#hurricanehelene

There are five “camps” of people who have revealed themselves during this Apocalypse.

I call them Evacuees, Helpers, Preppers, Looters, and Homesteaders. These categories can really apply to any horrendous situation, whether that be in the confines of a family, or a natural disaster.

It takes all kinds of people to make a community. There is no judgment in my evaluation of how people have chosen to respond. It is completely understandable that people do what they need to, to take care of thems…

I’ve been craving normal - a normal routine, a normal schedule, a normal reality.

Which isn’t really possible, right now, but sometimes I can find moments of normalcy.

There’s a walk/hike I normally do every day in our neighborhood, using a combination of gravel roads and paths through our 85-acre HOA. It’s a walk because I stroll leisurely, but also a hike, because there’s about a 600-foot elevation gain.

The dogs and I haven’t done this walk/hike since before the hurricane. Initially, all o…

About a week after the hurricane I started to get weird prepper ads showing up in my Facebook feed occasionally. Now they are constant.

Every fourth post is an ad for a portable shower, toilet, or generator. There are ads for water filtration systems, walkie-talkies, life-saving medicines, and backpacks full of food and supplies to last anywhere from a week to a month.

Then there are more morbid ads, for gas masks, pepper spray projectile guns, and disaster survival books.

Every four posts I …

Last night was the Concert for Carolina, which took place in Charlotte, NC, and was also streamed live.

82,193 people were in attendance. The concert raised $24.5 million for North and South Carolina.

All proceeds will be split between nonprofits supported by musicians Luke Combs and Eric Church, including the Chief Cares Fund, Samaritan’s Purse, Manna Food Bank, Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina, and Eblen Charities.

Eric Church also pledged to build 100 new homes for disp…

It’s been 30 days since Hurricane Helene devastated our community, and two weeks since my brother died.

Grief is stretching me. So is gratitude.

The hurricane devastation is now being considered a geological event, due to nearly 2,000 landslides, and entire towns being wiped out.

Hurricane Helene =

• 1,893 LANDSLIDES
• Damaged:
  • 126,000 homes
  • 1,000 bridges and culverts
  • 6,000 miles of road
  • 160 water and sewage systems
• $53 billion in damages in NC
• pbs.org/USGS
  

Helene also upended …

Last night, I dreamt that tall trees with no branches kept falling on our roof.

Eventually I realized that the trees were instead poles for power lines. Helicopters were carrying them over our house, and dropping them on our roof.

In my dream, there were a few trees that remained standing in our yard. They each had huge gashes in them, where water had stolen their wood. The gashes were so deep, it seemed like the trees would topple over should the wind pick up.

Then the scene shifts, and Jef…

I had no idea when I married Jeff that we would live through a pandemic, an apocalypse, and multiple hard deaths in the first 5 years of our relationship.

There is no one I would rather be married to when shit gets real, y’all.

Jeff could have spent the last four weeks just focused on the needs of our family, but instead he immediately began raising funds, coordinating supply deliveries for our community, and became the hub of communication for Gerton through his Facebook group, We are Gerton…

I’ve been working behind the scenes to get international media coverage for what’s happening here in Gerton.

Click the link below to read an article I had published in The Guardian yesterday.

‘We were not prepared’: three weeks in a small town devastated by Hurricane Helene

Special thanks to Rachel Obordo, a journalist with The Guardian, who encouraged me to share my stories. I appreciate your tender feedback and unconditional encouragement.

The Small Business Administration called me this past week to tell me that they are out of money for any business who has applied for Economic Injury Disaster relief, which I did on October 4th.

Specifically, the SBA states on its website that new loan offers will be delayed due to a “lapse in Congressional funding.”

According to the SBA, Congress has to both be back in session, and also agree to approve additional funds, in order for the SBA to cover these loans.

Congress will not reconvene …

We’re headed today to a beach outside of Charleston, SC, for a much-needed respite.

Forty-five minutes into the drive, there are no signs of devastation. The warm weather and brilliant day allow me to notice, for the first time, that the leaves on the trees have changed color.

All of my memories from the past 3+ weeks are associated with place, yet it took until today for me to even notice that the brilliance of autumn here in our mountains has already arrived.

These are some of the places th…