Barb Caffrey's Blog

Right now, people in Appalachia are suffering due to the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. (Any US newspaper will have details.) Being up in the mountains wasn’t as beneficial as it usually is due to the heavy rainfall. Some homes washed away completely. So did streets, major highways, all sorts of thoroughfares…the people who managed to get out with their families (including their pets) have said they know how lucky they were to do it.

You may be wondering why this blog is focused only on Appalachia. Of course Florida got hit, too. Most of the people in Florida, though, knew what to do to either shelter in place or leave before the storm ever showed up. That wasn’t the case in Appalachia for the most part, especially in rural North Carolina and rural Virginia. North Carolina got hit especially hard, and the first responders are having a very difficult time getting help to those who need it. (Basically, until proven otherwise, everyone’s going to be presumed to need help.)

I am aware of the devastation a flash flood can bring, even a much smaller one that was not caused by a hurricane. That’s because years ago, in Colorado Springs, I was in the midst of one. I had a very small car back then, a hatchback that seated two people (there was a quasi-backseat, but that was only if you folded it down.) I managed to get through an intersection just as it was starting to flood out. I saw later that people had not made it through the intersection behind me, in bigger cars than mine, and had to be rescued from the tops of their cars by helicopters or even by canoes. This flood was bad, was sudden, and there was property damage…but fortunately, no one lost their lives. And within a few days, you’d have never known the area had flooded out.

My experience happened before the widespread use of cellular phones. (And yes, that’s what they were called back then. No shortening to “cell” just yet.) But people were told to stay off the phone lines for the duration of the emergency, and if they were able to go home safely, they should. (I saw all the coverage of the storm, with people getting picked up from the tops of their cars, etc., because of the evening news.) The other things people were told to do were commonsensical: Stay out of the way of the first responders, go home and stay home, and wait to hear if and when you could return to work in that area (or at least drive through it safely).

Right now, such commonsensical things aren’t able to be applied, for the most part, because Appalachia (the mountains and surrounding region) goes through fourteen states on the East Coast. It’s mostly rural. People up there are self-sufficient to a fault. They didn’t get the word early enough that this was going to be an especially bad storm and it would affect them high in the mountains…but even if they had, they might not have been able to get out. Many communities in North Carolina in particular have been described as having few ways to get in and out, and some of the ways people could get up to those rural places was on major highways (some now washed out) with bridges (down or washed completely away) and other such things needed to get them out.

I can’t tell how much road rebuilding will be necessary, except “a lot” from this distance. I am worried, though, because with cell towers down, no electricity, many cars and trucks washed away, houses destroyed, there’s no way to find out except by going door to door — and by using bicycles, of all things — who’s alive, who’s not, and who needs help. (See what I said before, though. Until proven otherwise…everyone needs help.)

If you have family or friends in that area and they’ve not checked in, the authorities are telling people to text. Not call. Text, because it’s more likely to get through. Text also doesn’t clog the emergency lines as much.

Food, water, medical supplies, and other things will be needed in the upcoming days. It may take months or even years to bring back all that was lost — at least, the buildings, the infrastructure, and the roads. People in Swannanoa, NC, which mostly got obliterated, are already vowing to rebuild. Their families came from there, generations back, and they do not want to move. Other communities either have said or will say much the same thing.

At any rate, while I worry about my friends in Florida, I know they have a good idea of what emergency services there are, they knew how to plan for a week or more without power, and the state government usually seems to do a good job at getting things up and running again.

None of that — absolutely none — can be said for these poor rural communities in Appalachia. Most had no idea how bad Hurricane Helene was going to be. There were no plans to get people extra food or water beforehand (or lay in some at the nearest church or community center). No procedures in place for any of this, as it’s not happened before that far up in the mountains.

The cities in North Carolina were much more prepared than the small towns and hamlets. The coastal areas were much more prepared, too. The former, because they had procedures in place; the latter, because they’ve seen some of this before.

At the moment, all I can do is pray for those folks up there who haven’t been found, but are alive — hungry, thirsty, perhaps needing medicine desperately, but alive. I hope they will be found quickly, they will get the medication they need, they will be fed, clothed, sheltered, and given as much water as they’re able to drink.

This is so new to the folks up there that there’s no widespread call as of yet for help. The ability to ask for help isn’t there in some places. In others, maybe they can ask, but they’re worried they won’t get it…I’m pretty sure the National Guard will be mobilized, and the Reservists may get called up as well, as people are going to be needed in a big way to help others and rebuild roads and bridges.

So, the TL;DR of it all is: If you have family up there, text them. Don’t call. Leave the lines open as much as possible for the emergency responders. Look for ways to help the people suffering in Appalachia, as that’s the only thing we can do as presumably civilized people — helping others is what we need to do, to prove that we are human, we care, and that if at all possible we’ll get them on their feet again. And pray. Pray. Pray.