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Posts Tagged ‘helping’

In the Path of the Storm

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on October 13, 2024| 7 Comments »

Photo: Ken Ruinard/USA Today.
Asheville, North Carolina, after Hurricane Helene.

Asheville, NC. “I’m safe, but my house is structurally damaged and I’ve just dealt with FEMA and they’re very good and my insurance is being a pain in the neck so … ugh. Anyway, I don’t have power or water and I’m living in a neighbor’s house right now. Thank you for thinking of me. I’m safe and a little stranded feeling. I’ll try and reach out when I’ve got more definite news.”

I got that voicemail on October 7. Hurricane Helene struck my childhood friend’s home September 24. She didn’t answer email. I didn’t have her mobile phone number. But when the US mail delivered my letter to her, we connected.

Patrik Jonsson goes in depth at the Monitor about hurricane-tossed North Carolinians pulling together to help one another.

“Eric Gillespie put his sandals on, walked outside his house, and stood in awe at the sight of Clear Creek – usually a gurgling rivulet – rushing like a dark torrent.

“Then he heard the screams for help. Down a steep bank lay a row of cookie-cutter houses, now up to their eaves in muddy water. Friends and neighbors – some infirm – remained in their homes as nearly 30 feet of water rushed down the French Broad River system, rising in a matter of minutes, trapping a dozen neighbors unable to scramble to higher ground.

“ ‘That’s when things got crazy,’ says the owner of the Wakey Monkey coffee shop in nearby Saluda. ‘There was no way to prepare for what happened.’

“In a rescue scene replicated over 6,000 times across Appalachia as remnants of Hurricane Helene crashed into the steep terrain, neighbors and first responders rushed to action, using everything from sofa cushions and paddleboards to mules and Chinook helicopters in order to ferry friends and strangers to safety. Over 230 people died in the storm, the bulk of them in Appalachia. The toll includes 11 members of one family in the Asheville suburbs.

“ ‘There was both beauty and tragedy in the response,’ says Nathan Smith, a pilot from Charlotte, North Carolina, who surveyed the damage as he flew his 1979 Cessna 180 Skywagon on multiple missions into hard-hit county airports. …

“There were slip-ups and mistakes. But to many on the front lines here, the very worst that nature could conjure was met by the very best America had to give. …

“What promises to be a long recovery is now top of mind for residents of Greater Appalachia, many of them exhausted and still in shock at the discombobulation not only of their lives, but also of the geography of their valleys. …

“In Saluda, North Carolina, a railroad stop that became an adventure destination, the tone of the first meeting of the local business association after the storm was subdued at best.

“The Green River, a world-renowned kayaking destination, could remain impassable for months, if not years, some association members said. With major roads blocked and tourist towns like Bat Cave and Chimney Rock leveled, would anyone show up for leaf-peeping season?

“ ‘What happened was scary,’ says Emily Lamar, co-owner of The Purple Onion restaurant in Saluda. ‘What happens next is scary, too.’

“Access issues for rescue crews tell that story. There is little way to get from South Carolina to Tennessee as parts of Interstate 40 are washed out. The famous Blue Ridge Parkway is undrivable, covered with trees and washouts. Large parts of Asheville’s quirky River Arts District are smashed. {See photo.] Much of what was the iconic village of Chimney Rock is now wreckage situated downstream in Lake Lure. …

“One analogue is the city of New Orleans, which lost more than a quarter of its population [after Hurricane Katrina] 2005 and 2011. But just as New Orleans used that experience to strengthen its levees, many here hope these Carolina communities can build back stronger. Hard-hit Asheville, for one, has long debated better flood controls for its vulnerable River Arts District.

“ ‘This recovery, it’s going to be weeks, months, years, decades, if it’s ever complete,’ says Aaron Clark-Ginsberg, professor of policy analysis at the Pardee Rand Graduate School in Santa Monica, California. ‘Some of this trauma is going to be incorporated into the structure of the community.’ “

More at the Monitor, here. No paywall. Excellent pictures.

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Invisible No More

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on December 1, 2016| 2 Comments »

Photo: Andy Hogg/Unsung Heroes
Georgetown students raised more than $5,000 for Umberto “Suru” Ripai, a cashier at the dining hall, who is now able to visit his family in South Sudan for the first time in 45 years.

On Facebook, Cousin Claire reposted a wonderful story that Cousin Nancy had shared. It describes exactly the kind of outreach I think of when I say that small acts by one person can make the world a better place.

Petula Dvorak writes at the Washington Post, “Every night, they had the same routine. The Georgetown University business student would settle in for his cram session — soda, chips, books lined up. And the janitor would come in to start his night shift — polishing each of the windows in the study room, moving amid all those books and chips and sodas. Invisible.

“ ‘There was this space, like ice separating us,’ said Oneil Batchelor, an immigrant from Jamaica. The janitor worked around the students — many of them in their 20s like him, many with entrepreneurial ambitions like him — for nearly a decade before one of them finally broke that ice last year.

“A nod one night. A hello the next.

“And within weeks, Batchelor and the student, Febin Bellamy, were having long talks about being immigrants, about wanting to be entrepreneurs, about politics and history and music. Bellamy even went to Batchelor’s church and met his 6-year-old daughter.

“After he formed that bond with the once-invisible worker, Bellamy couldn’t stop noticing the others. …

“Each of those workers has a story. Many of them are immigrants, and their collective histories of war and flight and families left behind offer a master class in geo­politics. No tuition needed.

“Bellamy understands because these are his people. His family immigrated to the United States from India when he was 5. When they got to New York, his mother worked as a nursing assistant and his father as a customer service rep while they were going to college at night and raising a family in the few hours left over.

“Bellamy started at a community college and then transferred to Georgetown as a junior. He knows the scrap and fight the folks fixing pipes and cleaning bathrooms have inside them.

“So he had a brainstorm. What if he found a way to introduce the workers to the students? And that idea went from a class project in April to a fundraiser making real change today.

“He did it in the language his peers understand: a Facebook page. He calls it Unsung Heroes, and he began posting little profiles of workers around campus. …

“The students also learned about some of the hopes percolating, as windows are washed and floors are scrubbed. And they’re helping.

“Turns out that Batchelor really is a gifted cook. Students who read about him encouraged him to hold fundraisers serving his now-famous-on-campus chicken. They raised $2,500, got him catering gigs and helped him put up his own web page, Oneil’s Famous Jerk.

“ ‘It’s like the door has cracked open in front of me,’ he said. ‘And I can smell the air coming through. The inspiration.’ ” Lots more here.

Photo: Andy Hogg/Unsung Heroes
Georgetown University business major Febin Bellamy, left, talks with janitor Oneil Batchelor, who wants to open a chicken joint. Students raised $2,500 and got him catering gigs.

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