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EST 2/13/201
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With Thanksgiving behind us, Asheville’s Citizen Times has produced the following piece reflecting on some of our experiences.
N'dea Yancey-Bragg, Wes Woods II and Alex Gladden, USA TODAY NETWORK
Thu, November 28, 2024 —9 min read
I’ve included the beginning of each of these moving stories about some of our experiences.
It is a Thanksgiving Day like no other in Western North Carolina.
The task of rebuilding communities, homes and businesses will stretch on for years. Many WNC residents and business-owners find their fate in the hands of FEMA aid or entangled in red tape.
Yet amid this challenge has emerged a spirit of resilience and helpfulness that has bolstered weary hands and despairing hearts. As the hashtags and signs say, #wncstrong and #ashevillestrong.
On Thanksgiving Day, the Citizen Times shares these eight accounts of how WNC residents were approaching Thanksgiving this year:
Bittersweet’ Thanksgiving with a baby on the way post-Helene
With her second child due just days after Thanksgiving, Emily Russell hoped to host family at her childhood home in Swannanoa this year. But those hopes were dashed when floodwaters trapped her inside her home, where she floated on a mattress with her dog for nearly eight hours before being reunited with her husband, David, and 9-year-old daughter, Natalie.
She started college in September. Then Helene hit
When Anna Robinette arrived in Ridgecrest for her first semester of school at Excel College, she was worried about finding a job to pay for tuition. Two weeks later, she had much bigger problems: Tropical Storm Helene knocked out her water and power for days and decimated the small towns she admired upon arrival.
Body care business owner ‘so joyful’ to have clean water again
Like many other Asheville residents, Heidi Vasone is simply grateful to be alive after Tropical Storm Helene. But the storm stirred up other, darker feelings, too. As recovery continues, Vasone said many are grappling with lingering anxiety and “not feeling worthy of having water and shelter because of all the people that died and people still in tents.”
Despite ‘financial unknowns,’ beekeeper grateful for friends, family and of course, bees
In the mountains, honey is only produced three months out of the year and with nearly half of Charlie Blakley’s colony lost to starvation after the storm, the 34-year-old is facing “a lot of financial unknowns.”
'Disasters like this bring out the best and worst of humanity'
When Cat Matlock moved to Asheville in 2004, she remembers the waters rising high. Tropical Storm Helene put that to shame. Matlock is a yoga teacher and massage therapist, the founder and former owner of West Asheville Yoga and who currently runs Free Body Trigger Point Massage Clinic and Training Center.
He lost two houses, yet what he'll remember is the kindness of others
Tony Johnson lost two houses, on the same plot of land in Green Mountain, to Tropical Storm Helene when the North Toe River rose and swept the houses down the river. “That don’t mean much to me,” Johnson said Nov. 23. His only regret is that he can’t leave them to his descendants. Johnson said he wasn’t scared of death during the storm. Johnson had a heart attack three years ago and underwent heart surgery. He said he wants to live to meet his great-granddaughter. She’s 3 now, and he also has an infant great-grandson.
Knife sharpener recalls how friend aided him after driveway washout
Kaleb Wallace, who uses a wheelchair, is a staple at the Asheville City Market sharpening knives, is ready for a regular Thanksgiving.
Wallace, 43, lives near Barnardsville and couldn’t leave his property for about six or seven weeks without his friend’s help when Tropical Storm Helene destroyed the driveway to his home.
“We had a channel about 8 feet deep and 16 feet wide where the driveway had been,” he said.
At Thanksgiving, accordionist mourns 'wonderful soul' who hosted house concerts
Accordionist Paul Gisondo admits to not knowing what to feel about Thanksgiving after Tropical Storm Helene.
Gisondo, 64, feels like he knows his Asheville neighbors better after he helped cut down trees and get water for them.
"I guess I'm thankful for that sense of community that came out of it," Gisondo said. "I just have a great appreciation for life."
But he also feels sadness in the aftermath of the worst natural disaster to strike WNC in living memory.
Shortly after Helene smashed WNC, I spent several days juggling for the crowds of thirsty people in line for fresh water at distribution points downtown and around Asheville.
On my first day, I noticed someone videoing the area around the water station and it turned out he caught a short clip of my juggling. A month later, he produced an impactful video of tragedy turning to recovery and he used me as the transition between the two.
The artist, Cactus, is a Grammy award winning local performer, known as Secret Agent 23 Skidoo. And he’s a great guy.
Thanks for stopping by. I hope your Thanksgiving weekend is fine.
”Be safe out there” Lamont Cranston
