Federal, state officials tour Haywood after floods Page 17
On the Cover:
Officials knew Hurricane Helene would likely unleash a torrent of damage around Western North Carolina, but no one quite expected the volume of destruction and the depth of devastation encountered. All the while, disinformation has swirled about several elements of the response to the storm. The Smoky Mountain News took a deep dive to see just how responders have dealt with the disaster recovery. (Page 6) Haywood County EMS photo
News
Hurricane Helene can’t deter Haywood’s volunteer spirit........................................4 Falsehoods vs. facts: debunking lies about Helene................................................13 Developer still pursuing Pactiv parcel despite Helene damage..........................15 After Helene, North Carolina is racing to ensure a fair election..........................16 Federal, state officials tour Haywood County after Helene..................................17
Opinion
We’re open, but be understanding ............................................................................18 Desecration and beauty all mixed together ..............................................................19
A&E
A community comes together post-Helene..............................................................20
This must be the place: Ode to Asheville, ode to WNC......................................21
Outdoors
Macon moves ahead on watershed ordinance
Up Moses Creek: The Hatband ..................................................................................26
D IGITAL MARKETING S PECIALIST Tyler Auffhammer. . . .
ADVERTISING SALES: Amanda Bradley. . . .
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C LASSIFIEDS: Scott Collier.
N EWS E DITOR: Kyle Perrotti. . . . .
WRITING: Hannah McLeod. . . .
Cory Vaillancourt. .
Garret K. Woodward.
ACCOUNTING & O FFICE MANAGER: Jamie Cogdill. .
D ISTRIBUTION: Scott Collier. . . . . . . .
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C ONTRIBUTING: Jeff Minick (writing), Susanna Shetley (writing), Adam Bigelow (writing), Thomas Crowe (writing)
Hurricane Helene can’t deter Haywood’s volunteer spirit
BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS EDITOR
Throughout Hurricane Helene, the slogan going around Haywood County has been, “neighbors helping neighbors.”
The personification of those words is nowhere more apparent than at Haywood Pathways Center in Waynesville, where a small group of volunteers gathered on Oct. 5 to minister to some of the county’s most vulnerable residents.
“I love the people here, and there’s been a lot of kind people who’ve helped me out during this storm,” said Bri Myles, who lives in Cullowhee and studies anthropology at Western Carolina University. “I need to pay it forward, keep the good energy going.”
Pathways is a Christ-centered residential center that provides food, shelter and personalized support services to anyone that needs it — especially those experiencing homelessness, substance abuse disorder or economic distress. Since 2014, Pathways has provided more than $8.5 million in services to residents of Haywood County at almost no cost to taxpayers.
When Helene ravaged Western North Carolina on Sept. 27, Myles was in Asheville, where she works. Her parents live in Canton, and she’s staying with them until things return to normal.
“I couldn’t think of a better way to spend my time,” she said. “Like, I could play video games or whatever, but I like hanging out with people, making people food, making good energy.”
Myles had been to Pathways to serve before, as had Bob Cummings, the reintegration program manager and classification
officer for the Haywood County Sheriff’s Office. Cummings is also a priest at Waynesville’s Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church, where he’s known as Father John. He and his wife, Sue, head up a volunteer cook team at Pathways with church members. Their home was undamaged, so they headed over to Pathways on their regular day to do what they’ve been doing for years — selflessly serving the community in which they live and work.
“This is what we do. This is what people do, especially in a time of crisis, like now. People stick together. So we’ve been coming here for five or six years. What’s different today is the volume of people and the fact that we have people in great crisis,” he said. “People have lost everything. Some things we can’t fix, but we can give them a fantastic meal that is going to fill them up.”
And it did — a rich chicken stew with tomatoes, carrots, mushrooms and onions; roasted chicken drumsticks with barbecue sauce and crisp-fried jalapenos; boiled squash and zucchini with shallots; home fries and bread. Pathways is supported almost exclusively by private donors and partnerships with MANNA FoodBank (now operating out of a temporary location after losing their sprawling facility) and Publix.
Andy Bailey was celebrating his birthday on Edisto Island with his wife, Robin, just as the storm hit. When he returned, he discovered his house was undamaged so he immediately went to work as a volunteer at the Jonathan Valley Elementary School aid distribution site, even taking part in a caravan to deliver supplies to hard-hit campgrounds along Moody Farm Road.
A draftsman by trade, Bailey was making his first visit to Pathways. He’s not a member of any church, but he does have a spiritual side that compelled him to put his personal business on hold and continue with his volunteer work.
“I’ve been a member of this community for 20 years, and I have prospered. The community has been great for me. I want to give something back,” Bailey said.
Bailey’s nephew, Ed Bailey, a Navy veteran who works with uncle Andy, turned up with his partner Katherine Ramey, a nurse practitioner. Ramey serves on Haywood County’s planning board and is also a member of Clyde’s planning board. On that beautiful Saturday afternoon, and with so much planning board work to come in the months and years ahead, Ramey said she’d been in Asheville all week but still wanted to spend her day off continuing to be helpful.
“I work for HCA Healthcare, Mission Hospital, so I’ve seen the support and the amount of volunteers and effort that we’ve put in for Buncombe County there,” she said. “I feel like I hadn’t done enough for Haywood County, which is where I live — born and raised, been here all my life — so we’re stepping in today do a little bit for Haywood County and help out where we can.”
Ramey and Bailey’s home was unaffected, which left Ed feeling like he could do more.
“I’ve been watching from our house this week and helping around the neighborhood until our neighborhood was good,” he said. “Since then, I’ve just been looking for other ways to help out the community.”
To learn more about Haywood Pathways Center or to make a donation, visit haywoodpathwayscenter.org.
Voter registration ends Friday
The deadline to register for the November General Election is 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 11.
Voters can register at the county’s board of elections office or at the local DMV. Online registration is available with a valid North Carolina driver license.
Registration in person will be available during the early voting period starting Thursday, Oct. 17, through Saturday, Nov. 2, but not on Election Day. More information about voter registration is available at nc.sbe.gov/registering. Proof-of-identity documents are required for registration. A list of approved documents can be found on the state board of elections website.
Registered voters can check or update addresses, find polling locations and view a mock ballot at vt.ncsbe.gov/reglkup.
For any other questions regarding registration, visit ncsbe.gov.
Volunteers (left to right) Sue Cummings, Katherine Ramey, Ed Bailey, Bri Myles, Andy Bailey and Bob Cummings cooked and plated hot meals at Haywood Pathways Center on Oct. 5. Cory Vaillancourt photo
Putting in the work
Responders of all stripes converge on Haywood County following Helene
BY KYLE PERROTTI NEWS EDITOR
On the morning of Sept. 27, as rain fell steadily from the pre-dawn sky, Travis Donaldson took a drive around the eastern end of Haywood County. Donaldson, the county’s emergency services director, made a lap around all the appropriate areas, finishing up in Cruso with the intention of turning around and heading back toward Waynesville, where an emergency operations center had already been set up.
But when he started toward the north end of the narrow valley, the East Fork of the Pigeon River, already swollen from several inches of rain in the previous couple of days, had risen
up, leaving him stuck, cut off from the rest of the county. While it was frustrating to be isolated, he found a way to make the most of his time. Although, as a supervisor, he normally tries to stay out of operations, he started working with other emergency responders in Cruso to do whatever he could.
Donaldson found himself at the Cruso Community Center where about 90 residents had sought shelter since it’s on relatively high ground. However, as the East Fork of the Pigeon River spilled out of its banks and continued to rise, Donaldson and the other first responders considered their options.
Although Donaldson was nervous about what might be happening elsewhere, he couldn’t quite fathom the scope of sheer devastation just miles away as waterways all over the county left their banks, leaving several swaths of destruction that have already claimed five lives in Haywood alone.
Leading up to the storm, all indications pointed to Helene being devastating, perhaps even worse than the
floods in Cruso and Canton in 2021 caused by the remnants of Tropical Storm Fred.
Donaldson and other officials in the county have frequently said “it’s not a matter of if, but when” the region gets hit with another major flooding disaster.
“Every time I see a storm forming in the gulf, it’s the first thing I think about,” he said.
But in this case, while the storm was far worse than what was seen in 2021, many are considering the response in Haywood County to be a success, something they credit to lessons learned from the previous flood. In addition, unlike with Fred which hit all at once, in this case responders had the advantage of knowing days ahead of time Tropical Storm Helene posed a serious threat. While Donaldson said the response was not without its hiccups, he is still proud of how well responders from all over were able to come together to save lives.
“We knew we were going to get hammered,” he said. “But we knew what to expect, what to prepare for.” F
Swiftwater rescues have been common throughout Western North Carolina since Hurricane Helene hit. Haywood County Emergency Services photo
THE PLAN
The preparation for the disaster Helene delivered began in Haywood County as soon as the 2021 cleanup from Fred commenced. While the warning sirens the county approved hadn’t yet been installed, new flood gauges placed around the county’s waterways that provide live readings of water levels were invaluable. In addition, several people interviewed said debris removal following Fred, which was continuing almost right up to the point Helene made landfall in Florida, lessened the severity of the flooding in Cruso, which was spared the same level of carnage seen in 2021. In 2021, one of the key problems was that buildups of debris during the onset of the flood acted as dams, which when broken released massive walls of water downstream all at once.
County and local leaders held daily briefings beginning the Monday before the storm hit Haywood, and many of those folks were in contact with state and federal officials.
“That seems like it was months ago now,” said Haywood County Manager Bryant Morehead.
Morehead said that while big picture solutions and contingencies were discussed, perhaps the most valuable thing was updates provided by National Weather Service. The forecasts grew grimmer by the day, but they brought leaders into the right headspace to deal with what was coming. This storm was not to be underestimated, and everyone knew it. Morehead said that during the Wednesday meeting, about 48 hours before the storm hit Haywood, the weather service predicted almost exactly what ended up happening in specific places across the county, which gave officials leeway to stage resources and rescue teams strategically.
“It’s a good thing we had that,” Morehead said, “because Fred was nowhere near as bad as this.”
To get ahead of what was guaranteed to be a large volume of people needing to evacuate, the county also put a request to receive help from Task Force 8, a team of 30 personnel out of Raleigh that specializes in technical rescue operations. Taskforce 8 turned out to help with some of the more technical swiftwater and mountain rescues, along with a team from Cherokee, one from Winston-Salem and numerous teams from out of state. While flooding events usually only require help from neighboring counties, everyone in the region was dealing with catastrophic flooding, so that wasn’t possible.
There was also planning happening at the local level.
For Canton Fire Chief David Wheeler, memories of Fred drove actions ahead of Helene. Although Wheeler has only been chief since February 2022, he has been with the department about 30 years, meaning he also endured the floods that came in 2004 that he said had set the previous high-water mark in the flood-prone fire station.
This time around, the water reached about 14.5 feet up on the walls.
“It hasn’t ever gotten to that level,” Wheeler said.
Ahead of the storm, Canton firefighters moved stuff out of the station, and throughout the storm, Wheeler’s department operated out of a separate location with teams also stationed on each side of the Pigeon River; during previous floods, the swollen Pigeon River made the other side of town inaccessible. That proved beneficial with Helene when a man was stranded in a vehicle on Blackwell Avenue, an area that may have been inaccessible if all personnel were operating out of the station. In this case,
Canton firefighters and police officers were able to break a window of a submerged vehicle to pull an elderly man to safety.
There were numerous similar rescues in Waynesville. Fortunately, the Waynesville Fire Department got a swift water boat with a 30 horsepower motor this summer. Then, as the storm approached, they scrambled to get another one. While the newest boat doesn’t have a motor, Webb said it saw plenty of use during Helene. Waynesville firefighters upstaffed beginning Thursday and had people staged to respond at about 3 a.m. Friday just as the rains intensified.
“Our thoughts were, we’d go help Canton and Clyde and areas that normally flood like Cruso, but we had more damage than we anticipated in Waynesville,” Webb said. “We pulled people off their porches, off the tops of their cars.”
In Cruso, planning for Helene brought back traumatic memories of Fred. Cruso Assistant Fire Chief Daryl Henderson said that during their last brief prior to the storm arriving, although everyone was locked in and wanting to avoid complacency, some couldn’t help but let their minds wander toward their darkest memories.
“We met with our firemen. We gathered everyone around and told them the dire news and what they should expect,” Henderson said. “There were some teary eyes around the room because, at least for us in leadership, there’s some fashion of PTSD from Tropical Storm Fred.”
THE DELUGE
Thursday evening, as expected, first responders of all stripes were put on alert. In the early Friday morning darkness, the word came to get to work, so the various responders from various agencies with various skills reported where they were needed and
got to work.
In Waynesville, the geographical and population center of the county, swiftwater rescues were already underway by about 4 a.m. in an area not used to flooding, as Browning Branch in the Allens Creek area threatened houses. Within an hour flooding spread to numerous spots around Waynesville, already cutting people off before the sun was even up, all while broader evacuations began across the county as already normally placid raged out of their banks.
Once dawn broke, responders breathed a sigh of relief as they could see what was going on around them, but it also created a new problem. People began coming outside to see the damage, which created even more dangerous situations and necessitated more rescues. Some even tried to drive around looking to find a dry path to higher ground. A few went around barricades, which led to some of the most dangerous rescues throughout the day.
As floodwaters continued to rise and drown towns across Western North Carolina, new challenges emerged, from downed trees blocking roads and cutting off access to some areas to increasing landslides to live powerlines falling and draping across roadways. Local responders took calls for gas leaks, transformer fires and even a few structure fires. There were even calls indicating that houses were floating down waterways with people still inside. In one 911 call, a man said he was able to get out of his trailer just in time to watch it get picked up and carried away with his wife still inside.
Even Jonathan Creek, which most Maggie Valley residents have never seen leave its banks, created problems, washing away bridges and leading to several water
rescues in difficult areas, including one along Moody Farm Road where 10 people were trapped in a home as water lapped at the windows.
“I don’t know how to get up there to get them,” an exasperated responder said over the radio, lamenting how quickly Jonathan Creek had risen. Eventually, it was decided that a ladder truck would be best to ford the rising waters.
Both men are qualified swiftwater rescue technicians and Jerad had a rescue boat in tow.
They disassembled their equipment and headed to Canton, where they’d quickly find work.
First, they encountered someone trapped in a house in the Beaverdam area. He said the water was about 300-400 feet across, and in that case, someone with a truck was able to find a safer way to the home than they could.
Koontz with Haywood County EMS was able to get a Starlink kit set up ahead of the storm, which brought back to life those vital communication channels.
In addition to emergency communications, during disasters, it’s also vital to keep the public informed.
With this in mind, in the wake of Tropical Storm Fred in 2021, Haywood County Emergency Services Public Information Office Allison Richmond had an idea inspired by one of her heroes, Genie
Scanner traffic indicated that the situation became more dire as more roadways and bridges washed out, including Haywood County’s most vital. At one point, someone asked over the radio whether Interstate 40 was still passable for emergency vehicles.
“Just shut the 40 down,” came the response. “It’s gone.”
At this point, responders were already stacking calls, meaning they had multiple pending rescues at one time and had to prioritize based on location and severity. In areas that were already cut off for one reason or another, panicked people looking for rescue were told to shelter in place. No one would be able to save them. Even some of the responders found themselves stuck on “islands” meaning they had zero access to any way out of their current location and were directed to park on the highest ground available.
Among the people who was helping in the initial rescue effort was Rep. Mark Pless (RHaywood). Like many in the area, he said he woke up at about 4 o’clock and felt restless. He was out the door by about 5 a.m. and after driving around the county for a bit, he headed to Waynesville, threw on his waders and knocked on doors to let people know the water was coming up.
Pless’ original plan before he got caught in Waynesville was to meet his son, Jared, who heads up the Haywood County Rescue Squad.
At one location just outside of town, they got a guy, his cat and his dog out of a home that was quickly becoming inundated. In downtown Canton itself, they rescued a man, a woman and six dogs who were trapped in a vehicle after going around a barricade.
“While we were working on getting them out, there was another vehicle that went around the barricade and got stuck in the water,” Pless said.
That afternoon, once the sun came out and the water began receding, responders started on their list of hundreds upon hundreds of welfare checks. Those welfare checks were either requested by out-of-town family or logged by responders as the disaster unfolded. As of the beginning of this week, even as drones and human remains detection K-9s are still working along riverbanks and through landslides, those checks were finally winding toward completion.
THE GREAT CHAMBERS MOUNTAIN BUSHWHACK
A large part of any disaster relief effort is maintaining communications. In this case, even emergency communications went down, meaning first responders could have been operating in the dark. However, Zach
was that the road to Chambers Mountain was littered with dozens of fallen trees. This is where a group of county workers, along with Matthew Hooper — Haywood County’s state forest service ranger — stepped in with chainsaws, a bulldozer and a good deal of gumption. Hooper and his crew cut the trees up and the dozer pushed them out of the way.
“We had to make the road wide enough that a propane truck could get up Chambers Mountain,” Hooper said.
With the help of an electrician employed by the county, a 2,000-gallon propane tank was brought up and hooked to a generator. Richmond said an electrician who works for the county was able to rig up the generator to the FM translator, and WPTL came back to life, and since then Richmond has been able to hit the airwaves and deliver vital information to hungry ears on a regular basis.
Evans could breathe a sigh of relief, but with tears in her eyes, she recalled to SMN how helpless she’d felt in the two days that the station was down.
“I worried that I couldn’t get all the information to our listeners, and they didn’t know what was coming,” she said. “I felt dead in the water. Any time my station goes off, I go into panic mode.”
THE EXTENDED RESPONSE
In the mornings since Helene hit, responders have mustered at a Lake Junaluska dining hall at 7 a.m. to grab some quick breakfast and a cup of coffee while they receive their morning briefings.
Chance. Chance was an Alaskan journalist and broadcaster who would eventually become elected to multiple state-level elected positions. In 1964, a massive earthquake devastated much of that state, and with so much infrastructure destroyed, Chance took to the airwaves for several days with few breaks to share lifesaving information, dispatch first responders and provide calm clarity in the wake of devastation.
Richmond, who has for years kept a photo of Chance at her desk, considered that FM radio could be a lifeline to people cut off from information. She got up with Terryll Evans, who owns and operates Canton’s WPTL, which has an FM repeater on Chambers Mountain that can boost the signal to reach just about the whole county.
“I called her up and said, ‘crazy idea,’ … She didn’t even let me finish my sentence. She said, ‘We’ll do it. anything you need,’” Richmond said.
That plan became protocol. Richmond recalled that once the flooding began this go-round, Donaldson assigned her with executing that plan. The first step was to track down Evans. Evans recalled that Saturday morning, about 24 hours after the flooding hit, a firefighter pulled into her driveway and requested that she join him downtown, where she ran into Richmond.
The two got to work, but the problem
On Thursday, Oct. 3, the 469 federal, state and local personnel present for the briefings were told that the westbound lanes of I-40 near the Tennessee state line were showing signs of breaking off and that only one small lane of travel would be available, meaning only one vehicle could pass through at a time — news that elicited some audible groans. One man talked about safety, noting that they’d had two injuries the prior day and that as rescuers become more fatigued and perhaps even more complacent, slips and falls would become more likely.
Following each day’s briefings, everyone grabs a sack lunch, goes their separate ways and sets into their work until they again meet at the cafeteria for dinner in the evening.
A crucial part of the extended response that many people interviewed by The Smoky Mountain News wanted to highlight is how grateful they are for the hospitality extended by the community, and especially Lake Junaluska. Folks from the Lake Junaluska Assembly not only served two hot meals and gallons upon gallons of fresh coffee every day, they also housed the responders throughout the grounds. For Lake Junaluska Executive Director Ken Howle, it’s all part of living up to a mission of service in the name of Jesus Christ, and in this case that meant providing “sanctuary” from the massive stress and physical F
This truck was swept up in the floodwaters and deposited here in downtown Canton. Cory Vaillancourt photo
exhaustion built up each day in the field.
Howle said the transition from housing folks for retreats and religious functions to housing tired first responders has been interesting.
“Our parking lots have transitioned from having church buses and retreat participants to emergency workers and recovery workers,” he said.
Like so many interviewed for this story, it was hard for Howle to suppress his emotion when talking about the human resiliency he’s seen, including from his own staff, many of whom moved onto the grounds in the wake of the storm so they could work up to 14-hour days serving food, cleaning and doing laundry.
“You can tell a lot about people during times of crisis. I couldn’t be more proud every day to work alongside this dedicated staff who have left their homes to move onto the grounds to keep those workers nourished and rested so they could do the work they do,” he said. “It’s not a complete surprise because I work with some amazing people, but it’s reassuring to see the true grit and determination.”
Team leader Bob Zimmerman said the men were happy to get the chance to operate and especially to serve a community in need.
“We were waiting for the opportunity to go out the door and help a region,” Zimmerman said. “It’s a huge morale booster for our guys. You don’t wish an emergency of this magnitude on anybody, but you want to go out and do the things you’re trained to do.”
The Wisconsin taskforce was assigned a 13.5-mile section of the Pigeon River and worked in conjunction with the Crabtree Iron Duff Fire Department. Zimmerman said the first thing he noticed was how wellprepared the local firefighters he worked with were and how committed they were to their community.
“We spent most of our time connected with them because we didn’t have communications reachback, but they did,”
Zimmerman said. “They were absolutely phenomenal. Our deployment looks entirely different if we don’t have the partnership we did with those guys.”
In addition to conducting swiftwater rescues, the Wisconsin taskforce conducted
One of the teams that made the trip to Haywood County was Wisconsin Taskforce 1, known as WI-TF1. The Wisconsin taskforce employs operators from 21 different departments. For this mission, a 16-man team with four swift-water boats headed south.
Leaders on the Wisconsin taskforce saw that a call went out for out-of-state emergency response personnel to come to North Carolina ahead of Helene’s arrival on a system called the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC), which blasts the information to all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and four U.S. territories. They submitted an offer to respond, which was accepted by North Carolina Emergency Management. Coming to Western North Carolina was the first time the team had operated in the field, even though many members had trained for up to a decade prior to this deployment. They arrived the morning after the storm hit and got right to work.
numerous land-based operations that required hiking into remote areas, especially those cut off by landslides or floodwater, where they’d make contact with residents to see if they needed evacuation or necessary supplies like food or water. For this, along with their proficiency in swift water rescue, the Wisconsin taskforce built a strong reputation during its week in the region.
Zimmerman said that one thing that helped is that he brought two operators who are proficient in using Search and Rescue Common Operating Platform (SARCOP), through which responders can log what they find at any residence to ensure work isn’t duplicated.
When asked how his team adapted to the rugged terrain of the Blue Ridge Mountains for its first operation in the field, Zimmerman said the men performed well not because the geography was familiar, but
The Wisconsin taskforce gears up. Kyle Perrotti photo
because they are in excellent physical shape, which helps them adapt to the steep slopes.
“If you aren’t at that fitness level, you’re not going to be effective, and we want to be effective,” he said.
In addition to heaping praise on the local firefighters he worked with, Zimmerman noted both how beautiful Western North Carolina and its people are. Hailing from a rural area himself, he said the people had strong values like he was used to, although he did joke that there may have been a couple of communication issues.
them. That slide in Maggie Valley was one of the tougher ones.
“There are just massive amounts of debris — huge trees, boulders, rocks,” he said. “And the mud just compounds it. You’re in mud that could be anywhere from a foot to four feet deep, and that can be very treacherous to try to walk through. Then, once you reach the person who needs help, you have to figure out the best means to get them back out. Is it back through where you just went, or do you need to go through an entire new area?”
In addition, these kinds of rescues can be tricky if people are panicked to the point that they may not be able to
“I needed a translator for some of them, and some of them needed a translator for me,” he said.
In the days following the flood, overland rescues proceeded as landslides developed and more people who’d been isolated were identified. Many of the more technical rescues required the use of ropes and other equipment. Haywood County Assistant Emergency Coordinator Cody Parton is a nationally renowned expert in such rescues and was on hand at several slides.
Like so many who spoke with SMN, he was humble, even reticent, when talking about the people he’d pulled from dire situations.
“I can try to tell you as much as I can, but I don’t have a great story here,” he said.
Parton recalled one rescue in the mountains above Maggie Valley where two elderly people and a dog were trapped in what was left of their home. He said that for some rescues, crews would spend anywhere from three to six hours just working to access people who were cut off or trapped, often while the ground was still shifting beneath
process instructions from the responders. Parton admitted that can be a major challenge and that it’s important to gain people’s trust in a short amount of time by building a foundation with the person from the moment contact is made. However, Parton said this can also happen well before a crisis sets in if responders in a community gain a reputation for being good stewards who care about their fellow residents. In someone’s worst hour, they want to have faith that help is on the way.
But Parton did admit that sometimes the situation necessitates a more brash approach.
“You just have to lay it out for them, what the high possibility of a [bad] outcome will be,” he said.
Unlike many of the people from other states who selflessly volunteered to come aid in search and rescue and recovery efforts, Parton is a local boy, and responding to this storm was personal for him, and he was happy to contribute however he could.
“I’ve always loved helping people … there’s an instant gratification,” he said.
THE AID EFFORT
Of the 469 personnel present for the brief last Thursday, many were working in the aid distribution effort. Each day, Air National Guard Chinook helicopters based as far away as Rochester, New York, would bring in food, water and medicine. These choppers were then unloaded at the Smoky Mountain Event Center, which was operating under the security of two teams of Hartnett County deputies working 12hour shifts.
From there, pallets full of supplies were moved around by a couple of Haywood County Public Works employees driving forklifts to the right spots, from which they were loaded into all kinds of vehicles, even ambulances, and brought to distribution sites, such as the nearby Woodland Baptist Church.
The aid effort worked efficiently due to volunteers, county workers and National Guard soldiers and airmen, but it was coordinated by a five-man group from Kentucky Emergency Management’s Incident Management Team. Each person on the team brought specific skills to the table that could be employed in any disaster recovery effort, said Incident Commander Dustin Heiser.
Like the team from Wisconsin and others from out of state, Heiser submitted an offer to respond to the disaster in North Carolina via the EMAC, and that offer was accepted. Heiser and his staff were ready to go, and once they were on the road about an hour away from the region, they received their orders. He said it usually goes that way.
“Will we manage a search and rescue operation? Will we manage a central receiving and distribution point? Will we assist an emergency operation center? We don’t know until we get into it,” Heiser said.
Heiser said that, in a sense, it’s nice that his team doesn’t deploy a lot because there aren’t too many disasters that merit such a response, but he’s proud to have the opportunity and is always ready to help in whatever way he can.
Every operation has its own nuances and challenges, but Hesier said that since he and his team F
National Guard soldiers and local volunteers work together to load supplies into a Haywood County ambulance. Kyle Perrotti photo
Hundreds of responders mustered for several mornings in a row to eat breakfast and receive their briefings. Kyle Perrotti photo
arrived last Sunday, every day has gotten a bit smoother. While Heiser’s team seemed to be doing a good job coordinating operations to keep inventory on track and supplies rolling out, he also credited the hard work of others.
“This is just a fantastic group, including the great volunteers and the National Guardsman,” he said. “Our team is just here to help.”
The folks working to load and unload supplies laughed and joked as they did their duty, rarely stopping for even a few minutes to take a break. When asked how morale has remained high, Heiser said they were treated to multiple mood boosts each day.
“When big helicopters land anywhere, it’s cool to see,” he said with a grin.
More seriously, Heiser noted that in his experience, the worst circumstances — and Haywood County is enduring some of the worst anywhere in recent memory — tend to draw out the best in people, bringing folks of all stripes together with one common goal in mind.
“Whether it’s the Guard, our team, the volunteers, they want to be here because they want to help,” he said. “I’m extremely happy, and our team is extremely happy to be here, not because of the circumstances, but because these are the things we do. We want to support and help when these bad things happen.”
DISINFORMATION — ‘TURN THAT GARBAGE OFF’
Despite the prevailing opinion that efforts — at least in Haywood County — have been better than average, a slew of disinformation has emerged online that can hurt people’s faith in the response efforts while also hurting the morale on the ground.
people feel during this scary and uncertain time. At this juncture, these attempts are even more effective due to the lack of trust in the government created in so many during the COVID pandemic. In many cases, conspiracy theories tied to the disaster response are given false credibility by offering vague sources, sometimes even just the
“This is going to take MONTHS if not years to overcome. Government will play a role in this cleanup,” Corbin wrote. “We are going to make sure the state chips in some massive money. But Government is not the total solution. YES, there are a lot of neighbors helping neighbors and that’s good and the way it should be. Please don’t let these
words “I know someone on the ground.”
Some of the rumors floating around are that FEMA is stealing money and property, the government has left stacks of bodies in certain areas and that the government created the hurricane with the aim of seizing land for a large lithium mine. Even former President Donald Trump has piled on in recent days as he campaigns to regain control of the White House, posting on X that after visiting Georgia, he wanted to come to North Carolina but couldn’t access the hardhit areas.
“I’ll be there shortly, but don’t like the reports that I’m getting about the Federal Government, and the Democrat Governor of the State, going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas. MAGA!” he wrote.
However, elected officials from both parties — who have also been working together to respond to this disaster — have been
The social media accounts spreading these rumors, many of which appear to be bots, are playing on the fact that a disaster like this leaves nerves raw and people vulnerable. Those looking to pedal disinformation can be successful by appealing to how
mistakes he thinks have been made, he still took time to thank all local, state and federal responders.
“They’re going extraordinary work,” he said.
“FEMA knows how to do this well,” he added.
At a press conference last Friday, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, Republican Haywood County Sheriff Bill Wilke and Republican Haywood County Commission Chair Kevin Ensley flatly denied rumors and conspiracy theories circulating on social media alleging a lack of government response to the catastrophe left in the wake of Tropical Storm Helene.
“[They] are pulling together like people in Western North Carolina do,” Cooper said, adding that while this is an “unprecedented storm,” people are working together to provide an “unprecedented response.”
working hard to dispel those rumors. One of the first to speak out against the disinformation was state Sen. Kevin Corbin (R-Macon), who offered a forceful statement on Facebook laced with facts refuting some of the most common rumors.
crazy stories consume you or have you continually contact your elected officials to see if they are true … Thanks for listening but I’ve been working on this 12 hours a day since it started and I’m growing a bit weary of intentional distractions from the main job ... which is to help our citizens in need,”
That sentiment was backed up by Republican U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, who on ’Face the Nation” said Corbin is correct. While Tillis said resources are moving slower than he’d hope and in recent days he’s called out the Biden administration for some
At the press conference, a reporter asked Criswell about a rumor that people had already been denied requests for aid.
Criswell said no one had been denied at that point, and that typically if those in need aren’t getting assistance “immediately,” more information is needed. She added that the problem is often that people have that necessary information on electronic devices that have been destroyed or are otherwise inaccessible. There are already teams in the field working to obtain that information.
Another rumor Criswell addressed is that
SEE FIRST RESPONDERS, PAGE 12
A site at Jonathan Valley Elementary School where people can pick up resources. Jerry Bartle photo
Gov. Roy Cooper speaks to a small press gaggle. Cory Vaillancourt photo
funding for FEMA has been diverted to “other things,” as she put it, a nod to allegations that money going to providing essential services for migrants or aid in Ukraine has taken away from the response to Helene.
“I can tell you that is false. Completely false,” Criswell said.
“Our funding is here for them, and we’re not going to leave until everyone has everything they need for this recovery,” she added.
also made it clear that he thought actions taken by responders during the worst of the storm saved a tremendous amount of lives.
“The reason no one was saying anything about the storm right away was because these people were out serving the community, not posting on Facebook saying ‘pat me on the back,’” Pless said.
Richmond, the Haywood EMS PIO, made her opinion clear when it comes to the distraction of disinformation and how much tougher that makes her job.
“Disinformation and misinformation,
flood as the smiles and energetic demeanors of first responders were increasingly belied by increasingly glassy, sad and distant eyes.
Donaldson has something he said can always draw strength from — time with his kids. He usually enjoys getting home in time to interact with them before they go to sleep. But sometimes, times like these, that’s not always that case, and that’s when admitted he might have some difficulty.
“What hurts me and when I really start having issues is when I leave before they get up, and I get home after they go to bed, and I
are shut down and the trauma is locked in. Given the fast-paced nature of this incident, these brief therapy sessions are known informally as “walk-and-talks,” during which a responder can get up with a clinician and take a walk around the block, even just a walk around the building — any chance to offer people opportunities to unburden themselves.
While Baker said the mission is important to him and his clinicians wherever they serve, this is one of the first times they’ve served their own community in the wake of a disaster of this magnitude.
“For an incident like this, the pressure is much higher because these are the people we live with and the people we have close relationships with,” he said. “For me as the owner, I want to make sure everything we do is top-notch and seamless. These are the people we’ll see every day as we live out the rest of our lives.”
With that pressure in mind, Baker admitted that he worries about his clinicians’ wellbeing, since absorbing so much of other people’s trauma can stack up on a person, whether they experienced their trauma during the flood or not. Baker said that while he has clinicians who lost all their belongings, he’s still worried about each of them in one way or another.
“Absorbing that trauma puts us at twice the risk for developing post-traumatic reactions,” he said.
Wilke stepped up to the microphone and made a characteristically candid statement, almost becoming emotional at one point. He said he’s seen plenty of people working 18hour days doing “muckouts” who are dedicated to the mission, dedicated to this community. While he said those spreading conspiracy theories are “of no concern” to him, he recommended Haywood County residents “turn that garbage off,” and he had a challenge for those spending time spreading that disinformation.
“Get off Facebook, and get out there and put on a pair of boots and pair of gloves and get to work,” he said.
Pless has made some rumbles in the state political circles with a response he offered to an email from North Carolinian who was claiming the government has done nothing in response to the catastrophic flooding. In his response, he recalled generally the stories he told SMN but added his own message.
“If a showman is what you like, Florida has open boarders [sic] and would gladly welcome you,” he said.
Pless told SMN that there were mistakes made — like during any disaster response — and he was looking forward to discussing what could have been done better, but he
whether intentional or unintentional, causes a lot of extra work for first responders, and it causes extra work in public information group because we have to track down rumors and clarify them for the public,” she said.
“We have to produce an abundance of messaging, and we have other messaging that takes a lot of time,” she said. “Those who choose to comment from outside of our community aren’t on the ground and shouldn’t be speaking for us. If they haven’t verified information, they’re doing a disservice.”
SUPPORTING THE RESPONDERS
When Richmond took to the airwaves on WPTL, she not only conveyed information, but she also had some words for the responders she’d seen in the field. She reminded them to take care of themselves and that it’s alright to feel overburdened by the stress and exhaustion and even traumatic memories endured during the rescue and aid efforts.
“It’s OK to not be OK,” she said, her voice wavering as she thought about her own experiences.
It could be seen in the days following the
don’t get to spend that time and see that the most important thing to me in my life,” he said. “I like to know that they’re OK and happy and that they understand that daddy’s OK.”
This presents an often-overlooked element of any situation like this — the wellbeing of the responders. It isn’t that people don’t care, it’s just often that responders are so busy putting in the hard work that they don’t even have time to process their own trauma, and they can feel selfish, even guilty, spending time thinking about their own wellbeing amid a disaster.
Over the last couple of weeks, Responder Support Services out of Asheville has had clinicians on the ground to treat those who have worked so hard and endured trauma of their own. Founder and owner Rick Baker said his mission is to supply first responders with whatever they may need, which could include stuff as simple as water, Tylenol or a dry pair of socks. However, it frequently means taking the time to talk.
He added that talking in detail about traumatic experiences while they’re fresh can mitigate the severity of resulting PTSD because it can allow the brain to process the trauma as intended before those pathways
Prior to the storm’s arrival, understanding the high need that would arise in the community, Baker put out a call for more clinicians to come from outside areas to help serve the emergency workers. He said the response was overwhelming with clinicians from around the state offering to stay and help where help was needed. Among those who offered to help were Kim Turpin and her husband, Dr. Raymond Turpin, who own the Pearl Psychedelic Institute in Waynesville, through which a number of different types of therapy are offered.
Kim Turpin said Baker told her that the need may end up being greater right there in Haywood County, so she and her husband chose to stick around close to home. Indeed, they have found there’s plenty of work to be done. In fact, they’re offering free services to anyone — whether they’re a first responder or not — considering so many in the community are going through what seems like an impossibly difficult time.
Kim Turpin echoed a “critically important” sentiment shared by Baker.
“When people have these single-incident traumas, when you can get to them quick, before waiting for it to be something that’s suppressed, it can be less damaging to their mental health,” she said. “When something like this happens, other traumas can bubble to the surface, and there are also people with survivor’s guilt.”
(Anyone interested in setting up a therapy appointment with the Pearl Psychedelic Institute can do so by emailing info@pearlpsychedelicinstitute.org or calling either 828.507.1421 or 828.400.7091. In addition, the National Disaster Relief phone number, which can connect people with someone else to talk to 24/7, is 1.800.985.5990.)
Haywood County Emergency Services Public Information Officer Allison Richmond hits the airwaves. Kyle Perrotti photo
Falsehoods vs. facts
Debunking lies about Helene
BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS EDITOR
Let’s not sugarcoat it anymore. To call it “misinformation” is, in itself, misinformation. Let’s just call it what it is — straight-up lies, of the sort that would earn you a whoopin’ by meemaw if you repeated them to her face instead of spreading them from behind a keyboard like a coward.
coming to North Carolina. It will likely cost more — much more — to fix I-40 and will take months or years. The day before Harris’ announcement, FEMA announced that it had already helped thousands of survivors with $45 million in “flexible, upfront funding.” Regionally, more than 11.5 million meals, 12.6 million liters of water, 150 generators and 400,000 tarps had been distributed by 5,600 federal workers, including 1,500 from FEMA. In North Carolina, at least $17 million in housing and other assistance has been disbursed to 10,000 house-
“Get off Facebook, and get out there and put on a pair of boots and pair of gloves and get to work. And make it count.” — Haywood County Sheriff Bill Wilke speaks at an Oct. 4 press conference. Cory Vaillancourt photo
Sen. Kevin Corbin’s, R-Franklin, brave stance in an Oct. 3 Facebook post ignited the fight against these lies, garnering national notice and prompting other public officials, both Democrats and Republicans, to speak out against them as well. But the social media cesspool continues to vomit up these smears against administrators, elected officials, FEMA, first responders, journalists, members of our nation’s armed forces and civilian volunteers — all people playing their own small parts to minimize human suffering.
Fight falsehoods with facts.
FALSE: Only $100 million in aid has been provided to Western North Carolina.
FACTS: On Oct. 5, Vice President Kamala Harris announced the administration had made $100 million available to start the process of repairing Interstate 40. But Harris never said that was the end of federal dollars
safety of your home while the governor of another state talked about his situation. Did you ever stop long enough to consider we aren’t saying anything because we are in the trenches fighting to help our residents live through this time?”
FALSE: FEMA is running low on cash.
FACTS: Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas just can’t stop making ridiculous statements — about the border and about FEMA. While he did say FEMA doesn’t have enough funding to make it through hurricane season, he also said that FEMA is “meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have,” according to the Associated Press. Traditionally, FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund (DRF) is funded with a baseline appropriation each year, and as disasters small and large occur, Congress provides supplemental appropriations in the tens of billions of dollars as needed. As of Aug. 31, FEMA had $3.4 billion, but two days before Helene hit, Congress dropped in with another $20 billion. In 2005, a trio of hurricanes including Katrina pushed that supplemental appropriation above $90 billion.
FALSE: FEMA is running low on cash because they gave it all away to unauthorized migrants.
FACTS: The claim is laughably false. FEMA manages the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF), which consists of those baseline and supplemental appropriations; FEMA also manages the Shelter and Services Program (SSP), which provides humanitarian services to noncitizen migrants so they don’t over-
burden state and local governments. While some may disagree with the policy goals of the SSP, the DRF and SSP utilize separate funding streams that cannot be intermingled; SSP cannot be used for disasters, and DRF cannot be used for migrants. Additionally, in 2024 the SSP program received $641 million in funding, according to the Congressional Research Service, which ends up being a tiny fraction of what the DRF receives.
FALSE: FEMA is running low on cash because they gave it all away to Lebanon and Ukraine.
FACTS: On Oct. 4, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced nearly $157 million in humanitarian assistance to Lebanon in the face of regional conflict. The funding comes not from FEMA but rather from the U.S. Department of State. Ditto for Ukraine, which has received approximately $150-175 billion in assistance since February 2022 — none of which has come from FEMA’s DRF. Interestingly, much of the assistance provided to Ukraine has gone to American weapons manufacturers, employing Americans and donating weapons to Ukraine. Other segments of assistance have come directly from Department of Defense stockpiles. Again, some may disagree with federal policy goals pursued by providing basic necessities to Lebanon and more robust support to Ukraine, but no one can say it’s taking away from Hurricane Helene relief efforts in the Southeastern United
SEE DEBUNKING, PAGE 14
holds with more than 575 FEMA staff on the ground alongside 38 state and federal search and rescue units and over a thousand National Guard members that have rescued or supported 2,500 people.
A “keyboard warrior” who emailed every member of the General Assembly alleging that the government had done nothing earned a pointed response from Rep. Mark Pless (R-Haywood), according to a story by Thomas Mills for PoliticsNC: “I don’t know who you think you’re talking to but for your uninformed stance I have news. As a water rescue tech I was in the water at 6 am rescuing people from their homes. I spent all day Friday pulling people from cars that drove into flood barricades and getting people from houses that were surrounded by water. Then the remainder of the time until this moment coordinating supplies to help my two communities access what they needed. During all this time you watched TV in the
FALSE: FEMA has only been giving people impacted by the storm $750, but it’s a loan.
FACTS: These $750 payments are called “serious needs assistance” and are meant to address only immediate concerns, like toiletries and nutrition. Other individual assistance aid available to eligible individuals and households include lodging reimbursement, rental assistance, home repair, accessibility assistance for people with disabilities, medical assistance for the injured, unemployment assistance and miscellaneous assistance, like money for generators, dehumidifiers and even chainsaws. They are not loans, however some may have to be paid back if people filed duplicate claims or also received reimbursements from private insurance policies. As the name suggests, individual assistance programs aren’t the only forms of FEMA assistance available to people impacted by disasters. Many individuals will qualify for other assistance based on the nature and extent of their damages. Then, there’s the “public assistance” programs, that make grants to governments for road and bridge repair, debris removal and utility and water system restoration.
FALSE: Airspace has been closed by federal authorities, hindering both public and private recovery operations.
FACTS: To the contrary, rural Western North Carolina’s airspace has probably never been more crowded. Military helicopters landing in parks, small private aircraft and helicopters bringing in supplies and drones filming the damage, all alongside regular commercial passenger operations have resulted in a 300% increase in traffic, according to the North Carolina Division of Aviation. To ensure safe operations, the FAA can issue Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs) on airspace, meaning civilians and volunteers must first coordinate with emergency responders, however as of Oct. 6 there were none. The FAA can also designate Airspace Coordination Areas (ACAs), which do not restrict operations but advise pilots of unusual conditions — in this case, congestion. An ACA is currently in place over Western North Carolina. Another tool the FAA is using to ensure safe operations is Prior Permission Requests (PPRs), which require pilots to call ahead and confirm landing and unloading times to avoid dangerous congestion on the ground. PPRs are currently in place at Asheville Regional Airport, Rutherford County Airport and Foothills Regional Airport near Morganton. Rep. Mike Clampitt, a Swain County native, said in a Facebook post on Oct. 5 that from what he knew of Transylvania County, rumors of FAA interference in relief operations weren’t true. For more information, visit the North Carolina Division of Aviation at connect.ncdot.gov/municipalities/state-airportaid/pages/helene.aspx.
FALSE: The government is seizing the town of Chimney Rock, which was largely destroyed.
FACTS: Rutherford County Emergency Management had to take time away from its important work on Oct. 3 to post a substantial rebuttal to outrageous “land grab” allegations on Facebook. Rutherford EMS called the claims, as well as claims of “bodies everywhere” — only three confirmed fatalities as of Oct. 7 — as “entirely false.”
FALSE: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) tweeted that “they” can control the weather.
FACTS: If you need someone to debunk this for you, well, you probably won’t believe the facts once they’re presented to you anyway. It’s unknown who, exactly, Greene means by “they,” although it’s presumably Democrats, or Jews, who she accused of starting California wildfires in 2018 with space lasers. Plus, if the hurricane was engineered or directed by liberals to interfere with the election, why was the epicenter in North Carolina’s most liberal city, Asheville?
FALSE: FEMA is obstructing or confiscating privately-supplied aid and donations.
FACTS: “Donations are not being confiscated by state and federal officials,” according to NCDPS. In fact, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper’s office are both actively soliciting donations. Visit nc.gov/donate to learn more, or find your local United Way online.
FALSE: Roadblocks are turning away supplies and volunteers.
FACTS: Roadways are still dangerous in some parts of Western North Carolina; in a few places, traffic is being rerouted to preserve access for first responders, per NCDPS.
(For more information on rumors related to Hurricane Helene, visit FEMA’s rumors page at fema.gov/disaster/current/hurricane-helene/rumor-response or the North Carolina Department of Public Safety’s rumors page at ncdps.gov/ourorganization/emergency-management/hurricane-helene-fact-vsrumor.)
Debris covers the sidewalk on Depot St. in Frog Level. Jack Snyder photo
Developer still pursuing Pactiv parcel despite Helene damage
BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS EDITOR
Hurricane Helene has dealt serious damage to Pactiv Evergreen’s shuttered Canton paper mill, but the St. Louisbased demolition and development company owner trying to buy the 185-acre parcel remains undeterred.
Back in May, Eric Spirtas of Spirtas Worldwide signed a letter of intent to purchase the mill, which Pactiv closed with little notice in June 2023.
diverted directly into the Pigeon River, and has been since 7:08 a.m. on Sept. 27 — just as the full brunt of the storm lashed Haywood County.
“Pactiv Evergreen is committed to restoring wastewater treatment service to the town as quickly as possible,” Kelly wrote in a statement to SMN. “We thank our hardworking team in Canton for their unwavering commitment and dedication to restoring operations and supporting the local Canton community.”
Storm debris lines a railroad bridge (foreground) leading to Pactiv Evergreen’s Canton mill on Saturday, Sept. 28. Cory Vaillancourt photo
Sources told The Smoky Mountain News that after a prolonged due diligence period, the deal was supposed to close on Oct. 1. But on that day, a substantial region from Virginia to Florida was still trying to make sense of unprecedented death and destruction from Helene, which dropped more than two feet of rain in many places and disrupted nearly every aspect of modern life.
Canton was again hit hard by flooding from the Pigeon River, which runs right through town and right through the middle of the mill. Floodwaters appear to have inundated the core of the mill, some outbuildings and Pactiv’s other outlying structures, including the company’s corporate office next to Sorrells Street Park and the old post office on Park Street.
Floodwaters have also damaged the mill’s wastewater treatment facility, which treats the town of Canton’s municipal wastewater.
Haywood County Economic Development Director David Francis told The Smoky Mountain News on Oct. 2 that Pactiv had been “working diligently” to bring that facility back online since Sept. 29. Beth Kelly, a spokesperson for Pactiv, told The Smoky Mountain News on Oct. 3 that the town’s municipal waste is being
Lisa Stinnett, Canton’s town manager, said that as of about 1 p.m. on Oct. 3, Pactiv had requested that water to the mill be turned on so as to aid in cleanup. When it was, breaks in lines became apparent, so it was shut off again. Pactiv repaired the breaks, the water was turned on again, and everything appears to be holding for now.
When reached by phone on Oct. 2, the first thing Spirtas did was offer his sympathies to a community he’s only recently come to know.
“My heart extends to every individual, every family, every business in the area dealing with this,” he said.
Spirtas confirmed that the mill sale did not close on Oct. 1 and despite not receiving any damage updates from Pactiv said he was still pursuing a deal, but added that the tragedy that has unfolded here is “much bigger than any deal.”
“It takes champions to overcome this,” he said, playing on the town’s longstanding affiliation with previous mill owner Champion Fibre. “And I think this area is full of champions.”
On the morning of Oct. 8, Canton Town Manager Lisa Stinnett said she still hadn’t received confirmation that Pactiv had been able to get the wastewater treatment plant up and running again.
After Helene, North Carolina is racing to ensure a fair election
BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS EDITOR
Amid the devastation and human suffering caused by Hurricane Helene, it’s only natural to lose sight of the fact that in less than 30 days, voters across the country will head to the polls to participate in a close, consequential election. Come hell or high water — Western North Carolina has had both — local election officials are working feverishly on a short timeline to ensure there are no disruptions to early voting, absentee balloting or Election Day activities.
“You will be able to have all the confidence that you are accustomed to in the election process,” said Haywood County’s Board of Elections Director Robert Inman.
Safeguarding transparent, accurate election results has always been a top priority in North Carolina’s 100 counties, with election deniers careful to omit the state from unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud during former President Donald Trump’s 1.3-point win in 2020. Now, polls show Trump neck-and-neck with Vice President Kamala Harris in the Tarheel state, and several other tight races will determine whether the state’s Republicans can maintain their vetoproof majority in the General Assembly.
Some polling places, however, are in no condition to receive visitors and won’t be any time soon.
The North Clyde precinct normally votes at the county’s education center on Broad Street. The South Clyde precinct normally votes at the Clyde Fire Department on Carolina Boulevard.
“Both of those facilities I do know are not going to be usable,” Inman said. Clyde’s town hall, also on Carolina Boulevard, was damaged as well. The building is used as one of the county’s early voting sites. Early voting begins on Oct. 17, giving the town less time to make repairs and giving Inman less time to find an alternate site if town hall can’t be used.
“There were 4,000 people that voted at that location in 2020,” said Inman.
Many of Canton’s polling places appear to be unscathed as are some in Waynesville, but there’s no way to tell for sure without physically verifying all of them, along with every other site in every other municipality.
“Regardless of whether or not they were able to call me on the phone to request an absentee application, can the Postal Service get it there? I don’t know,” Inman said. “We’ve just been discussing yesterday and today how we address that situation and what we ask for, what is allowable, what would be approved and what recommendations would we put forward to even suggest how to fix that problem.”
Absentee voting by mail will emerge as another issue, as mail carriers attempt to deliver ballots at mailboxes that were washed away and homes that no longer exist, to people who may be staying in temporary shelters or with relatives in other counties or states.
“It’s a significant concern when you begin to actually try to get your arms around the grand scheme of everything under one umbrella. It does get to be overwhelming,” Inman said. “We do know that in Haywood County, and we could magnify that many, many, many times across 28 counties in Western North Carolina and other states.”
The North Carolina State Board of Elections has created a Hurricane Helene resource page on its website, ncsbe.gov, to address issues that voters impacted by the storm may experience.
FEMA disaster areas, some made out much better than others. Generally, counties west of Haywood received less damage than Haywood.
Swain County isn’t even included in the disaster declaration. Swain County Board of Elections Director Adam Bynes said that as of Oct. 3, his department hadn’t yet physically checked on all polling locations, but that there were no indications of damage.
Macon County is designated as a disaster area, but damage there was comparatively less than in Haywood.
“Macon County is very fortunate and we have no damage to report for any of our 15 polling locations,” said Melanie Thibault, director of the Macon County Board of Elections, who added that she and county emergency services workers had checked each precinct. “All polling locations will be open on Election Day for voters to cast their ballot.”
In Jackson County, Board of Elections director Amanda Allen said that because many of their polling places are in sturdy government buildings, they’re not likely to have been affected.
“We haven’t gone out to all of them yet. Several of them, like our rec center, our offices, they’re open right now and they’re accessible,” Allen said. “We have been trying to talk to those that are community-based, and we’ve been talking to the person that does those bookings, making sure that space is safe, but we haven’t been able to lay eyes on all of them by our office. But I hope we will soon.”
Just as Haywood fared worse than counties further west, it fared better — far better — than counties further east. Buncombe County, home to Asheville, has become the national media’s epicenter of Helene damage.
While Inman said that would usually be his department’s job — checking for changes like ADA accessibility or other disqualifying factors — Helene forced a change in plans. Due to gasoline shortages at the time of his Oct. 3 interview with The Smoky Mountain News and the ongoing concerns over road and bridge integrity, those checks were being performed by the sheriff’s office and by first responders.
At least one site is of particular concern for Inman. “We have a precinct, our northernmost precinct, that I honestly believe is cut off from the rest of the world,” he said. Big Creek, a tiny community nestled along the northern edge of Haywood County, actually votes just across the border in Tennessee, at the Carolina Power building on Waterville Road in Newport. During the 2024 Democratic Primary Election, only one vote was cast in the precinct. In the 2020 General Election, there were 22.
Those votes are as important as any other in the United States, but compromised infrastructure means Big Creek will require special attention. Flooding on a stretch of Interstate 40 has the highway, which is the easiest way into Big Creek, closed for the foreseeable future.
People who are displaced can request an absentee ballot to be delivered to their new location. Those who have already requested an absentee ballot but I want it sent to a new location should contact their county board of elections office. To ensure people don’t vote multiple times, previously requested ballots will be “spoiled,” or otherwise designated invalid.
Friday, Oct. 11, is the deadline to register to vote in North Carolina, or to change party affiliation or address. Prospective voters can register online at the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles with proper identification, or, simply by visiting the county board of elections office.
In-person registration also takes place during the early voting period, which ends on Nov. 2, but locations, days and hours of operation vary by county.
Voters must have lived at their current residence, wherever it may be, at least 30 days before the election in order to vote in that location. That deadline is Sunday, Oct. 6.
Across the region, the varying intensity of Helene produced different results in different areas. Although 28 counties in Western North Carolina have been designated
As of press time on Saturday, Oct. 5, Buncombe County election offices are closed but staff are still working, according to the NCSBE. In Avery County, offices are functioning in the same manner.
Offices in Mitchell County and in Yancey County, parts of which received 30 inches of rain, were closed.
The Watauga County Board of Elections issued a press release on Oct. 3, vowing “November election will go on” despite widespread destruction and the closure of Appalachian State university through Oct. 15. The board’s motto, noted in the release, is “adapt and overcome.” Staff there were still taking calls, and offices were slated to open on Oct. 5. Allen, in Jackson County, said she had no doubt that elections professionals across the state — even in the storm-ravaged west — would provide another transparent and accurate election of the sort that North Carolina voters have come to trust.
“I think it has really inspired our precinct workers and our staff and reminded us that elections happen no matter what. We’re really seeing people kind of come out of the woodwork that may only work on Election Day that are that are calling us up and saying, ‘How can we help? What do we need to do?’” Allen said. “Everybody’s ready, and we understand that this is going forward no matter what, and we’re trying to make sure that that everything’s in place.”
Learn more
The North Carolina State Board of Elections has created a page on its website to address concerns about voting from people impacted by Hurricane Helene. Visit ncsbe.gov/voting/upcomingelection/helene-recovery-and-voting#VoterRegistration-4064 to learn more. For all other election-related questions, including pertinent deadline and registration status, visit ncsbe.gov or contact your county elections office as practicable.
Clyde Fire Department is one of two polling locations in Clyde. Jack Snyder photo
Federal, state officials tour Haywood County after Helene
BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS EDITOR
Where once were surging floodwaters, now elected representatives from both the federal and state level are pouring into Western North Carolina and Haywood County, touring damaged areas, talking to local officials about needs and thanking first responders for their service to their communities.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, with FEMA Administrator Deanna Criswell in tow, continued his multi-day western swing on Oct. 4, making stops in Haywood and Jackson Counties.
“I’m so impressed with the preparation that was done here, understanding what storms could do, but not expecting the magnitude of the storm that actually hit — water raging in rivers all over Western North Carolina in an unprecedented way,” Cooper said.
After starting his visit at the International Paper Sports Complex in Canton, where an aid distribution site has been operating, Cooper moved on to Riverview Farm and Garden, which had been gutted by floodwaters for the second time in just over three years.
“The town of Canton has so many resilient, dedicated, dedicated and determined people,” Cooper said. “They came back from Tropical Storm Fred. They came back from the mill closing that hurt this area economically, and they’re going to come back from this.”
Cooper ran down a list of supplies delivered to Haywood County, including but not limited to water, medical cots, swift water rescue teams, law enforcement officers, nurses, incident management teams, canine search teams, EPA hazmat specialists, high water clearance vehicles, ambulances and mobile cellular transmission equipment.
Although cellular and internet services are slowly and sporadically coming back, Cooper apparently took note of sharp commentary made by Smathers on Sept. 28, when he called out telecommunications companies for the failure of their infrastructure — which impeded rescue operations, kept citizens out of the loop with automated warnings and put lives at risk at the peak of the storm.
Cooper said telcos need to harden their systems.
“We think this investment is important, not only for the people here but for the economy of our state, because we this is a place that people want to come and want to be,” Cooper said. “So I will certainly be advocating for long term investments that are that are more resilient here.”
All 22 hospitals in Western North Carolina, Cooper added, are now back online and crews are working to restore power to those who remain in the dark, a week after catastrophic flooding pounded the region, killing hundreds. More than 50 regional water systems have been affected, and crews are working to restore those as well.
“The infrastructure of many of these communities was very old to start with, and this flood just decimated it. I think the key is to build it back as quickly as possible, but also in a resilient way,” Cooper said. “There may have
to be some temporary workarounds that provide water for a period of time while they build the main infrastructure. That’s one of the reasons why we called in the Army Corps of Engineers with FEMA, to bring their engineers to try to help these communities, obviously Asheville being the biggest one.”
Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers echoed Cooper’s sentiments about readiness.
“I feel the town and Haywood County, we were the best prepared to deal with this,” Smathers said. “But there’s only so much you can do with 28 feet of water comes to your hometown.”
He also doubled down on earlier statements indicating that debris removal after the previous flood three years ago helped the town avoid even more destruction.
Criswell said that more than 50,000 people had already applied for disaster assistance at disasterassistance.gov and that more than $5 million had already been disbursed.
Cooper’s next stop, at the Haywood County Sheriff’s Office in Waynesville, highlighted the coordinated response of the county’s various public safety agencies, but Cooper, Criswell, Sheriff Bill Wilke and Commission Chair Kevin Ensley spent a good amount of time continuing to address conspiracy theories being shared online.
On Oct. 7, Attorney General Josh Stein stopped in to Canton after visiting hard-hit Avery County, and similarly denounced outrageous claims made by some.
“There are people intentionally misrepresenting what’s happening so that folks don’t know what to believe, and with their communications so stretched and difficult, it makes it very difficult for folks to know what to believe and what not to believe,” Stein said. “Do not react to what you hear that sounds outrageous until you’ve done a little bit of research, because it’s very easy to make something sound outrageous and plausible, but it’s just not true.”
Stein also warned the public about storm scams — price gouging, charitable fraud and home repair cons.
On Oct. 8, Sen. Thom Tillis visited the same complex Cooper had a few days before, saying
he was pleased with the overall response by FEMA. Tillis, a frequent visitor to the region, recently secured a $5.8 million appropriation for Canton’s new fire station, which will replace the current building damaged by flooding in 2021 and by Helene last month.
“I’m back in Canton to tell those folks that I’m going to be with them on this one, just like I was the last one and any future ones,” Tillis said.
Mark Pless, Haywood County’s Republican
“Do not react to what you hear that sounds outrageous until you’ve done a little bit of research, because it’s very easy to make something sound outrageous and plausible, but it’s just not true.”
—
representative in the General Assembly, said that House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland) met with leaders in Canton on Oct. 4, delivering supplies and moving onto Clyde, Waynesville and the Crabtree Fire Department before joining the mayors of Hot Springs and Marshall in Madison County, which Pless also represents.
Rep. Destin Hall (R-Caldwell) and Rep. Karl Gillespie (R-Macon) accompanied Pless to Marshall and Hot Springs again on Oct. 6.
Josh Stein
Attorney General Josh Stein (right) talks with Canton Fire Chief Kevin Wheeler at Canton’s town hall complex on Oct. 7. Cory Vaillancourt photo
We’re open, but be understanding
This is not the end of our story in Western North Carolina. Far from it. It’s an opportunity for a new beginning, a reshaping of this place that has always been so good for the soul. As I stand on my front porch steps and pause to look at and smell the trees, see leaves slowly spiraling earthward, feel the crisp bite of autumn in the morning air, take a deep breath and know that all will be healed in time.
The tragedy and travails we are all going through after Hurricane Helene pummeled Western North Carolina won’t ease soon, but there are messages starting to percolate up and out as we move from shell-shocked to the recovery phase: one of those is that the best way to help the mountains recover is to come up and visit, or if you live here spend money at those businesses who depend on the hordes of fall tourists who simply aren’t going to be here in the same numbers.
This not meant to be insensitive to those communities and individuals who have lost so much.
Last week I received an email from a downtown Waynesville merchant who was upset that the Church Street Arts & Crafts Festival scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 12, has been canceled even though downtown Waynesville is mostly undamaged. It doesn’t do any good to debate the merits of that decision to cancel; this is an unprecedented time, so things are going to happen that are unprecedented.
Many businesses are wiped out and may never re-open, and many towns are so devastated they can’t accommodate visitors or even imagine holding festivals. Others, however, are open, and the tourists that make October the busiest month for many mom-and-pop galleries, mercantiles, restaurants and other service businesses aren’t coming. These busi-
Morrow unfit to lead our schools
To the Editor:
Michele Morrow is the Republican candidate for N.C. Superintendent of Public Instruction. Think long and hard before voting for her. She educated her children at home (starting with a child that needed different learning strategies, which I applaud), and then via parent-led teaching coops. She has no teaching credentials, public school experience, or administrative/management experience. She ran for a seat on the local school board and lost. Not a great resume to run the $11 billion N.C. public school system.
Her website is short on details, so what she doesn’t say is likely more important that what she does say. She has no policy suggestions to improve public education. Her only three issues are supporting academically underserved students by teaching them to read and write and creating more school-towork programs; improving school safety by reviewing existing protocols and improving on them (something I am pretty sure schools already do); and finally, teaching critical thinking because “our children are being groomed, manipulated, and harmed in pursuit of future political power and ideological oppression.” Ironically, a sentence that can be unpacked both ways! This from a woman with a selfie video of her in Washington, D.C. on Jan 6, explaining she is there to support
ness owners need our dollars to stay open, to make payroll so our neighbors still have jobs, to pay for goods already purchased and in stock.
The Blue Ridge Parkway is closed. Parts of the Nantahala and Pisgah national forests are closed as damage assessments are being made, but there’s progress every day in getting roads cleared and trails open. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is only partially open, as is U.S. 441 through the park (though not for commercial vehicles). As mentioned earlier, some towns and sections of others are obliterated, we in this region are doing everything we can to help those residents and business owners.
But here’s what we need people to know, and this is from a letter by Nick Breedlove, the director of the Jackson County Tourism Development Authority: “By visiting us with an open heart and mind, and a spirit of understanding, you will both enjoy our area’s unique charm and play a critical role in helping our small businesses recover. Your support means everything to us right now.” I especially appreciate Nick’s use of the phrase “a spirit of understanding.”
A thoughtful friend told me the other day that we are discovering that there are different meanings to the word “help.” Yes, we need people to help by handing out food and supplies, by using chainsaws and trucks to clear roads, to grab shovels and gloves and muck out stores and houses that can be
LETTERS
President Trump who had the 2020 election stolen from him. Wow! Eye-opening and not in a good way. Actually, educating young people to be free thinkers does not appear to be a real goal. It gets worse.
Her social media posts call for “executing” many people, including Obama (via a pay-perview telecast of his firing squad), Roy Cooper, Hilary Clinton, Anthony Fauci and Bill Gates. She wants Americans to “follow the Constitution and kill all Traitors.” Nope. It is the US Code of Federal Regulations that prescribes traitors’ punishments. Incidentally, the Constitution defines a traitor only as waging war against the U.S. or helping an enemy do so; not something any of these people have done. And she taught civics at her school coop! She displays ignorance and animosity towards those of us not white, straight and living a moral life, which is presumably how she would approach educating our children, many of whom are not white, straight or embracing her version of morality.
Mo Green, the Democratic candidate, has been superintendent of Guilford County schools; chief executive of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation; and general counsel for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district.
Under his leadership Guilford County earned state and national recognition for improved academic performance, increased graduation rates and character development/service learning. Through his tenure at
Want to help?
If you can’t make it to the mountains, support our small business by making purchases from the comfort of your home. Get business information through our local chambers of commerce.
n haywoodchamber.com
n mountainlovers.com (Jackson County)
n cashiersareachamber.com
n franklin-chamber.com
n greatsmokies.com (Bryson City)
rebuilt.
But “help” also means coming to the mountains and helping our economy recover. If hourly workers at the shops, galleries, breweries and restaurants are laid off, then our problems are multiplied. If local governments suffer huge drops in sales tax revenues, then money for our schools, health and human services and other vital services will have to be reduced. If our economy constricts too much, then our recovery will take that much longer.
This storm is bringing us together like nothing before it. We are all being intentional in how we help the recovery, how we spend our dollars. Make supporting the small businesses who are open part of that effort. We all want these entrepreneurs that are the heart of these wonderful mountains to survive the aftermath of this terrible storm.
(Scott McLeod can be reached at info@smokymountainnews.com.)
Z. Smith Reynolds, Mr. Green gained significant experience relevant to the education of our children, including the positive impacts of athletics, art, and community involvement and the devastating impacts of poverty. He understands public education, and his career validates his commitment to improving the lives of young people.
Please, for the sake of the children of North Carolina, vote for Mo Green (D) for Superintendent of Public Education.
Karen Patterson Highlands
Do we really want to enable Trump?
To the Editor:
Among the multiple insults Donald Trump is hurling at Vice President Kamala Harris (other than purposely mispronouncing her name) is labeling her “the worst vice president ever.” This is laughable coming from a guy that 154 members of the American Political Science Association ranked as the worst president. Asked to give each president a score from 0-100, the presidential specialists ranked Lincoln at number 1 with 62.66 points; Trump was last with 10.92.
In addition to two impeachments, other factors that may have contributed to Trump’s low rating include his mishandling of the pandemic, the explosive rise in the national debt that occurred on his watch and his poor job
creation record. As reported by ProPublica in January 2021, the national debt rose by almost $7.8 trillion during Trump’s time in office. After boasting that he would “be the greatest jobs president God ever created,” his record became the worst since Herbert Hoover.
Trump’s failings as president are magnified by his criminality. Contrary to GOP talking points, he is not being persecuted; he is being prosecuted because there is ample evidence that he has broken the law on multiple occasions. He falsified business records to cover up a hush money payment to a porn star and was convicted on 34 counts. In a Fox News interview that aired on Sept. 1, he actually acknowledged guilt by saying he “had every right to interfere” in the 2020 election.
Ironically, the so-called “party of law and order” is being led by a criminal whose key supporters are other convicted criminals such as Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro who spoke at the Republican National Convention in July on the same day he was released from prison. According to one news report, Navarro received a standing ovation from convention delegates when he declared, “I went to prison, so you won’t have to.” Why is that worthy of applause?
By law, Trump’s felony conviction prohibits him from voting. If the Democratic Party tried to run a convicted criminal for president, the Republican outrage would crash the internet.
In total, Trump has been
Editor Scott McLeod
Desecration and beauty all mixed together
Early October, and these mountains are already beginning to put on their glorious garments of autumn. A splash of red here or orange there, the green sleeves of many trees shading to yellow. In just a few weeks, we will be treated to that familiar splendor that beckons tens of thousands of people to get in their cars every year and drive for hours or even days just to get a glimpse of it.
How can we comprehend that this particular year, this beauty will become a canvas upon which the ravages of nature and fortune have carved and gouged out enormous pieces of the picture? Entire communities are gone, leveled or swept away, homes destroyed, countless people displaced, the death toll continuing to rise as rescue workers are able to forge a path into the remotest places hoping to find survivors.
The desecration and the beauty, side by side. The tension between the two is nearly unbearable, but this consideration of opposites only begins there.
Our spirits are uplifted and our hope rekindled one moment by specific tales of selflessness and heroism, or by the footage of volunteers banding together to help, swarming into devastated neighborhoods to clean, or to feed, or to offer hugs and solace to victims searching through rubble for keepsakes or whatever fragments of their lives can be salvaged from the mud and the debris.
We are heartened by all the businesses giving away food, or offering shelter, or donating proceeds from their sales to dozens of different charities. The number of people who lost everything and have nothing, including flood insurance, is staggering, their need too vast to contemplate. And yet, here are other people, doing what they can, an hour at a time or a dollar at a time.
Even so, these stories sit on one side of this tragedy, while on the other are stories of people fighting over gas in line at the Shell station, or people hoarding more resources than they need while others have little or nothing, or of people using their energy to complain bitterly about how unfair it is that their area is being ignored, while others are receiving too much attention.
If ever there was a time to put politics aside and grab a shovel, this is it. In working shoulder to shoulder with another person to help someone, is it truly pertinent to know
charged in four criminal cases accusing him of a wide range of criminal conduct before, during and after his presidency. Although his lawyers have been successful in delaying three of the cases, more indictments are likely to be issued following the Nov. 5 election.
whether that person is a Democrat or a Republican, an immigrant or a local? If your friend’s life is saved by an illegal immigrant, is this grace somehow compromised?
And yet, there are stories all over social media, then repeated and spread in gyms and barber shops and grocery stores, conspiracy theories that the government is “in on it,” somehow creating the storm in order to destroy these towns so that they can buy up all the ruined land and control the lithium mines, which will be worked by illegals, who will then be granted citizenship while anyone who protests this nefarious plot will be executed or deported.
I am sure I got some of these details wrong, but I’ve paid as much attention to this nonsense as I am willing to in order to convey the gist of it. I am sure it is much more intricate and “dark” than that, but I’ll leave that work and obsession to the people who need it and the creeps who promote it.
We are just over a month away from selecting a new President. One of the candidates is spreading falsehoods about the government’s response to the hurricane, using an incomprehensible tragedy in an attempt to make political hay, accusing the current administration of using relief funds to aid illegal immigrants.
None of this is true, but it is consumed by his followers and then widely disseminated to compete with real stories of actual relief efforts, the progress as well as the remaining challenges.
Again, the tension between two things.
Finally, there is the unimaginable personal toll, the grieving of those who lost everything and have no idea what comes next, or when, or how. Or the grieving of those who were spared and are experiencing “survivor’s guilt”—why them, and not us?
Drive down any road — the ones you still can drive down — in Western North Carolina, and you see giant trees blown over every quarter mile or so while their neighbors remaining standing. Why this tree, and not that one? This is exactly how it feels regarding our friends and neighbors. The suffering feels so random, so unfair, and the future feels so uncertain, so remote.
The grieving, the anger, the anxiety, all too real and pervasive. And yet the people come, not to see the beauty but to be the beauty. That is just as real.
And those autumn leaves and brilliant blue mountain skies. They are coming, too, so beautiful and astonishing that it hurts. It has never hurt more.
(Chris Cox is a writer and teacher who lives in Haywood County. jchriscox@live.com.)
So, here’s the deal: Returning to the White House is Trump’s “Get Out of Jail Free” card. Do you really want to enable him by voting for him?
Myrna Campbell Waynesville
Columnist
Chris Cox
Planting the seeds of tomorrow
A community comes together post-Helene
BY GARRET K. WOODWARD A&E EDITOR
On Friday evening, downtown Waynesville was in kind of a festive spirit — a far cry from what all of us here in Western North Carolina have felt for over a week now.
Beyond the usual fanfare of folks wandering into numerous galleries, restaurants and boutique shops during “Art After Dark,” the beehive of compassion and connectivity was Axe &
maybe even spark a conversation with someone next to you while listening to live music on the back patio — what was conjured and collected was the simple, yet intrisically vital notion of human interaction following a traumatic event.
And that’s what we’ve all needed and yearned for since Hurricane Helene tore through our backyard on Sept. 24. With devastation of unknown bounds and incomprehensible images coming from the destruction zones, our hearts sink in acknowledging this new reality of the people, places and things we hold near and dear here.
To preface, the Bevel Bar hosted a few of the businesses destroyed by raging floodwaters in the Historic Frog Level District just down the hill: Cultivate Garden Shop, The Funky Fern Emporium and Soul Sisters Depot.
“We cannot begin to fathom the impact, the loss of homes and jobs in a place that already struggled in these areas,” said Funky Fern co-owner Kristyn Iodice. “It is hard to imagine starting over again.”
To note, Axe & Awl co-owners Spencer and Courtney Tetrault are also co-owners of Cultivate alongside Amanda and Blake Yoder.
“Unfortunately, these affects will be felt and seen for years to come,” Spencer said. “Despite passionate entrepreneurs and eager idea generators, property owners are going to have a long road ahead of them.”
“Unfortunately, these affects will be felt and seen for years to come.”
— Spencer Tetrault
Although the future of these three Frog Level businesses remains in limbo — between FEMA filings, insurance claims and just the sheer will to trudge ahead come hell and, well, high water — what does stand tall is the resolve to come together as a community, which was on full display at the Bevel Bar on Friday.
“When I was able to leave our mountain and head to town, we passed homes flooded and rescue boat missions,” Iodice said. “The reunion of all of the business owners in ankle deep mud in Frog Level was one of the most heartbreaking moments of our lives.”
With Axe & Awl lit up like a beacon of hope and stability for many with little of either sentiment lately, dozens of Waynesville locals and visitors alike converged on the event. Hugs and handshakes. Swapping harrowing stories. Sharing a laugh and a smile, both rare in these last days. Tears of sadness in the wake of the flood. But, also tears of happiness knowing certain folks are fine.
Dubbed “Cultivate’s Final Harvest,” the gathering featured a wide selection of plant inventory untouched by the mud and water. All of which for sale in hopes of raising funds to, perhaps, move forward and try again. The same went for the other vendor tables on the back patio, occupied by the Funky Fern and Soul Sisters. The genuine vibe being: “Sell what’s left, then figure out the next move.”
A lone singer-songwriter on the patio stage. Cold craft ale on tap. Pour a glass of wine or mix a cocktail. Find that perfect plant and purchase it. Oh, and make sure to tip over 20% at the register to these great members of our community — they need us as much as we need them.
Nobody in attendance last night knows what the future may hold. Nobody can predict what Frog Level will look like in the coming months and years. Nobody can offer anything more than our hearts in the uncertain, trying time for each and every single one of us.
But, everybody present felt a kinship and warmth at the absolute foundation of why we proudly call Western North Carolina home in the first place.
‘Cultivate’s Final Harvest’. Garret K. Woodward photo.
The Frog Level business sector was flooded due to Hurricane Helene Spencer Tetrault photo.
This must be the place
BY GARRET K. WOODWARD
Ode to Asheville, ode to WNC
I ventured down there today: the River Arts District.
The epicenter of the flood that has destroyed parts of Asheville, and on so many damn levels. I wanted to see it for myself. I wanted to stand there and simply look. Not to take photos or to gawk. But, to see what the landscape looks likes now. I was shocked and speechless.
quented and supported, proudly: White Duck Taco, Smoky Mountain Supper Club, 12 Bones Smokehouse, etc. And all those days I'd go for a late afternoon jog along the French Broad River, starting at The Wedge and heading to Carrier Park and back.
At this moment, I remain stunned and saddened. Sick to my stomach. Windows down in my truck driving through the RAD.
street itself, not including how high the water had to rise to come over the banks. Copus said the water overtook the railroad tracks buffering the river at 9:30 a.m. Just an hour later it reached downtown.
“It just came up so fast and we lost Main Street in a matter of minutes,” Copus said. “I watched all the windows break out of Zuma Coffee. I watched a whole restaurant just float down the road. And that’s when I evacuated.”
Chimney Rock and Lake Lure, towns I've ventured into and interviewed more folks about their companies and how they do so much for their respective locations: now rubble, mostly washed away by the rushing waters that seemed to never stop rising.
I think of where I live in Waynesville. My friends at Cultivate Garden Shop in the Historic Frog Level District, who lost their business when nearby Richland Creek flooded
The cultural heart of the city has been erased from the map. For someone like myself with a keen sense of direction, and who knows the RAD like the back of my hand, it was difficult to orient myself and figure out what buildings were what and where some once stood.
To note, for the last 12 years, I've called Western North Carolina my home. When I came here, I accepted the position of arts and entertainment editor for The Smoky Mountain News, which includes overseeing and writing all the innumerable stories for our WNC travel publications.
I've interviewed dozens of artists and small businesses all around the RAD in my tenure. I know their stories of hard work to achieve long-held dreams. I've championed their passion and purpose in my writing and stories that have been published over the years.
Many of which have become friends: HiWire Brewing, The Wedge, Pleb Winery, The Grey Eagle (Outpost), Salvage Station, New Belgium Brewing, etc. All of which devastated by floodwaters.
“The whole [place] went down river,” said Russ Keith, owner of The Outpost. “If you had eyesight on the [French Broad] River, you’re probably not in good shape today — it’s going to be a long recovery.”
Not to mention the businesses I've fre-
The pungent stench of thick mud and rotting debris, where those smells are forever etched in my memory from covering the devastating flood in Cruso in 2021.
Numerous cars in the RAD left behind by whoever was able to escape the carnage, the vehicles now caked in mud, a lone orange "X" spray painted across the side of the automobile to signify that it had been checked for bodies. There is a way forward, but it will be a long, long time before stability returns to the RAD.
And to Marshall and Hot Springs, two small mountain communities I love and adore. Shit, I was just up in Marshall for two stories earlier this year. One about the Old Marshall Jail, the other on Zuma Coffee. Of which, I then grabbed a delightful beverage at Mal's before I left town for home in Waynesville. All three of those previously mentioned businesses are now wiped away from this earth.
“Right now, I’m still in shock, so it’s hard to know what to think and what to do,” said Josh Copus, owner of the Old Marshall Jail. “Mostly, I’m just trying to be with the people in my community and be there for them.”
According to Copus, the flood gauge on the side of the Old Marshall Jail peaked at 27 feet, which is the height of the water on the
the establishment. I finally crossed paths with all four of them this afternoon: the faces of the owners distraught and shook thinking about how their dream is now in ruins. My heart is heavy and it hurts, a lot.
“Unfortunately, these affects will be felt and seen for years to come,” said Spencer Tetrault, co-owner of Cultivate. “Despite passionate entrepreneurs and eager idea generators, property owners are going to have a long road ahead of them.”
Tetrault, who also co-owns Axe & Awl Leatherworks on Depot Street in Waynesville, is a former first responder. For him, this natural disaster underlines so many things we must keep in mind — for one another, for society at-large.
“Take care of yourself and your neighbors, period,” Tetrault said. “The willingness to lend a hand to people around you is pivotal and creates a level of ease that is otherwise difficult to [conjure].”
Whatever you see and hear on the news? It's way worse. Much more than I could even fathom. We will persevere, because that's what we do here in Southern Appalachia. What we do as human beings, in general, when faced with the unknown and unleashed powers of Mother Nature. I digress.
Love to you and yours. Always and forever.
THURSDAY 10/10
The River Arts District in Asheville. Garret K. Woodward
A proclamation about women as artists
As I peruse the shelves in the Jackson County Library’s “new releases” section, it is evident to me that there are more new titles written by women than by men. And while this may be true in literary circles in much the same way it is in politics these days, many of the storylines in these books being written by women have to do with a feminine renaissance that is going on worldwide. Erin Bartels new novel “The Lady With the Dark Hair” (Revell, 2024, 331 pages) is certainly one of these tomes heralding the emergence of feminine equality, if not dominance, into culture and consciousness.
Erin Bartels is an award-winning American author of several novels with themes of reckoning with the past, improving the present, and looking with hope to the future. In “The Lady With the Dark Hair,” the focus is on the world of the visual arts and painters in particular. Bartels’ two main female characters — Viviana Torrens and Ester Markstrom — exist in two different centuries. Viviana in the late 1800s in Toulouse, France and Ester in the presentday in East Lansing, Michigan. So with this intriguing time and space juxtaposition and with Bartels’ intellecutally and emotionally flamboyant writing style, not only do we get a double-entendre storyline spanning more than two centuries, but we get the creative perspective from four different artists of different sexes and timeframes in their development and from the same artistic gene pool. There are also perspectives from characters who are: an arts scholar, an arts critic, and an arts dealer and gallery owner. In this sense, Bartels has captured the art world from almost every angle, including gallery visitors and prospective art collectors.
“The Lady With the Dark Hair” is the title of a painting that is attributed to a French painter named Francisco Vella that focuses on the model at the center of one of his most admired paintings. In the book’s frontmatter and a quote by the well-known 18th century philosopher, writer and composer Jean Jacques Rosseau, we get a hint at where Bartels is going with this story: “Women in general love no art, know nothing about any form of art, and have no genius.” From the early placement of this quote and others like it at the front of the book, we understand that Bartels has written a book to refute these macho claims, if not make of them a mockery. And so, off we go on this transcontinental artistic journey over time and space that is part romance, part art history, and part feminist memoir, from inside the mindset of our two main characters of Viviana and Ester and what amounts to a ‘who done it’ in the art world
and the mystery of a French artist ancestor and his young female student’s paintings.
In the 1880s, Viviana, who began as his maid, has become a student and love inter-
est of Francisco Vella in France. Over the course of the story she travels with him across Europe and eventually to Gibraltar, in Spain. Ester, the gallery owner and the major representative of Vella’s artwork and who lives in present-day Michigan, is a proclaimed descendant of Vella. She travels to Paris to track down one of his paintings and also ends up in Gibraltar, with Bartels weaving a creative time-space scarf of the lives of these two women. Ester is middle-aged and naive related to relationships, especially with men, with little or no experience in that arena, but has become fascinated with her former art professor, a Dr. Adam Perez. Viviana, on the other hand, is young and is a quick study and wise beyond her years, but is in the thralls of Vella and his ambitious escapades throughout Europe. But she eventually tires of his shenanigans and sets off on her own with the help of an admirer named Oscar de la Paz.
As time and distance unravel, so does the story of these two women become more complex and mysterious as revelations occur that shed new light onto the question of which paintings were created by whom. Ester is asking the question: “Who is this
woman with the dark hair who showed up in Vella’s writings and in so many of his paintings. Who was Viviana Torrens? At this point “The Lady With the Dark Hair” becomes a kind of detective story with both Viviana and Ester both ending up in Gibraltar, Spain, and headed for America in seeming parallel universes, albeit in different centuries. Viviana departs with a blank canvas and paints, Ester with a painting that is considered Vella’s selfportrait.
From here we get Bartels’ focus on the creative feminine in spades, starting with quotes like “She thought of the antelope and the bison racing across the ceiling of that cave in the Pyrenees. How much more permanent art was than power. How much more constant it was than a kingdom. How much more expansive than an empire.” In the end, Viviana wants “to make her own way in the world. To live on her own terms and to see the world through her own eyes and to show others what she saw through her paintings.” Or, as she says: “Shouldn’t I use every moment I have to do what I’m passionate about? Any woman can raise a family. Not every woman can paint. They are distracted by a crying baby or something burning in the kitchen. They are not noticing the things I am noticing.”
And then Bartels unveils the mystery of the origins of the paintings presented in the book in this spoiler alert: “It wasn’t simply that a forgotten artist had been rediscovered. It wasn’t simply that a body of work that had been mis-attributed to a man had finally been properly identified as the work of a woman.” And there we have it. But then Bartels tie a ribbon at the end of the book in the Author’s Notes writing: “I’d like to thank the many female artists over the centuries who have striven to create despite tremendous restrictions, opposition, and condescension. Your fiercely independent spirit and your tenacity in the face of so many obstacles inspire me. You are my muses.”
(Thomas Crowe is a regular contributor to The Smoky Mountain News and author of the multi-award-winning non-fiction nature memoir “Zoro’s Field: My Life in the Appalachian Woods.” newnativepress@hotmail.com.)
Writer Thomas Crowe
Macon moves ahead on watershed ordinance revision
BY HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF WRITER
The Macon County Planning Board voted last week to recommend a revision of the water supply watershed ordinance to the county commission. Set against the backdrop of catastrophic flooding in Western North Carolina, and despite public opposition to the change, board members maintain the revision is a minor and will have little impact.
“This one sentence [being removed from the ordinance], I don’t think it will have much effect,” said Jack Morgan, past Macon County planner.
Over the course of the year, Macon County has been considering a set of three revisions to its soil erosion and sedimentation control ordinance, water supply watershed ordinance and flood damage prevention ordinance.
From the beginning of the process early this spring, there has been regular and robust public opposition to the proposed changes. For this reason, even after holding a public hearing on all three proposed changes, Chairman Gary Shields decided to slow down the approval process to allow for more public input and board discussion.
The commission ultimately passed the first of the three revisions at its August meeting, changing the required land disturbance from half an acre to an acre before any plans are required for soil and erosion control on a project.
However, Shields decided to put these other two changes back before the planning board for further consideration prior to approval by the county commission and has said the board won’t take action on the proposed changes until January.
At its Oct. 3 meeting, the Macon County planning board considered the revision to water supply watershed protection ordinance. The proposed change would remove the clause that says RV parks are not eligible for special nonresidential intensity allocations (SNIA) from the ordinance. Section 156.32 of the ordinance governs density and built-upon limits in watershed areas. It outlines maximum allowable project densities and minimum lot sizes depending on the classification of the water supply watershed where a development is located. It also outlines other requirements like vegetated conveyances and curb outlet systems.
SNIAs “consistent with the provisions of this ordinance, and such approved projects shall be awarded on a first come, first serve basis.”
However, according to the current ordinance, recreational vehicle parks are not eligible for SNIA. This restriction is not included in the state model ordinance, and this is what planning board members are recommending be removed from the ordinance. Planning board members contend that almost any development could apply for and receive SNIA designation, allowing them to construct 70% impervious surface on a parcel, except for an RV park, and this singling out of RVs is unfair.
“Our mountains protect us, but they also funnel all that water into places that people don’t think of as being dangerous. There’s what’s called ephemeral streams. They pop up. They pop up behind my house… If you have any possibility of preventing it now, now is when you do that.”
— Sarah Johnson
would argue that there’s a lot of commercial developments that’s allowed in the watershed that’s worse than RV parks.”
Morgan said he didn’t think removing the clause pertaining to RVs would have much effect, noting that the county receives very few RV park development applications.
“They’re not just busting our door down to do that, and not particularly in the watershed,” said Morgan. “And like Mr. Kimsey brought up, I could go out there and put an Amazon transfer station in the watershed and I could concrete and pave 70% of it, but an RV park cannot. I don’t understand how that’s fair .… I don’t understand the fairness of that.”
But experts in the field that are not on the planning board, and members of the public, disagree.
The Water Quality Advisory Committee is made up of nine volunteer members with careers in aquatic management and has been tasked with investigating recommended changes to the ordinances and potential impacts.
At the Oct. 3 meeting, it presented a report on the potential impacts of removing the RV clause from the watershed ordinance. This report was detailed in the Sept. 25 edition of The Smoky Mountain News.
The last subsection in this part of the ordinance deals with special nonresidential intensity allocations (SNIA). In certain parts of the watershed, “residential uses may occupy 10% of the balance of the watershed, which is outside the critical area, with a 70% built-upon area when approved as a special nonresidential intensity allocation.”
The ordinance goes on to say that the planning board is authorized to approve
“You can put a motor repair shop in the watershed today, and use the 70%, you could put a general store, you could put a convenience store, you could put storage units, you could put any kind of commercial development,” said board member Marty Kimsey. “There may be some uses that are excluded but almost any commercial purpose you can put in the watershed today. It’s just the one thing that you can’t have, which is RV parks. I
Bill McLarney, chair of the Water Quality Advisory Committee, spoke during the Oct. 3 meeting.
“I’m pleased to be able to say that the recommendations this committee will offer are very much in line with what the wealth of the people of Macon County have indicated they want for their county and from their government,” McLarney said.
Based on the findings in its the F
The little Tennessee River runs through Macon County. Hannah McLeod photo
report, the Water Quality Advisory Committee recommended the planning board dismiss proposed changes to the watershed ordinance.
“This commission will strongly recommend against the proposed changes to the watershed ordinance,” said McLarney. “From what I would characterize as a very conservative viewpoint, it’s easily predictable that regardless of what we decide here, our local environment will inevitably be subject to new negative impacts as a consequence of foreseeable population growth and of increasingly unpredictable and sometimes more extreme weather. So given this reality, it behooves all of us, including our local government, to do what we can to foresee and prevent increased and novel impacts.”
Part of the argument against removing the RV clause, according to Jason Love, Associate Director of the Highlands Biological Station, is that RVs are not considered a structure in the current ordinance as it is written. Additionally, dense RV parks have large swaths of impervious surface area that don’t allow water to infiltrate into the soil. Love also highlighted waste disposal issues common to RV parks.
would also follow guidelines set forth under cluster developments .… because they really are high density,” said Love.
In his motion to recommend the removal of the RV clause to the county commission, Vice Chairman Lee Walters also said, “along with that, ask that the commissioners send it to the appropriate parties to review and further strengthen RV park permitting to ensure that the requirements for septic system meet or exceed that of any commercial or residential entity.”
Amid the lengthy discussion about the watershed ordinance, members of the public filled the boardroom, two of whom chose to speak during public comment and both of whom urged everyone to consider the reality of what they see as weakening a watershed ordinance amid widespread destruction from flooding caused by Hurricane Helene.
“All of this is very, very important stuff and I really just have one question. Why are we doing this right now?” said one speaker. “Our region has suffered one of the worst catastrophes that I can think of .… This can wait. Our people are suffering.”
“Sometimes RVs require additives to the holding tanks to keep the smell down,” said Love. “Some of those additives can be harmful. In some cases, formaldehyde is used to get those smells down. So, if you do have flooding or some sort of spill into these drinking water watersheds, those are some of the concerns that we had, some of the chemicals in these holding tanks.”
While the committee strongly recommended that RV parks remain ineligible for SNIA designations, the committee said that if the planning board chose to allow RV parks in the watershed it would urge the following.
“RV parks should not be placed in floodplains, whether with fill or no fill .… they need to have robust waste effluent systems in place to prevent spilling .… they
While Macon County fared better than other WNC counties to the east, it was not spared the worst effects of natural disaster.
On Friday, Sept. 27, Sheriff’s Deputy Jim Lau’s truck was seen submerged in floodwaters. His body was recovered the next day. Lau is the only confirmed death in Macon related to Hurricane Helene.
“Our mountains protect us, but they also funnel all that water into places that people don’t think of as being dangerous,” said Sarah Johnson. “There’s what’s called ephemeral streams. They pop up. They pop up behind my house .… If you have any possibility of preventing it now, now is when you do that. Because I guarantee you that Asheville, Canton, Clyde, the rest of them, if they could go back a little bit and rethink some of the things, they would.”
Macon County’s planning board met to discuss the ordinance. Hannah McLeod photo
Up Moses Creek
BY BURT KORNEGAY
The Hatband
Iwas on the ridge this morning admiring the autumn-red leaves of a gum tree, lit up by the rising sun, when a titmouse landed and, fixing his black eye on me, shouted a word in Bird I know — “Snake!” He shouted it so loud you could have heard him down in the yard. And every time he shouted it, he turned first one way on the branch, then the other. And with every turn, he fixed the eye on that side of his head on me.
late to fill the feeders, they forage up the ridge.
Two other titmice now joined the first, all shouting “Snake!” And they worked their crests up and down the way titmice do when excited. Several nuthatches followed, honking “Snake!” on their tin horns. Then here came the chickadees. I could hear their tiny beaks buzzing “Snake!” before they even landed. The red gum tree rang with bird alarm.
Over the years we’ve heard “Snake” a lot in the yard, and it draws us too. Likely as not, under the feathered hissy fit, we’ll find a black rat snake.
You’d think he’d never seen me before, although he’s sure to be one of the titmice, nuthatches and chickadees that flock together in our yard. See one of these birds on a feeder, you know the others won’t be far behind. But when Becky is
The birds cry “Snake” for good cause. A black rat snake will climb the tallest trees to reach their nests. Once, after a long search for it, I was startled to find one of these snakes draped directly above my head on top of
Puzzles can be found on page 30
These are only the answers.
the opened tool room door. It was sizing up the way to reach a nest of wren chicks overhead. And once we watched three fledging bluebirds launch from their nest box and land in the yard. As if the ground was giving birth, three black rat snakes immediately appeared. They’d been watching the bird box too for that moment, and each snake headed for its own squeaking morsel flapping in the grass.
This morning on the ridge, the clamor in the red gum tree soon attracted a hooded warbler. But not wanting to mingle his gorgeous black and gold feathers with the plain-colored yardbird rabble, he hung back in the laurel to scold, “Snake!” Next, a red-bellied woodpecker swooped in, followed by a female cardinal.
So many birds were now razzing me that I began to feel like a black rat snake. Then the thought came, might there really be a black rat snake kinked up beside me? And I looked around my feet.
The hooded warbler faded back into the laurel after that. The woodpecker and cardinal flew off. Then the yard birds left, including the one that started it all. They might have heard Becky filling the feeders below. I stood alone and in silence again in front of the red gum tree.
“These birds practically eat out of my hand in the yard,” I told Becky when I walked in the door. “But this morning on the ridge? You’d think I was the meanest, hungriest-looking black rat snake they’d ever seen!” Becky looked at me, “It must be your hatband.”
I had on an old straw hat so stretched with wear that I’d replaced its original band with one of Becky’s black elastic hair bands an inch or so wide. It tightened up the hat’s fit, and I thought it made a snappy contrast with the straw. When Becky pointed, I knew at once she was right. The birds had taken my hatband for a black rat snake coiled around my head!
Or, at least the first one did — the titmouse shouting “Snake!” Bird brains and human brains are of a feather in that it only takes one to raise a ruckus loud and long before others flock in all agitated, mindlessly parroting the first, convinced he’s just got to be right.
But don’t take my word for it, take it from the former top White House communications director Stephanie Grisham, who says of her former boss, Donald Trump: “He used to tell me, ‘It doesn’t matter what you say, Stephanie — say it enough and people will believe you.’”
Even when it is nothing but a hatband! And we’re still hearing from his red gums:
“Rigged!” “Stolen!” “Cheat!” “Fake!”
“Cats!” “Dogs!” “Sharks!” “Snake!”
It was only a hatband. Burt Kornegay photo
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STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE COUNTY OF JACKSON DISTRICT COURT DIVISION
FILE NO. 24CV001460490 HOMERO GARCIA Plaintiff, v. NOTICE OF SERVICE OF PROCESS BY PUBLICATION
JULIE RENEE GARCIA Defendant,
Take notice that a pleading seeking relief against above entitled action. The nature of the relief being sought is as follows:
Complaint for Absolute Divorce
You are required to make
defense to such pleading no later than November 9th, 2024 and upon your failure to do so the party seeking service against you will apply to the court for the relief sought.
This 18th day of September, 2024
NIELSEN LAW, PLLC Joshua D. Nielsen Attorney for Plaintiff 413 Walnut St Waynesville, NC 28786 (828) 246-9360 (828) 229-7255 facsimile
Publication Dates: September 25th, October 2nd and October 9th, 2024
STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE COUNTY OF JACKSON DISTRICT COURT DIVISION
FILE NO. 24CVD 000376 NOTICE OF SERVICE
BY
PROCESS OF PUBLICATION
JADE MOORE, Plaintiff vs. AUSTIN ROLAND, Defendant
TO: AUSTIN ROLAND 245 Lopes Circle Franklin, NC 28734
Take notice that a pleading seeking relief
above-entitled action. The nature of the relief being sought is as follows:
The Plaintiff, JADE MOORE is seeking the primary care, custody and control of the minor children born to the parties to wit, LINCOLN ROLAND, born on the 22nd day of July, 2014 and BAYLOR ROLAND, born on the 3rd day of September, 2018.
You are required to make defense to such pleading not later than November 18, 2024, being forty (40)
days after the date of thetice, and upon your failure to do so the party seeking service against you will apply to the court for the relief sought.
This 4th day of October, 2024.
DONALD N. PATTEN, PLLC
Attorney for Plaintiff
46 South Main Street Waynesville , NC 28786 828-452-1454
By: Donald N. Patten DONALD N. PATTEN
NOTICE OF ADMINISTRATION
Case No.24E000482-430 Cleo Pace Rogers,
Executor of the Estate of Tommy Lee Rogers of Haywood County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons having claims against the Estate to present them to the undersigned on or before Dec 25 2024, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate, please make immediate payment.
Executor
382 Chambers Cove Rd Canton, NC 28716
NOTICE OF ADMINISTRATION
Case No.24E001312-490
Brenda Dillard, having of the Estate of Elizabeth Ann Chester of Jackson County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons having claims against the Estate to present them to the undersigned on or before Dec 25 2024, or this notice will be pleaded
in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate, please make immediate payment.
Executor
c/o Coward, Hicks & Siler
705 W Main Street Sylva, NC 28779
NOTICE OF ADMINISTRATION
Case No.23E171
James Andrew Heatley,
Executor of the Estate of Thomas Andrew Taulbee of Jackson County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons having claims against the Estate to present them to the undersigned on or before Dec 25 2024, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate, please make immediate payment.
Executor
c/o Coward, Hicks and Siler, PA 705 W Main Street Sylva, NC 28779
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