Following Hurricane Helene, the Appalachian region has been left devastated. While Florida was made aware of the storm and its effects early enough to try and evacuate, Ella O’Briant, a student at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, said she never saw the devastation coming.
“I totally thought that it was just going to be a bad thunderstorm, and we were going to be back in class Monday,” O’Briant said in an interview. “But here I am, sitting in my room six hours away when I’m supposed to be in my writing class.”
The before
O’Briant learned Helene would impact her area on Thursday morning, around 6:30 a.m., when ASU announced they would be moving all classes online after noon. Even then, she and others in the area didn’t think it would be anything more than some rain.
Around 7:00 a.m. on Friday, she and her roommates woke up from the power going out and coming back on. Hearing heavy rain, they thought it was just a thunderstorm. At 8:37 a.m., ASU sent another alert informing people of “life-threatening flooding.” Still, it wasn’t until 9:30 a.m., when she looked outside and saw the parking lot of her off-campus apartment being flooded, that she understood how bad the storm was.
The Storm
The flooding was coming from a creek behind O’Briant’s apartment.
“Before the storm, that little creek was maybe…two to three feet deep,” O’Briant said. “It probably reached, like, 20 to 30 feet in just a matter of one to two hours.”
Many cars were forcibly moved, flooded, and crashed into each other. However, O’Briant managed to save her car before it completely went underwater.
The downpour stopped around noon, and sometime between 1:30 and 2:00 p.m., she found the water completely drained from the parking lot, leaving wood, debris, and mud in its trail.
The Aftermath
Following the storm, Appalachia had much to repair and rebuild. Tennessee, along with cities in North Carolina, like Asheville, were hit hard. The Washington Post reports over 200 people have been reported dead across six different states. This is the worst hit western North Carolina has taken since 1916, according to WCNC News.
O’Briant attributes much of the damage caused by Helene to mudslides and landslides that fell from the tops of the mountains.
“The more they fall down, the more they collect and continue to sweep out areas,” she said.
Roads have also been destroyed. NBC News shows a video of one of North Carolina’s major interstates, I-40, thoroughly washed out. O’Briant says a tree fell and blocked one of the bridges, making it difficult to leave the county.
Community Devastation
People all over Western North Carolina have gone online to share how heartbroken they are with losing their community. In such a beautiful state, there have been landmarks, staples, and places people hold dear to their hearts. One of these was Chimney Rock.
O’Briant looks back on it fondly, describing it simply as a downtown area with little shops and restaurants. Tears form as she begins referring to it in the past tense, stating how it was surrounded by “beautiful rocks and stepping stones.”
It is now decimated and essentially erased from existence, O’Briant said. Another sentimental place similar to the rock is the Rainbow Bridge. People would attach the collars of pets who passed away to the rails. That visual reminder of their pets being in a better place has now been washed away due to the storm.
HOW TO HELP
- Stay home
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When asked what people could do to help, O’Briant quickly said for them to stay away.
Peak Week is approaching, which is when the mountains and scenery are at their best. Visits to the area and to the Blue Ridge Parkway, specifically, make up a significant chunk of tourism in North Carolina. People travel there every year to take photos of the fall trees, but that won’t be happening this year. To assess and repair damages, the parkway announced it will remain closed indefinitely.
Many vacations, weddings, and events are canceled as venues announce their closure. O’Briant said she understands that people may be sad about it but stresses how upsetting it is to see vacations being prioritized when so many lives have been lost and devastated. She restates the importance of staying away from Western North Carolina.
“Peak week. It cannot happen this year. We cannot have that,” O’Briant said.
Watauga County Director of Emergency Management, Will Holt, shared a similar message in a press conference on Oct. 1.
“Please stay out of Watauga County unless you are called upon or coordinated,” Holt said.
- DONATE
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If there is anything you can do, it is to donate. O’Briant says people need food, bottled water, nonperishable items, clothing, anything to do with sanitation, and similar items.
Boone is one of the few places in the state that people have been able to get donations to so citizens can bring goods to other devastated cities like Asheville and Avery County.
Appalachian State University, East Carolina University, UNC Wilmington, UNC Chapel Hill, and NC State are just a few colleges currently accepting donations.
If you want to help from outside the state, O’Briant urges people to donate to the Red Cross Hurricane Helene Relief Fund and avoid traveling up to North Carolina. There are several GoFundMe’s seeking financial donations to help people as they try to come back from this disaster.
The Instagram account @appstatehelpinghand also posts updates on local donations, shipments, and important notices for the community.
- BE KIND AND RESPECTFUL
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People’s lives in the Appalachian region been flipped upside down. This is not a matter of politics. This close to a significant election, social media is often incredibly unkind to victims of disasters when discussing politics.
“There’s no need for people to be saying, ‘Thank God, we wiped them out. Thank God, it hit them,’” O’Briant said. “There’s no need for that. This is life that we’re talking about.”
She said that people affected by natural disasters are not talking points to further political agendas and should not be subjected to politically-based hatred.
“I wanna stress so much that this is not political and for people to stop making it political,” O’Briant said. “We’re just trying to rebuild and repair.”
This also isn’t a matter of unwillingness to leave. Across the internet, users question and judge Appalachians for not evacuating, but many of them did not know it would be as bad as it was.
“We did not expect this at all. We did not see this coming,” O’Briant said.
Hurricane Helene’s impact is severe and widespread.
People all over the southern region of the states struggle to find their way back from this. Appalachians, especially, were blindsided by the devastation and are staying strong as they attempt to rebuild, so I urge you all to spread the word and help in any way you can.