to the show. I'm so glad to have you on, too. Old friend from Asheville.
- [11:43]
Nick Rice
Yes.
- [11:43]
Jason Boyer
So you are the chief meteorologist at wlos, which is our station in Asheville. You guys went through a pretty awful event here just a few weeks ago. Can you take me through what you were thinking as a meteorologist, like, in the days leading up to Helene? Because in Asheville, you guys don't often think about hurricanes being this impactful to the area, right?
- [12:04]
Nick Rice
Certainly not. But we. We have in the past had tropical systems produce, you know, prolific rains and some flooding, not on the level or scale obviously, that Helene produced for us. But leading up to the event, we were fascinated by the amount of rain we were going to get. I mean, there's a meteorological side of things where you geek out on the science and. And you start seeing how things will unfold and trying to determine what your confidence is in the forecast and getting to the point of preparing people for what is the more distinct possibilities. And we had a predecessor rain event, and we can talk more in detail about that. But essentially, we had two days worth of heavy rain before Helene even got to us. And we set daily records on Wednesday the 25th and Thursday the 26th. And then leading into that Friday Helene hit and we had a third record daily total rainfall. That's never been done before. And so it obviously was the tipping point.
- [13:12]
Jason Boyer
I'm guessing the rivers were already kind of at elevated levels because that's what you're watching there in Asheville. Right. Like, I always watch, like the tide gauges here along the coastline. But for Asheville, it's all about rivers.
- [13:23]
Nick Rice
Yeah, we were watching those rivers very closely. We knew from the verbiage that the National Weather Service was putting out that we were going to have catastrophic flooding at the point. This is where I think some people might have been lulled a little bit. The heavy rain that fell Wednesday and Thursday before Helene wasn't causing extensive flooding at that point. Even up until Thursday midnight, we weren't seeing extensive flooding. We were getting some flash flood warnings, no doubt. And there were some instances where the usual suspects, as we'll Say, were flooding the smaller creeks that typically flood in any given heavy rain situation. But the main stems of the rivers, and they're really four main rivers that we watch. The French Broad, which is the largest river in our area, takes on most of the water. The Pigeon river, which had flooded back and Fred in 2021, and that takes on a lot of water as everything goes towards the Gulf and the Catawba river east of Asheville. And on top of that, the Swannanoa river, which was the river that typically floods in these situations in, in the city itself and into Biltmore Village more particularly. So we were watching those rivers and we were watching the gauges. They were, they were increasing, but they were not jumping dramatically. That was yet to come when Helene's reigns really kicked in that Thursday night into Friday morning.
- [14:54]
Jason Boyer
Okay, I want to back up a little bit and give people an idea of Asheville because, you know, I'm so familiar with it, so are you, but it may not be familiar to everybody across the country. It's this very nice little city, but it's a small city in western North Carolina. You've been there kind of on and off for a couple of decades now. Right. So give me a little, give me a little understanding of what Asheville is like for those who've never been there.
- [15:17]
Nick Rice
Oh, Asheville is a quirky and cool, hip kind of place. It is a mixture of Appalachia, which for those that don't understand that, that's the typical, you know, generation after generation of families that have been here for a long time that might have been loggers back in the days. There was a lot of logging going on and early 20th century in this area. But it, it became a, a well visited place in probably the 1920s. That started we had F. Scott Fitzgerald, a famous author of the Great Gatsby. He and his wife would come up to what is the Grove Park Inn, a very famous hotel. And they would retreat here to get the fresh mountain air to help their health. And that was kind of the big push initially in the 20s. Come, come to Asheville, visit the mountains, get the fresh air, get away from the cities and improve your health. And that was a big deal. And then it just kind of grew from there. We had the Biltmore House that was established in the 1890s, late 1890s, the Vanderbilts built the largest private residence in the country here. And that was a draw, not initially, but it became a big draw when they opened it up to tourism later in the 70s and 80s. And then we we started growing. We started getting a population boom that really took off in the late 90s, early 2000s. So I've been here 15 years, and we have grown exponentially in those 15 years. I've seen massive changes. It's. I compare it to, like, Austin, Texas. Not nearly as big as Austin, but it. It kind of has that vibe and that uniqueness of melding together different. All kinds of different cultures and beliefs and in this kind of small area. So that's. That's Asheville.
- [17:15]
Jason Boyer
Yeah. I remember moving there when I was 18 to go to college and, like, culture shock from Connecticut, but so fascinating to watch. Like, he was just going downtown and seeing, like, a drum circle or a Wicca convention. Like, what did you think the first time? Because you were in your 20s, right, the first time you moved to Asheville? Like, what were your thoughts the first time you arrived there?
- [17:35]
Nick Rice
Yeah, many, many moons go. I. I found it unique as well. I wasn't coming from a far distance to Asheville. I had gotten my first job in Johnson City, Tennessee, which is literally over the mountains in eastern Tennessee. So I had come to Asheville just very briefly to visit a few times in those three years I was in Johnson City, but I didn't know anything really about the city that much. And it was like. I would call it fledgling a little bit. Then in the early 2000s when I moved. Yeah, like you. Culture shock, a little bit of that. But I had already gotten some of that in Johnson City, Tennessee. They're also considered Appalachia, that part of the. The state there. So it was unique, but it was. It was sleepy. You know, it was a sleepy town. I mean, there was a relaxed atmosphere, but there for somebody in their 20s, as you remember, there wasn't a lot to do for people our age, except for the outdoor stuff, and. And. And I love that part of it. But, yeah, now it's completely different. I mean, it is a mecca for people that are, you know, enthusiasts for different beers, wine cideries. We have distilleries, we have all that. I mean, it's an amazing progression, but there. There are people that still reside here that are certainly more of the traditionalists. Absolutely.
- [18:54]
Jason Boyer
All right, so let's go back to Helene and the days leading up. So, you know, I'm trying to get a feel for the timeline, because I was watching back the newscast, and, you know, you and Megan were doing such a great job on WLOS covering this. And the interesting part for me, because I still have a lot of friends in Asheville, was the timeline of losing contact with people because the hurricane made landfall. And then like Thursday seemed fine, but then through the day on Friday, it slowly became apparent that we were. That everybody was out of contact in the Asheville area, that you could not get ahold of anybody. So what happened through the day on Friday that led to that?
- [19:32]
Nick Rice
Yeah, a combination of things. So all the rain leading up to Helene saturated the ground. We already had some minor flooding going on pre Helene. And then when Helene closed in on us, the wind field expanded. As they typically do, these tropical systems get on shore, the wind field expands. And we started getting wind gusts over 45, 55, even 65 miles per hour. It started to ramp up. And that was in the wee hours of Friday morning. So I handed off to Megan at 2 in the morning. We were doing 12 hour shifts at that point, 2 to 2. You know, she would come in 2am work till 2pm, I'd be in at 2pm work till 2am So I handed off to her and I said, you know, wow, watch the radar. Here it is. Look at this. These bands are coming in. It's coming right at us. You know, we knew that was going to be the case. So I left. And I remember driving home and it was already like a tropical storm here. The winds were gusty. The, My car was being pushed around on the interstate. And I remember, remember telling her, I'm not going to drive home on the narrow roads with trees all lining them. I mean, because here in Asheville, you can't escape trees unless you're on the interstate. And even then they're closer to the interstate. But I drove home, the major routes that had very little in the way of trees that could come down. And I, I texted her when I got home and I said, it's already really bad. And she goes, yeah, it is. And so I couldn't sleep very well that night. I remember getting up and about five in the morning I went out. I have a covered deck. And I went out and opened the doors. Actually you can see the doors behind me. Went out there and I heard the wind and it sounded like a hurricane had come to town. It was just the roar of the wind, the sheets of rain. And then literally I could see power flashes going. And at first I thought, that's got to be lightning, right? That can't be that many power flashes. And those were transformers that were blowing. So we started losing communication when trees started coming down in dozens and then eventually in hundreds. And it was happening area wide. So the power lines were just there. Was no, no chance that we were going to keep power very long.
- [21:47]
Jason Boyer
And the ground already saturated at that point from days of rain leading up. So the ground's super soft, a little bit of wind certainly knocking things over. So were you able to communicate with Megan through the day on Friday? And then how did you get back to work? Because weren't roads a disaster?
- [22:02]
Nick Rice
They were, they were. And no, the communication was already down when I finally got some sleep, but then woke right back up a couple hours later. And I already, you know, started getting my mindset for going to work. But we had no power. The power went out at our house around 6:20 in the morning on Friday and it was about six days before we got it back. We were the lucky ones. We can talk about that too. But the idea of getting communication back was. Was virtually impossible. The landlines, even if you had a landline phone, it wasn't going to work because phone lines had come down too. So I essentially started getting ready for work and had to plan how I'm going to get to work. Well, my plan was, okay, avoid the roads with the trees, because trees are down. You probably know that's going to happen. And so I was going to take the major way back, which is two major highways to the interstate, and then get off of the exit which our station is pretty close to the interstate on. So I left and I went down to the main, the first main highway I could find. And obviously I started seeing trees already down. Power lines were down and some people had already cut through some of the trees to get them off the highway. So I had a path. But when I got to the first bigger highway, Airport Road, it runs by the airport and that's a four lane divided highway. I looked to my right and I could see a fire truck blocking that highway to our south. And I looked and I could see water. It was, it was basically Mills river, which is typically a very tranquil stream. It was rushing over the highway and you could not drive through it. It was for a solid quarter mile all water. And I thought, oh well, obviously I'm not going to go that way because that wasn't the way to work anyway. I'm gonna go left. So I get on the highway and I'm thinking I'm gonna be good, I'm gonna make it all the way. And then the French Broad river cuts underneath airport Road by the airport. And they had already shut it down. So you couldn't even get farther than maybe a mile past that turn I took. So I had to go Back. And I went all the way back and I thought, well, I have to use. I can't use any roads that are near the river. None of them. And the majority of them, like, they're all. And they all end with the word bridge at the end of them. And I knew none of those roads I could take. And that's three of them I couldn't take. So I had to go down another way. And I thought, well, this is the way I normally go to work. Let me see if. Well, trees were down. They cut through some. I got through a couple of areas that were down trees. People were kind of navigating around, and then boom, Couldn't. Couldn't go any further. There was a big tree down and I had to turn around. So then I went all the way home. I told my wife, I said, I'm getting our. I'm going to get our chainsaw and I'm going to go cut the tree away from the road so I can get through. She thought I was crazy. And I thought, well, I have to get to work. I'm gonna go do that. So about 30 minutes later, I got all my stuff together. I went. I drove to the same point, and I could see a crew of just grassroots people here, just random dudes, if you will, that were clearing the same tree with a chainsaw. And so I pulled up around and parked and I put my hazards on and I got out and I was in. You know, I wasn't in my work clothes at that point. I'd put on all kinds of outdoor work clothes and had gloves, and we were just cutting and throwing logs and. And moving it. It took about 30 or 40 minutes before we could clear a path. And I left and I went through and I said. And everybody was like, you're the meteorologist. Like, yeah, yeah, I know. I gotta get to work. And it was so weird. It was surreal. And then I turned on another highway and I almost got to the crest of the hill. And then I saw a massive, massive tree that was down over the road and power line. And you were not getting through that. But as luck would have it, there is an apartment complex with an entrance just before the tree. And you could go all the way through the apartment complex and actually come out on the other side of the tree with the exit. And people had figured it out already. So I kind of followed this conga line here of going around, and I made it. It was about an hour and 45 minutes after I had initially left the house, and I got to work. It's a 15 minute drive any given day.
- [26:21]
Jason Boyer
How happy was Megan to see you?
- [26:23]
Nick Rice
She was ecstatic. I mean, people actually. It was funny. I mean, in hindsight, we kind of laugh now, but I walk into the newsroom and I still had all my work clothes on or my work outdoor work clothes on. And they're like, they stood up. They're like, hey, he made it. You know, And I was like, how did you even know I was trying to get here? You know, we. I had sent a text way earlier in the day, and it must have gotten through as I got closer because communications were so sporadic that it must have picked up a tower to get them. I had no idea they knew I was even trying to get to work.
- [26:53]
Jason Boyer
Okay, so you're at work and you're, you know, we're forecasters, we're meteorologists. We kind of look at whether that's coming, but at this point, it's there, like disaster is happening. So how at that point do you go on air and communicate and then are you thinking to yourself, who am I even communicating to?
- [27:09]
Nick Rice
That. That didn't cross my mind initially. I mean, your, your mindset is just to get on air and, and deliver information, you know, efficiently, quickly to save more lives or, you know, get people to, to respond. And it took about a couple of hits, as we say in the business, you know, to go on air and, and talk about the radar, talk about the flash floods, talk about how much, you know, your experience of the roads telling people not to venture out, just stay home, you know, don't try to drive around at this point, it's going to be a disaster. Then after those two times, I sat there and I thought, and I looked over at the anchors and they're like, are you okay? And I said, you know, who do you think is watching right now? Because the power's out and the cable was out. I mean, we had no cable at station. You know, the feed that comes into the station was out, and we were running on a generator at that point because power had gone off and our generator kicked in. So we, we just didn't know. And, and so then it was a matter of trying to be on Facebook and, and social media and Twitter and, and doing as much as you possibly could, but letting the story tell itself. With a lot of the reporters that we had in the area that were, that were stuck, they were stuck at home, too. We had very limited resources. We only had about two reporters, I think, that were actually in the building available. Other. Everybody else was stuck. Our producers were stuck. Our directors were stuck. I mean, it was a skeleton crew, you know, even hours after the storm.
- [28:39]
Jason Boyer
You know, it's interesting. It's like I was watching you guys on streaming because you're streaming on YouTube. So I actually pulled it up on my TV here in Charleston, and I was like, this is who they're communicating to. Because the outside world needed to know that their loved ones were okay. And that was our only way of seeing, you know, what was going on in Asheville was that you guys were streaming. So that it was helpful, I think, to the rest of the country. Can I ask about your family? Because I know that your son has some special medical needs. So I'm curious about what you were going through. You're working, but then you're also. You have a family at home. So how did you manage that? And then what were your concerns there?
- [29:17]
Nick Rice
Well, we were absolutely concerned. Full disclosure. My son has type 1 diabetes, and he needs insulin. The power went out. We knew not to open the fridge and let it, you know, go as long as we could. But I had prepared my family in days in advance that we were going to lose power. We should have all kinds of ice on hand to preserve what we can. Insulin needs to be refrigerated. In most cases, you can leave it out at room temperature, but it loses its efficacy, if you will, over time. And so, you know, having a refrigerator, it extends the shelf life, if you will, of insulin. So we were very worried about having enough insulin. So we put things on. Not directly on ice, but in. In packages on top of the ice so that it would stay cool. That. And then I had to leave home. And that. That was a guilty feeling. I knew that, you know, we were still in the thick of it. And I had no answers. I had no answers on when power was going to come back. I had no answers on, you know, what was happening to the water system. And so there was that guilt. But then it was a day later, it was Saturday, and my wife and I were talking, and we were getting a better idea of just how impactful and how large of a scope this was. And we decided it was time for them to leave town. So they left and went to Charlotte and stayed there. I told them to stay there until the power is restored, and we can say it's, you know, time to come back. So that's where they were. And they stayed there for. Gosh, they didn't come back until that next Saturday. So a full week, they were gone. But my wife, she is an amazing woman. She Was driving back from Charlotte with supplies. From almost day one, she would come back. I think Sunday was her first run. She drove the two hours back, or a little more than that because roads were down, roads were still closed, major roads. So it took her more than two hours. But she would bring. She brought a massive amount of supplies to the station. And, you know, people that could. That needed it could come and get it within the station. So it was a haven at the station, I should say, because we had power, we had running water so people could stay there if they wanted to. We had sleeping arrangements. There was a. A client of our sales folks that delivered, I think 10 or 12 mattresses, unused mattresses. Just brought them over and they threw them down in different rooms.
- [31:46]
Jason Boyer
You know, tell me about, like, physically, what it's like to cover a storm like that for days and days. Did at any point you have to say, like, I need to pace myself. This is going to be a long haul.
- [31:57]
Nick Rice
We knew it was going to be a long haul, but honestly, adrenaline and coffee, you know, we stayed pretty alert. It does wear on you. We both were feeling it about day six, you know, after Friday. So starting, we both worked, I think 12 days in a row. So it was a long stretch. And then we finally got some relief. But yeah, it does take a toll on you. I mean, mentally, you're seeing the damage and the destruction. Unfortunately, the life lost, it does wear on you and. And you start going back and replaying everything you said and, you know, what. What did you say? What could you have said differently? Would it have made a difference? You know, things like that, you question it. It's just human nature.
- [32:43]
Jason Boyer
Yeah, that's a lot on your shoulders. So we're now, as we're recording this almost three weeks out. Where do things stand now? How long did it take you to get power back? Did you get power back? What. What do things look like when you head to work?
- [32:56]
Ashton Rice
Now?
- [32:57]
Nick Rice
We. Personally, I didn't get power back here at the house until I think it came back on Friday. So it was a. Almost a week to the. Yeah, the point we lost it. And then my wife and son came back on that Saturday after the storm. So once we got power back and we still had running water, we never lost running water. We're on a different water system. Where we are, we're on the Hendersonville water system versus the Asheville city water. Those that were on the Asheville city water, literally a stone's throw from our house, you can. You're on that system farther north. They. They didn't have usable water or even running water at some point because the system was decimated. We're starting to flush the systems in terms of getting water connected to the city and residents in Buncombe County. But I don't know, they still don't have that firm date on when it's going to be, you know, drinkable again. Right now it's non potable. And I believe places that have the running water, you can. You can shower, they urge you to flush it out of the system, let it run and flush toilets multiple times. The sediment was just so much. The reservoir that we get our water from in Asheville is normally a pristine, beautiful reservoir. You can see feet down in the water and see fish or whatever in there. But with all the sediment that got into it, it flipped and all of that came up to the top and they couldn't even begin to tap the water. Otherwise it would have just, you know, been a disaster again for the system and the pumps.
- [34:36]
Jason Boyer
So Asheville this time of year is a hot spot for tourism, obviously that's impacted this year.
- [34:43]
Emily Gracie
When do you foresee Asheville kind of.
- [34:45]
Jason Boyer
Being open for business again and tourists returning? Is this something that's going to take years to recover from?
- [34:52]
Nick Rice
In some cases it might take that long, certainly. But I think the city itself is going to be back pretty soon. Once we get running water and usable water, businesses will reopen.
- [35:04]
Jason Boyer
The.
- [35:05]
Nick Rice
The damage that was done from the flooding in the city was mostly close to the river. Obviously the city itself, most of it sits up high enough that it didn't flood. But it's called the river Arts district. This is a really cool area we call the rad. And it has artists, it has shops, coffee shops, restaurants, it has galleries and breweries. A lot of that is just gone. I mean, it's physically still there in many cases, but it is not anything that is going to be open firmly anytime soon. So that is going to take a big hit. But I think the city itself is going to be pretty open to. To people eventually here that I think later this month. And yeah, we have the fall colors. That's typically a place people will come here in western North Carolina, but the Blue ridge parkway is still closed here in North Carolina. It opened in Virginia, but we have. The amount of damage the Blue ridge parkway has is phenomenal. And I don't know when they're going to be able to open. They had to rebuild the road in many places they just fell off the sides of the mountain.
- [36:13]
Jason Boyer
So what about Chimney Rock? Because that was the One that really went viral. Those were the first images that people were seeing of the area was Chimney Rock. Have you heard anything about what's going on there?
- [36:24]
Nick Rice
With recovery, they have to reroute the rocky, broad river, which is the river that is normally a beautiful river, that flood flows through there. They have to reroute it to even start building the road back. So it cuts so far in to the town of Chimney Rock. It's really a village, but they, you know, they cut into that and they ate away at the road so much. And there's a bridge that's half there, half not. So they have to rebuild that bridge, they have to rebuild the road, but they first have to reroute the river to back where it was before the flood, which is incredible to think about. It's. It's 100ft or more, and they have to move it. So they're gonna have to dam it up and then move the rocks and then let it go again. So it's probably going to be at least a year or more before that. Part of our area is, I guess you want to call fully recovered. It's gonna be a while.
- [37:20]
Jason Boyer
What are ways that people can help? What does Asheville still need from the rest of the country?
- [37:25]
Nick Rice
It's difficult because we have so many large organizations here. The Red Cross, Female Hearts with Hands is a local organization. We have Samaritan's Purse in the area. There is a lot of help already here, and the folks that really need to help are still without power, still without running water, and those are mostly confined to a small area now. Most of the trees and all that have been cut away from the roads and the debris is still there. I think that, honestly, a lot of what we need is just thinking about providing donations to support some of these organizations and. And churches too. If you have a friend or family member that is part of a church around here, that's a good way to go about donating or getting some help out. And. And that's been the case in. In a lot of places where we've had these grassroots efforts start quickly. Churches and schools were the centers for a lot of the distribution sites that many people just kind of propped up, if you will, quickly, like my wife bringing the supplies here. We eventually reached out to many more people, and so many people donated that we had to open up my son's school gymnasium to bring water, food, clothing, baby needs, toiletries, everything, you know, from shavers to toothbrushes to. To Hormel chili, you know, anything, and paper towels, cleaning products, Tarps now, winter clothing. We got a cold snap here and it's getting much colder and people without power. And that's pretty much what's been going on. I think we're getting better. No doubt we're much better than we were in just a week after Helene. We just have a long way to go in some areas.
- [39:15]
Jason Boyer
Do you foresee this changing Asheville in a major way, Changing the way that people see this quirky little city that we've grown to love?
- [39:25]
Nick Rice
Those that live here do know that it's, it's forever changed in a way that it's like a scar, you know, and you're going to be reminded of that scar. And we will build back. And the concern I have is like most, where do we rebuild? Do you go about rebuilding the River Arts District just like it was? I mean, there were apartment complexes in the middle of being constructed that were completely wiped. Do we build there again? That's. Those are questions I, I personally can't answer. The officials and the planner, the city planners are going to have to figure that out. I, I know that, you know, from meteorological standpoint, we know as scientists that these, these events are going to start happening more frequently. They have already started happening more frequently. I think Asheville, we were complacent in a way. We hadn't been hit by a major natural disaster in a very long time. We got to go back to 1916, the last time we had widespread devastating flooding. Keep in mind the population was minuscule then compared to what it is now. We've built so much more in 108 years, but there's nothing, there's not much more you can do to stop trillions of gallons of water from rolling downhill. Gravity is always going to win. And there isn't a man made object or sequence of events you can do to stop that water. It's going to happen. Flooding will happen. We don't, we can't build levees here. Dams do exist in some spots, but they can only do so much. You have to release that water at some point if it gets too high and you risk the damage being compromised. So a lot of planning has to go into this and I sure hope that we do learn a lesson and build further away from the rivers and prevent the loss that we saw with this system.
- [41:22]
Jason Boyer
Jason, is there anything else you want to add about Helene and Asheville?
- [41:26]
Nick Rice
Oh, I think the people here are so resilient. I've seen so much good come out of this too. So many people want to help and have helped and the family, generation after generation that have lived here. Those families are still very strong. And it helps a lot when you have that kind of culture and resiliency to get through something like this. We will learn from this. And that's the key. That's the key to this.
- [41:55]
Jason Boyer
Well, thank you to you and Megan and everybody at the station for keeping the world informed of what was going on when we were sitting in the dark and worried about people in Asheville. So greatly appreciate it. You guys did an amazing job.
- [42:07]
Nick Rice
Thank you, Emily. If you'd like to help the victims.
- [42:13]
Jason Boyer
Of Hurricane Helene, North Carolina has established a disaster relief fund which is managed by United Way of North Carolina. Donations can be made@ww.nc.gov donate and are being used to provide grants to nonprofits.
- [42:30]
Emily Gracie
Working directly in impacted communities. Off the Radar is a production of the National Weather Desk. Make sure you're following the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. New episodes publish every Tuesday. Once again, if you want to support Ashton, her website is inthepottershands.com you can also check out that same name on Instagram where you'll see all of her video updates from what's going on in Lake Lure and take a look back at what happened during the hurricane. Thank you so much to Jason Boyer from WLOS for sharing his Helene story today as well. Also, thank you to my associate producer Brian Petras for his help with this episode. For the National Weather Desk, I'm meteorologist Emily Grazie. Make it a great day.