Day 30 of the Apocalypse, Ground Zero, Gerton, NC pop. 231

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 the ecology and aquatic habitats of Western North Carolina. The long-term effects of this keep rolling in.

I got a voice message from FEMA last week asking me if we had sustained damage to a private well or private bridge, which makes me wonder if they are now considering covering those recovery costs.

Our county put out a survey asking about damage to private roads, which makes me wonder if they, too, are considering covering those recovery costs.

The most remote area of our fire district, Middlefork, is getting its power restored this weekend.

Our friends Collin and Becky had their second child, a baby girl, just a few days after the hurricane (they were evacuated to Raleigh, NC). Their house flooded and sustained structural damage. Jeff put them in touch with a group called Emmanuel’s Hammer. The group just arrived to fix their house at no cost. This is a huge blessing for them and their growing family.

Our friends Brandon and Mac are hosting a Halloween party and trick-or-treating for kids and adults in our community on the 31st.

We still have an abundance of supplies at our fire station.

As the reality of this 30,000 year event is becoming realized, help and possibility are showing up in unexpected ways.

Jeff and I believe that what you focus on expands. So we’re focusing on abundance, and this brave new world that we’re creating in the wake of this experience. As Jeff regularly reminds me, everything always works out for us. Our job is to believe and keep showing up.

So I’ll keep sharing these stories, and speaking these truths. That is my form of witnessing this collective experience - giving voice to what has happened, and what is becoming possible for all of us.

I’m actively looking for a publisher to help me share these stories in book format. If you have a connection to a publisher who may be interested, please comment below, DM me, or share this post.

“This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.

I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge — even wisdom. Like Art.” ~Toni Morrison