Checking In On Each Other After Hurricane Helene
Along with the rest of the country, I know we’ve all been watching the devastation from Hurricane Helene with heavy hearts.
CCL staffers and volunteer leaders in the path of the storm are safe and accounted for, including the leaders of our Asheville, NC chapter. Many are still dealing with the impacts such as power and water outages, spotty cell phone and internet connections, blocked road access, fallen trees and other property damage.
For example, former CCL Staffer Jim Tolbert shared with me (and gave me permission to share with others concerned): Celeste +I are doing fine. Powers back on and we have water pressure still. Absolutely no cell or cable at our house. Gotta get up higher away from home once a day to send/receive and do a few queries. Thanks for checking and please do pass on. We aren't in need, but there are a lot of impacted people in need. But without Internet, I can't even tell you tomorrow's weather, much less where folks could donate. 1 thing I keep thinking: from on Asheville, this really impacts my life, and impacts even more the lives of those with less resources+savings. But this is nothing compared to what lies ahead for coastal cities. Our town will rebound, our state/countries will repair the freeways opening us back up to the rest of USA. But coastal cities are on a trajectories to loose all or part of their entire cities! People in those cities will really feel the bite of the change we are thrusting upon our world.
If anyone would like to share updates from the path of the storm or messages of support, please feel free to do so in this thread. (We do want to be respectful of people’s privacy, so please don’t post specifics of others’ situations unless you have permission to share.) 🙏
Thank you, as always, for your care and concern for each other. 💜
@Brett Cease Thanks Brett.
It's day six without power here in Greenville, SC.
The beautiful old trees in our neighborhood didn’t stand a chance against the saturated ground and 60mph+ winds, but we escaped with a crushed mailbox, flooded basement, and power outage. Falling trees damaged lots of homes and cars all around us.
My neighbors have worked to clear routes for us to drive out. I'd charged my EV before the storm but was able to give it a top-up at a supercharger yesterday. We are lucky to have untainted water; friends of ours are having to boil theirs further out.
The devastation just north of us in Asheville and other mountain towns is catastrophic. The local airport in Greenville is collecting supplies that they are airlifting to the mountains. Some places are so hard to reach they are using mules to deliver aid.
It's been a lot to process, but here's something I wrote:
@Charlotte Ward
Thanks CCL… Tampa Bay had it share of flooding in Pinellas zco. and many islands close by flooded …On the west cost of Florida the damage varies … Prayers to all affected . Martie Turner in Wellswood in Tampa
To three people I know personally in the Asheville chapter
~ @Steffi Rausch @Don Kraus @Bill Marshall
Been thinking of you in this devastating news and I'm glad to hear from Brett that the local volunteer leadership is okay. I hope your chapter members are also safe. Using this thread to check in on you so that you can mute well wishes / keep them in a single email thread.
(Also, unrelated to natural disasters, I just looked at your CCL Community chapter page for Western NC and I'm jealous and inspired and I'm going to see what ideas I can steal from you.)
Take care and keeping you in my thoughts.
with heart and gratitude,
Debbie
@Brett Cease I just sent an oped to our paper after reading Dana's post about Helene.
"If Ashville only had ‘clean air’ like JD Vance summed up the climate crisis.
I wish I could say this is the only time that Republicans have answered climate questions from debate moderators with simplicities like ‘I’m in favor of clean air.’
I also wish I could say that the other party responded by clarifying this as being ‘besides the point.’ The concern is not for smog. Instead, the usual spin commences as if they're talking to 4th graders.
As Yale University says: ‘It thus appears reasonable to theorize that increased sea surface temperatures of about 1 degree Celsius since 1910 in the Gulf of Mexico from human-caused global warming led to about a 40-50% increase in Helene’s destructive power.’
Did it cause Helene? ‘Cause’, no. ‘Influence’ – of course. Please, stop finding who’s to blame and fix it.
And please, It’s not about dirty skies!
Bill Hurley
Charlotte thank you. I wanted to share some other links to help I've found:
World Central Kitchen
WCK has set up hubs to provide meals and drinking water in Asheville and the surrounding area. They are helping in other hard-hit states as well. Donate here.
Beloved Asheville
BelovedAsheville volunteers are hiking into impacted areas without roads to take food, water, hygiene supplies and other lifesaving supplies. https://venmo.com/BeLoved-Asheville
Diaper bank of North Carolina
Hygiene products are often overlooked in disaster relief efforts. Diapers, in particular, are not provided through traditional disaster response programs, but the Diaper Bank of NC is filling that gap. Donate here.
Harvest Hope Food Bank
Harvest Hope has been mobilizing their pantries into communities most affected by Hurricane Helene. They are working with partners across the state to identify hard-hit areas and bring shelf-stable food and water directly to them. Donate here.
You can find links to these and other aid funds, donation programs and Hurricane Helene resources here: https://bit.ly/help-helene
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