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Asheville, North Carolina – We all experience emergency situations where adrenaline takes over. Make the most of your credit cards, do what you have to do in the moment, and worry about the consequences later.
Western North Carolina was four months after the horrific devastation of Hurricane Helen.
Hidden in the shadow of the aptly named Smoky Mountains, this city of 95,000 is clearly crouched down, with physical scars and workers seemingly lurking around every corner of its red bricks and cozy cafes. is.
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The good news is that most places are open, at least downtown. The Jack in the Woods restaurant and pub on Friday evening drew a sizable crowd, some from out of town.
The people of Asheville are struggling to return to normal life and are helping each other out. (Fox News Digital)
We were told that the restaurant was closed for 2 months before they got a water pump and opened with a limited menu until the water was finally turned on.
But when I asked the bartender, one of the classic kind who seems to know everyone and everything about town, if things felt normal, she almost shocked me.
“No, definitely not,” she said.
She and several other locals, including a man in his 40s who works for a local school district, do something hurricane-related or think about hurricanes every day. asked. Four months later, both gave pretty much the same answer: “Almost all day.”
Signs of rebuilding are on every corner of Asheville. (Fox News Digital)
In a surprising admission, the bartender said the day she got her electricity back was bittersweet.
“It was obviously good,” she said. “But we all came together in this amazing way, so if we could watch TV, we just wanted to be home.”
The damage in Asheville is bad, but it's far worse in the surrounding rural areas. So Mark Luckinbill and a few friends who live in Raleigh have discovered a unique way to help you install mailboxes. Desperate to help the local community in Avery County, Mark was told by a pastor's wife that they really needed heavy equipment.
“All I had was a friend, my hands, and a few shovels,” Mark told me.
Then something happened. The pastor's wife recalled an elderly woman without a cell phone. My cell phone became a terror because I no longer had a mailbox. She relied on it to get her Social Security checks and bills.
This may not make sense to city dwellers, but in rural America, your mailbox can be half a mile down a dirt road from your home. The post office cannot leave parcels on the side of the road.
So they built mailboxes for women.
Mark and his friend have been to Avery County 10 times to install mailboxes. They even have Website now.
The selflessness of neighbors helping neighbors is evident here, as is the spirit of putting others first.
Many people have lost their cars and used cars are scarce. Most cars parked on the streets of Asheville exhibit a telltale design of water damage. (Fox News Digital)
One of the local musicians I spoke to was typical. When I asked if he was hit hard, he said, “No, we were mostly OK. It meant we didn't have power for two months and my car and I 's girlfriend's car was totaled, but nothing dramatic.
In Asheville, that qualifies as “we were mostly okay.” He considers himself lucky.
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I asked if my insurance allowed me to replace the car. He said they were lucky (again) to share.
“Insurance paid,” he said, “but no car, and I can't find anything decent for less than $10,000.”
Shortly after, his girlfriend arrived, exchanged the keys, and said she would get an Uber if work was too slow.
More than 138,000 vehicles were destroyed by Hurricane Helen in a large portion of western North Carolina. As you drive around town, even surviving cars show water damage on their lower halves, and the state attorney general's office is warning of scams involving the sale of severely water-damaged cars.
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Access to cars and mailboxes may seem like small potatoes compared to the loss of life and destruction of homes, but they are adding up fast, and they are still overwhelming states with devastation. and is a low priority for the federal government.
With President Trump's visit on Friday and the promise of more aid, there is room for more optimism in North Carolina. But the real strength here, ultimately what's going to get good people in and around Asheville through this, is itself and how they take care of each other.
There are few things more beautiful than that, and perhaps nothing more American.
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