Three weeks after Hurricane Helene in Asheville | Update from Spencer Cooke at Effort, Inc.

Greetings, everyone. It has been just over three weeks since Hurricane Helene visited us in the North Carolina Mountains. This is to share an update, status report and plans to move forward.

Today I spoke with an excavator operator who lost eleven family members just outside of Asheville on September 27th, the day we were inundated with remnants of Hurricane Helene. This individual told me he was happy to work outside today just so he could get his mind off of this tragedy, and he would not resume work until next week because of the funerals for his loved ones. The things my family and I lost in this storm were far less valuable than life itself. Still disappointing to have trees through roofs and flooding damage, but I’m certain we were very lucky after hearing multiple stories like the one above. (Image here is our new culvert at the rental property being replaced after Helene floods washed the old one out of the creek bed)

In case you need to be brought up to speed on what occurred here due to Hurricane Helene (Sept 27, 2024), see the video below. So many horrific images are circulating out there, this is just one… This is right in town near my home on a small stream called the Swannanoa River that runs from Black Mountain down through Asheville, past the Biltmore Estate where it meets the French Broad.

To help illustrate how much water was draining through our watersheds I’ve provided screenshots of USGS gauges below. These are from some of the more known area rivers, by Asheville, Boone, and Erwin residents, and especially well known by paddlers. All of these gauges stopped working at one point and the Nolichucky gauge seems to have been incapacitated due to historically catastrophic high water. For frame of reference, the Nolichucky normally runs around 1000 CFS (cubic feet per second) around this time of year. The level on Sept 27 made it to an estimated 160,000 CFS, that’s 160 times higher than the normal flow and was chaotic and powerful enough to take out Interstate 26.

I’ll also encourage you to watch this 60 Minutes special which covers communities in and around Asheville, focusing on people affected in the Toe and Cane River drainage. This is north of Asheville, up i-26, backside of Mount Mitchell and headwaters of the Nolichucky.

And, below are some clips I put together from our first two weeks of this event – tame and uneventful in comparison to the real disasters.

With all due respect to people around the globe who deal with natural disaster, war and any other unlivable situation, I do want folks outside of the greater Asheville region (Boone, Erwin, Greenville SC, etc) to know that this recovery is far from over for our area. We are weeks, months, if not years from true recovery. This is not to whine, complain, or to be melodramatic – everyone has problems to solve all the time. This is just to make sure our situation is understood outside of the region and not forgotten as the news cycles move to the next thing and the next thing. Even more recently than Helene, Hurricane Milton hit FL, to add insult to injury, and I’m so sorry for our friends and neighbors in the sunshine state who took on storm surge from Helene and then Milton, directly afterwards. With so many people and places to mention who were in the path of Helene, I’m sorry for anyone I’m not mentioning or overlooking. There were so so many affected. Basically if you were in a low lying area where drainage could occur, you were at risk.

Andrew Holcombe and I do all the work at Effort Inc to help service brands and retailers around the southeast.  We (Asheville) and our families (Bryson City and Boone) are still doing just fine.  Our homes are luckily intact and as of last week we have both electricity and running water back in most of Asheville. Andrew got internet service last week and I got it back at my house today.  Tap water is only non-potable at this stage and expected to be so for quite some time while the turbidity of Asheville’s primary water source settles out and becomes drinkable again.  Thankfully there are many tankers and bottled water stations around the city to continually supply us with drinking water.  (The containers pictured here are in the parking lot of Ingles on Tunnel Road. Thanks to World Central Kitchen, Davis Water Service and others for keeping that water supply coming)

Andrew continues to shoulder the primary workload at Effort Inc while I clean fallen trees and flooding damage at my residence and also at my wife’s business, a vacation rental property in East Asheville called Firelight Cabins.  I might add that Andrew has been a total champ and a real go-getter for which I am eternally grateful.  That’s his standard operating procedure even in non-disaster situations, but right now his conduct is appreciated more than ever. (This photo is of us after moving sales samples out of flooded storage)

Last week Andrew and I, with the help of Michael Garet and his wife Brooke, cleaned all our samples and trade show materials out of a storage unit we kept in the river arts district.  This was far enough away from the French Broad on any other day, but September 27th, Helene brought about four feet of water and plenty of river sludge in with it. I’m sad to say, our friends at Second Gear and French Broad Outfitters (among others) had stores in the same area and both lost everything.  We are fortunate to recover some of our gear, still cleaning that stuff up, and plan to have it ready for our upcoming fall shows. (Photo of muddy sample bags, etc.)

My children and others in the community have stayed busy hanging out with friends, volunteering, helping us out when needed. After dealing with my elementary and middle school-aged children during the COVID-19 pandemic, without being able to spend social time in person with others, I’m grateful that my now-high-schoolers could spend their month out of school with friends. We expect some educational relief soon as Asheville city schools are attempting to reopen for classes by the end of October. Since we have water back in the lines they can operate bathroom toilets, and I believe the plan is for them to have sanitary hand washing stations in place, as well as plenty of drinking water. (Photo here is of my son, Mason, helping Daniel Windham from Astral and Jud Watkins of Wrightsville Beach Brewery on a volunteer mission into the Burnsville/Spruce Pine area to supply food, water and conduct well checks on residents, those who had not yet been located or contacted since the floods. My daughter, Celia, helped Limones Restaurant on multiple evenings while they emptied their refrigerators and prepared all the food for donations to anyone who needed a meal)

So many of you have reached out to check on us and offered help, supplies, etc. Thank you. As I have probably mentioned, we have what we need for now. The greater area needs assistance, especially those who lost homes, vehicles, entire businesses, pets and loved ones. Honestly, all we need from you is for you to continue to do business with Effort Inc, if you can. Thank you to everyone who is actively lending a hand to help us through this challenging moment; family, friends, business owners, police and fire departments, search & rescue teams, federal agencies… The list is long.

Almost a month after this event I’m finally noticing some businesses trying to reopen in downtown Asheville, lots more traffic lights are functioning, things seem to be pointing towards recovery and a new state of function. There’s still a long ways to go before we get all our functions and utilities back in place, but I do see us making it out of this snag. Please be patient with us, bear with us and give us time. 😊 (Photo here is from Firelight Cabins. Thanks to Luke Hopkins for the excavator training)

I’ll end with a positive note from my friend, Reglan Brewer. He’s an industry insider and well-versed product designer who has done lots of work for outdoor gear companies around the North Carolina mountains and well beyond. Here’s an image he posted on LinkedIn. See the thoughtful messaging that went along with it HERE, or click the image below.

– by Spencer Cooke, Effort, Inc.