116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Former Cedar Rapids residents, now in Asheville, find themselves searching for water, ice, cash, gas after Helene
Retired Cedar Rapids dentist describes Helene’s aftermath in Asheville
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Glen Miska says he and his neighbors in Asheville, N.C., have been living “a strange kind of primitive” life since Hurricane Helene and “unprecedented” flooding cut them off from the rest of the world 10 days ago.
Miska, a longtime Cedar Rapids dentist who retired and moved to Asheville in 2016, wants people to know he and his wife are fine, though longing for running water and a hot shower.
Their home — which overlooks the Smoky and Blue Ridge mountains — was undamaged, though their adopted city is devastated and still without running water.
Asheville, a city of 93,000 in western North Carolina known for its architecture and arts scene, was ground zero for Helene’s destruction. Twenty-five counties in the state have been declared federal disaster areas.
The hurricane hit Asheville on Friday, Sept. 27, dumping more than 14 inches of rain onto already saturated ground, pushing rivers out of their banks to record crests.
When Miska and his neighbors emerged from their basements, they found they had no water, no electricity, no televisions. Cellphones and laptops didn’t work. Downed trees and power lines were everywhere. Bridges were out, roads washed away or blocked by mudslides and fallen trees. The city was marooned.
Helene has killed more than 200 people, 115 of them in North Carolina, with hundreds of people still missing.
Water, ice, cash, gas
People’s immediate priorities, Miska said, were “water, ice, cash — credit cards wouldn’t work — and gasoline,” the same situation Linn County residents faced after the 2008 flood and the 2020 derecho, “only worse,” Miska said.
“If you didn’t have access to cash, you couldn’t get gas. None of the ATMs worked. But there was no leaving,” he said. “All the roads were blocked.”
Sections of Asheville’s downtown business district were destroyed, with broken windows, buildings full of mud. The historic Biltmore Village “is gutted,” Miska said. “Semis were tipped over, big 30-by-20 bins had floated up, lying on their sides. It really got hammered.”
The Miskas had two gallons of drinking water — and some bottles of wine — on hand so their circumstances weren’t as dire as some. They walked down a nearby trail to haul back buckets of lake water so they could filter out the sand and use it to flush toilets. Now that they have electricity, they use the water collected by a dehumidifier for that job.
It will be months before the city’s water service is restored, “due to the complexity of a mountain system,” Miska said.
He likens the city’s geography to the “folds of an accordion,” with homes built on the hills and ridges above the downtown and the two rivers that merge there. Drinking water, that comes from the French Broad River, has to be pumped up those hills, and “the system is antiquated.”
Also, two of the city’s three water plants and miles of water lines were heavily damaged in the storm. Fixing them is further complicated by roads being washed out, making the plants inaccessible to heavy machinery needed for the repairs.
Fast help
Miska also addressed the rumors and politicizing that have followed the disaster, including the allegation the government isn’t responding to the disaster.
“Help was quick to come in,” Miska said.
The Asheville airport was closed to commercial flights so planes and helicopters carrying water and supplies could land. State and federal officials and soldiers set up distribution points, cleared roads, rescued people and animals. Mule trains carried water and supplies to people in remote mountain regions, Miska said.
“We’ve had giant cargo planes landing here with water and supplies,” he said. “Once a road gets cleared, semi after semi brings in water. It’s unbelievable how good government has worked.”
Miska also cited contributions by corporations and businesses. “It’s not just government that’s helping,” he said.
Restaurants have given away food. The Duke’s Mayonnaise factory stopped making mayonnaise, he said, and instead filled jugs with water, giving them away, “coming to our rescue.”
“The response has been overwhelming,” he said.
He noted the North Carolina governor has asked people not to travel to the disaster area to help, given the scarcity of drinking water and the blocked roads.
‘Sharing network’
Asheville, Miska said, has attracted residents “who are rich in community spirit. Everyone is engaged in helping. Every neighborhood came together. You’re forced into your ‘village,’ a sharing network in each little neighborhood. Someone has a generator, someone has water to share. Everyone works together, checks on their neighbors.”
“We’ve traded food and friendship for water and generator power and Starlink phone calls.”
The Miskas got their electricity and internet service back by midweek, though thousands of people in their county have not.
When Miska, 75, finally was able to check his cellphone last week, he found 90 messages from people asking if he was OK. He was reported as “missing” on one Facebook site.
“Checking Facebook was the last thing on my mind,” he said. “I was looking for ice and water. I finally posted something Thursday that we were OK.”
Tourism
Miska said people move to Asheville “because it’s beautiful, and the people are friendly.” It’s one of the Top 10 places in the nation for people to retire, he said.
It’s a small city that thrives on the arts and tourism, with a record 13.9 million visitors in 2023 adding billions to the local economy.
The city became a countercultural mecca in the ’70s, which gives the city its “peculiar charm,” Miska said. Residents wrapped buildings in sheets to save them from urban renewal, meaning Asheville is one of the only cities left that are “loaded with Art Deco buildings.”
Local leadership, Miska said, is intent on rebuilding the city and “getting people to come back as soon as they can. We have to have jobs and keep businesses alive.”
Julia and Mark Goldthwaite stand in their Asheville Guitar Bar, with an “open” sign posted, on Sunday in Asheville, N.C., in the city’s River Arts District. The mayor has said the city is intent on rebuilding and getting businesses back on their feet. (Glen Miska)
The interior of the Asheville Guitar Bar on Sunday shows the cleanup efforts to date, nine days after Hurricane Helene cut off power and water to the city of 93,000 in western North Carolina. (Glen Miska)
Weather patterns
Miska said Asheville residents knew there was going to be flooding when Helene passed over and dumped its load of rain.
“The two rivers here have flooded before, but it was inconsequential compared to this. This is unprecedented,” he said. “No one expected it would be this severe. No amount of preparedness or planning could have predicted this.”
Flood debris is shown Sunday in Asheville, N.C. (Glen Miska)
This Sunday photo shows one of the many gutted buildings in the River Arts District in Asheville, N.C., following the destruction of Hurricane Helene. (Glen Miska)
After the 2020 derecho in Iowa, Miska said he studied the patterns of those storms that are becoming more common in the Midwest, forming in the Dakotas and sweeping east with hurricane-force, straight-line winds.
He’s now wondering if other hurricanes will follow Helene’s path, sweeping far inland. “Will this become a weather pattern here?” he said. “My wife wants a generator.”
Comments: mary.sharp@thegazette.com
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