Post-Helene Asheville, continued

October 1, 2024

I heard from a neighbor that the more people from this area who apply for FEMA assistance, the more they will prioritize and send aid (like food and water) our way. I went to try to do that, but it’s really difficult without reliable cell and Internet service. Looking at it in the dark in the wee hours of the morning, I was able to get an application through, but I just got a text that my application is incomplete and needs more documentation. When I tried to upload a reduced-file-size image of my driver’s license to satisfy the requirement, the upload failed. All of this to say, submitting a complete application would be very difficult for the average person to be able to do, especially under the current conditions!

More of our neighbors are evacuating, at least temporarily. This is a bummer from the perspective of availability of playmates for June. 

One person on Facebook described Haywood Rd., the main road that goes through the center of West Asheville, as a trick-or-treating ground for adults currently. Area businesses have set out free items, like salads, ice cream cones, and water, and some restaurants are offering free meals (limit one per household). June and I were able to get into the Ingles today, though they were out of a lot of items we would have wanted, such as ice, water, and charcoal. It was nice to get a little bit of a sense of normalcy, though we did check out at the deli and I had to put several items back as it was cash only and I only had $30 with me. 

Jacob’s parents came by with supplies today from Franklin, NC, which was super helpful. Though even for them, ice was nowhere to be found! And my neighbor across the street got some gas in a gas can and put it in my car, so I feel more at ease that if I needed to go somewhere, I could. 

There were sirens audible all day today from the house. I have not been able to reach a couple of my local friends, one in Black Mountain and another in East Asheville, which is concerning. 

I heard that in a different neighborhood in West Asheville, residents held a meeting today and someone distributed whistles, the idea being that you would blow the whistle if you saw anything dangerous going on (thinking specifically of looting), or of someone needing help. If you heard a whistle, you would blow your own whistle, and so on, so neighbors would theoretically be able to converge and assist in whatever the situation was. Without reliable cell service and power to charge our phones, this is what communication has come to! I’m a little envious of their initiative in setting that system up, though. 

I did just come from a potluck that another neighbor was holding, and it is really nice the way that folks (the ones who have not already fled) are looking out for and supporting one another during this crisis. For instance, sharing their tomato sauce and meatballs. Assisting someone in siphoning gas from a gas can. Leaving out a pull cart with a sign to let folks know they can borrow it to help pull buckets of water to their homes. 

It feels weird to think that outside of this area, life is just going on as normal. I saw earlier today that the vice presidential debate is tonight, for instance. I won’t be able to see that! I wish I had that option. 

October 2, 2024

I just contemplated using paper plates to eat on rather than normal dishes. That is a big deal, as I’m usually very waste-averse and fairly eco-conscious. It’s just that doing dishes without running water, or even fairly easy access to water, as I had my second year in Togo with a well in my courtyard, is a pain in the a**. In trying not to waste the precious semi-clean water (still have not resorted to using potable water to clean with), I end up with dishes that still have some grease and soap residue on them. Yuck.

June and I went today to check on an elderly friend of ours who lives toward East Asheville, near the Lowes that I heard was on a recent cover of the New York Times (inundated up to close to the roof?). We were able to drive up her street and lo and behold, she was home! I had thought she likely had gone to stay with relatives, but she is very cut off and still says she does not want to evacuate; a former Peace Corps volunteer in Africa herself, she will be staying there. Except, she is not going to drive, can’t walk to stores, and has no communications except talking with her neighbors (one of whom lets her use her cell phone and so she has spoken with her daughter). We were glad to be able to leave her with some food items, batteries, and a few other supplies like water and paper towels. On the way back, we stopped at a water distribution spot downtown, where you had to bring your own containers to fill up (carrying that water back to the car got heavy, fast!), and also went to a food and water distribution site done by MANNA (whose own warehouse I hear was decimated). When we got home, there were two teenage boys going around the neighborhood with insulated red shoulder bags, handing out wedges of cheese that they’d procured from a supermarket that I think was throwing them out. 

I have continued to not sleep well, in part because the wee hours are the only time I can reliably check Internet on my phone via cellular – during the day, I can barely get text messages through, and can’t load web pages. Around 3am, I also jotted down for myself things I needed to do as soon as I woke up: go to my neighbor’s house and try to exchange my melty ice packs from the freezer-turned-refrigerator for more frozen ones, and charge my cell phone, which was down to 3 percent, off her generator (searching for signal and having low-ish signal at the times I switch it off of airplane mode really drains the battery fast). Then, triage the foods still in the freezer to see which ones were priorities to eat ASAP and which were too far gone and needed to head to the compost pile. 

Yesterday morning, I demonstrated for June how to do a bucket bath. This was using slightly-salty water from the neighbor’s pool. I had heated up a pot of water on my neighbor’s propane stove and added it to the other, unheated water, but clearly not enough, because the water still felt quite cold. I showed her how to lean over a couple of our flush water containers when she scooped her wetting and rinsing water, so that the liquid coming off our bodies would not run down the drain, but instead be collected and used to flush the toilet. I felt so fresh and clean after that! Though it was quite a bit of effort. And I was ever-so-slightly salty. 

As we were walking to the local ramen place, which is offering free Wifi access in the parking lot, we passed a man with a pickup truck parked next to a building site port-a-potty. I saw he was carrying a bag of ice, and immediately wondered where he’d gotten it. As we came closer, he asked us if we wanted some ice. Yes! I did not hesitate to answer, even though we were on foot and it was going to be somewhat difficult to walk back to the house carrying the 20lb bag. When I asked where he’d gotten the ice, he said that his work had distributed it, and that he was sharing it. So generous! As so many in our community have been since the disaster; it is heartening. We are really getting our exercise though with all of this walking and hauling (and biking, for me). I’m aware that we are very fortunate to be able bodied in a situation like this.