This is an update from my friend, a natural born leader and organizer on the ground in her home town of Asheville, NC.
ASHEVILLE UPDATE: another whirlwind day volunteering with the crew working out of the register of deeds.
We had another 500 volunteers show up today, plus many repeaters, and we actually got through the original missing persons list that we had begun with (though :still many unlocated yet), although there’s still wellness check requests coming in. It’s definitely slowing down though. Today, I was dispatching supplies and teams out to check in with small care homes. Also scattered small public housing sites. I literally couldn’t finish a sentence without somebody interrupting me with a question, request, report or update. It was overwhelming; everyone’s been running on adrenaline, and things are just unfolding an incredible rate. About middle of the day I kind of lost my shit and started crying. I realized I hadn’t eaten or had anything to drink all day. All my coworkers were like, “please take a break.“ lol.
There was a constant stream of supplies showing up, we actually had to expand into other county offices to accommodate it all. As food needs are getting less urgent, things are not getting turned around as quickly and we have run out of space for supplies. Thanks to everyone who has been forwarding our requests, people are driving trailers of supplies in from all over the place. All day long, people pull up and say, what do you need? It’s a real question about what we should take at this point. Our biggest current needs are for sanitation supplies, flashlights, diapers, and adult diapers. And things that can replace sheets since people have no laundry. I assume our operation will start winding down; it emerged as an ad hoc effort, and is completely volunteer. But we’ve built an effective organization, and I’m not sure whether the organizers are gonna try and pivot it to something else. Personally I think we should start folding into other groups, but one valuable thing that we are doing that others aren’t is actually canvassing neighborhoods in the field and bringing back information. Another thing that’s unique about our group is that we have a rapid response field model where we are taking tailored needs to people right away. I did hear that Asheville is going to start having bus drivers pick up large amounts of supplies and then drive their regular routes through neighborhoods, distributing supplies along the way. I think that’s a very cool idea. Meanwhile, I have started sending our surplus supply drops up to Burnsville, Bakersville, and other places that we have heard were hard hit and just starting to get opened up.
Yesterday, our “flushing brigade” came together and we went out and did like 2000 toilets. Today we went to nine different sites, I don’t even know how many toilets were flushed. But we also discovered that other people were doing toilet flushing and dropping off greywater, including the a group organized by Rebekkah Todd, whose post about being horrified when entering a highly unsanitary 500-unit home for developmentally disabled people went viral. I reached out to her last night after reading her post on my cousin’s feed, she got back to me immediately. We started coordinating this morning. When our crew went out this morning, there was a great need for plungers. Because of the extra donations that you all sent me, I just pulled 200 bucks out of my pocket and gave this guy the money. He went to Home Depot and bought plungers and met our crew out at the public housing unit. Tonight there’s going to be a “flushing summit” so all these groups can come together and we’re not duplicating effort. #flushingawesome
Today we also started coordinating a little bit informally with the Red Cross, Manna Food Bank, and even the police as we sent a couple people out on more serious wellness checks. It was great to be able to refer out some of the requests and allow our teams to continue doing their general checks.
We also heard today that the NYFD is now taking over disaster relief efforts in the county, allowing our county workers to get back to their jobs doing regular administration which is also massive. I’m very excited they’re here. I suspect we are in competent hands - as long as there’s not a big culture clash between their crew and the southerners (haha, stereotype but its real), I expect things to start moving faster. Apparently our volunteer coordinator had a conversation with them today about all the stuff we’ve been doing, and they said they were very impressed with us! I have been seeing ambulance vehicles, search and rescue emergency vehicles from all over the country, New Jersey, New York, etc. It’s very heartening.
So many emotions: our country is so divided but you know what, when we need each other we show up. This is how it should be. And this is how it’s been here, so maybe this is actually how it is. Another silver lining: although many people do have Internet, people are choosing not to waste their limited cell phone battery charge in accessing it. People are just hanging out, chatting together. The charging station table outside our house has become something like an Internet café, with neighbors hanging out all day. It feels like the old days, more fun, more neighborly, more social. More human. I really have come to feel that the Internet is a pernicious force. Its inexhorable attraction is so consuming that it is restructuring our whole society and I’m *not* here for it. (Well, actially I am, specifically right this minute, but I hope you don’t expect me to live up to my own standards). But OTOH, without it, how would we have all the support we have now? Dilemma.
And last but not least, I literally just this second heard regular trash service will reaume Monday. Hallelujah! Its been getting gross around here. And maybe now that the NYFD is getting involved, the water system will come on online on a little faster than the predicted 3 to 4 weeks. Thanks again everybody for your encouragement and support. It’s literally keeping all of us here afloat.
City of Asheville’s resource webpage.