#hurricanehelene

This is not an angry post. This is a clarification of facts.

Over the past 2 weeks, no one from the Red Cross has shown up in Gerton to offer support.

No one employed by FEMA or any other government entity has shown up.

FEMA has sent some contractors to assist with road reconstruction, thanks to intervention by Senator Tim Moffitt (R-NC), who lives on top of our mountain.

No one from FEMA has come to Gerton to assist people in applying for disaster relief.

Because - just to review - we sti…

Our dachshund Winston is not a morning dog. Yesterday, after 2 weeks of getting up early every day, he decided he was done with our apocalypse lifestyle. When I opened the dog crate, at the reasonable hour of 8 am, he hid. Our other dachshund, Leroy, of course, leapt into action.

Leroy is food-motivated. Winston is self-care motivated.

After turning the generator on, feeding Leroy, and making my breakfast, I eventually went back into our bedroom to discover Winston napping under the covers on …

Instead of burying the lead, let me share that my husband Jeff’s recent request for a Starlink was sent by a friend of a friend to Elon Musk’s mother, Maye.

Starlink is advanced satellite technology that delivers high-speed internet and was developed by Elon Musk.

The Starlink looks like a white pizza box with a kickstand. You set it up in an open area outside (ie not under trees). It requires power, but only as much as is needed to power a lamp. Once powered, the pizza box uses its own techn…

We had some HUGE wins yesterday! And y’all, I NEEDED some wins.

First, Blossman Gas, our propane delivery service, somehow by the grace of God found a way to get to our house to deliver propane. We were down to 15% in our tank by the time the propane arrived.

The night before I had a meltdown with Jeff, thinking that on top of everything else going on, we were also about to lose precious access to our whole house generator power for 2 hours each morning, and 3 hours each evening.

The meltdown…

I made the decision to put all of my private mentoring with clients on hold until the beginning of November.

This was a tough decision for me, because I love working with my clients, and I’m helping many of them with projects that are time-sensitive.

After several conversations with Jeff, we recognized that our hearts are with our local community right now. Jeff serving as the Supply Coordinator, and me serving as the Trauma Chaplain, is how we want to be spending our time. This is a once-in-…

We are Ground Zero.

I didn’t understand until yesterday that the Hickory Nut Gorge, comprising (from North to South) Gerton, Bat Cave, Chimney Rock, and Lake Lure, was the hardest hit during Helene.

Somehow the hurricane stalled right above our Gorge Friday morning 9/27, which is what caused the massive flooding and microbursts of trees collapsing.

Our friends Stan and Dave, for example, had 200 trees, mainly large Poplars, collapse on their mile-long road. They were hit by a microburst.

W…

Yesterday was a rest day for me, after overdoing it with a migraine on Friday. I stayed at home, alone for the first time in 9 days.

Jeff went down the mountain to meet several people who were dropping off key supplies - like a Starlink for our community, as well as 100 gallons of gas - to refuel all of the ATVs now being used to make supply deliveries to remote areas of our fire district.

I stayed home and cleaned up around the house. After a while ATVs started showing up in our neighborhood.…

Yesterday was hard, Friends.

The adrenaline rush of the hurricane is slowing down, and our residents are finally starting to respond emotionally to the disaster that struck us last week. When I was at the Fire Department for our daily community meeting, several people came up to me in tears, not knowing how to process their new reality.

I led our community, volunteers, and first responders in prayer. I reminded us to be kind to ourselves and compassionate with one another. I reminded us that w…

New-to-Me Apocalypse Experiences

(As I learn to navigate the post-hurricane reality we are living here in our small rural community in Western North Carolina - Not in order of importance):

• Eating bear and chicken stew lovingly made by Jean, the wife of our neighbor Robert, who is a hog and wild game hunter
• Hitching a ride to our checkpoint so I could get WiFi access in a dirty banana Jeep Wrangler with a 12-inch lift, and 40-inch tires - so high off the ground I had to be lifted into it, dr…

This is the message I shared today at our daily community meeting. I hope this is helpful to you if you have also been impacted by the hurricane:

My name is Emma Churchman and I’m a Trauma Chaplain.

I want to take a few minutes to speak with you all about what we have just been through as a community.

Regardless of what you have been through over the past 5 days you have experienced a traumatic event.

Maybe your home or your property was damaged. Maybe a neighbor or a loved one you know is s…