October 17, 2024
Water returned to our neighborhood yesterday after having moved in a westerly direction from the North Fork Reservoir, whose main distribution lines were destroyed by Helene some 20 days ago. It is brownish; folks are using the term “chocolate milk.” It’s really not that bad, at least here. But, it is certainly not potable, and also likely not good for water heaters, boilers, and appliances. For now, I am keeping the water shut off to the hot water heater and the boiler both, just running the heat on the existing water in the system. It does make such a difference to be able to flush the toilet! And have some water for hand washing (okay, they say, as long as you are not preparing food directly afterwards). I’m not sure how long it is going to take to restore more normal, clean and potable water service, but I am relieved to have at least some water back now, as earlier estimates made it seem like even non-potable water might not have returned until mid-November or later.
With the power, and now preliminary water, and Internet service that is spottier and more sluggish than usual but generally functional, things have felt like they are getting back to normal. Except that I haven’t been teaching or doing the other activities that I was doing, such as improv comedy, pre-Helene. Area restaurants are generally closed due to the water situation; the libraries are closed (just when I have more time to read!). June and I were approved for a FEMA lodging benefit so we were able to take a mini-vacation to nearby Hendersonville one day last week, where we showered and visited a mineral museum and aquarium (check out how cool the sea horses look swimming in this video). About every other day, I’ve otherwise been going to a shower trailer set up at a nearby bank parking lot and waiting in line to shower in a stall there. (There are five stalls for women and five for men; the women’s line is always longer.) It has been a relief to have that option! I mean, I know I CAN take bucket baths, but they seemed so much more natural and tolerable in Togo, where the weather was much warmer and where there generally wasn’t the infrastructure to do anything else. It’s been an easing of my feeling of daily survival burden not to have to procure, lift, and capture my bathing water thanks to the shower trailer.
June’s school is set to reopen on a limited schedule on the 23rd, and I am supposed to resume teaching on the 28th, though they are not sure yet whether it will be via Zoom or in person (very much hoping for the latter). I wonder how my students have fared during this disaster; it must have been harder for them to navigate the area resources and notices with limited language skills, as well as being relatively new to the area. I hope at least a handful of them come back!
Things that would have been top of mind during this season normally, such as Halloween (always a huge to-do in Asheville) and voting/the Presidential race, have really slipped to the back burner in this area because of Helene. Some spiders and skeleton hands have emerged around the neighborhood, but I have a feeling Halloween is not going to be up to nearly its normal celebration level this year. After all of this stress, I feel like people don’t want to be scared and think of the dark side; they want comfort and sunshine. June would normally be talking about Halloween daily at this point, and have her costume all planned out, but I haven’t heard anything from her about it yet, which is worrisome. Like maybe, despite her adaptability and generally cheery disposition, she too realizes that things are not totally okay. I did see that early voting started today, so I will plan to do that next week. It took some time for me today to go through the candidates on my sample ballot to try to plan out informed decisions via Internet research; I can see how finding time and mental space, plus Internet to do that is beyond what many in this area are capable of right now.