Day 21 after Hurricane Helene

Issue #29

October 18, 2024

this morning🌱

To my kin,

I am Katharine Winship, author of Matters of Kinship. I write about relationships in and between ecosystems. My feet are home in the creeks and on the mountain ridges of Western North Carolina. I believe science should be translated into stories. Please join me as I write about this land that claims me.

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Due to Hurricane Helene's devastation, the next few issues will differ from my researched essays. I have used Notes to update you while deep in the trench work of restoring my community as we get our bearings after Hurricane Helene extended her reach from the sea to the ridges of our mountains. Services are iffy; my Notes stopped posting on Day 15. I’m switching to Posts. Please forgive the lack of polish. My editor, the amazing

Lauren

Graeber, is stuck behind washed-out roads and poor internet connections.

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"I really only want to say that we may love a place and still be a danger to it."

- Wallace Stegner, Thoughts in A Dry Land.

“Such a profound piece of wisdom, especially pertinent to agrarians and localists. Our affections don't guarantee that we will be a blessing to a place. We also need to exercise restraint, patience, and draw upon the rich sources of place-based wisdom present in our communities.” Thank you

Hadden Turner

for posting this in your latest essay and for your Substack friendship during Hurricane Helene.

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Background: On September 26th, 2024, I canceled client appointments for the following week, locked my Pilates studio, and headed home up Highway 9. Western North Carolina was forewarned of the strength of Hurricane Helene. I had what I needed for five days: water, dog food, apples, tinned salmon, and coffee.

 DAY 18 after HURRICANE HELENE: Black Mountain, NC

Technically, Highway 9 is closed, but I obey the flagman: slow, stop, go. There is a new landslide on the right-hand side. Today, the electricity was restored by 16 linepeople (thank you

Janisse Ray

for the word.) I sanitized the frig, made a list of protein foods, and headed down the mountain. I had lost 15 pounds through physical labor, adrenaline, and simply not having a way to store perishable food.

In the grocery store, my face, a reflection on the freezer door, looked haunted. I was chewed up inside, hungry for a hot meal. A burrito bowl? Nothing looked good—cardboard boxes with photos intended to look like food. I am self-conscious. Do I look as haunted as the other humans slowly walking the aisles? The National Guard people walk intentionally, without expression. In the checkout line, I insist that the uniformed man behind me go ahead. He has several items. I have a cart to restock my frig. We dither back and forth until he gives way and moves ahead of me. Young, capable, and with a cool haircut. We were humans with smiles again.

Last night, I moved my “go bag” away from my pillow for the first time since my phone blared Helene’s emergency warning. Today, I still keep the 24/7 County emergency phone number in my pocket. It’s a little square of paper that suggests someone will help.

Why do I tell you this? If Helene could hit Asheville, then the lines ~ we’ve crossed since 1856 when Eunice Newton Foote, scientist and women’s rights activist, proved in a simple backyard experiment that carbon dioxide heats up and holds heat longer than regular air ~ are catching up with us. Even the sanctuary spaces billed as climate havens are vulnerable and fragile.

Hug your people. Hug them hard.

Our neighbor Ann, co-owner of Thorpe Landscape, first to help with the road repair.

DAY 21 after Hurricane Helene, Black Mountain, NC:: (for context, please see my previous Notes about Helene’s early days)

Miracle #1:

The mountain road that connected 111 homes to the world collapsed on Day 1. Landslides from the westerly wind and the sheer velocity of water battered a “solid” dirt and gravel road at 7:45 a.m. and washed it out by 9:00 a.m. Many mountain communities in Western North Carolina operate as Home Owner Associations. We do not; we maintain the road with an association board and volunteer effort. The $300 annual road dues are voluntary.

Early on, Melinda Halford and her Road Maintenance Association Board asked our capable neighbor, Paul Hansen, to lead the hurricane road repair with safety as the highest priority. I was voted in as an advisor to the board to support Paul. We called Stacy Ogle, owner of Ogle Grading. He showed up! Y’all, this was a miracle. The demand for repair personnel was urgent and overwhelming for people like Stacy, whose people go back four generations here and know the land, water, and how to run big rigs. Stacy chose us. He restored our road in 18 hours over four days. Melinda said, “He made a road out of thin air.” He did not charge us for his creek wisdom. He did not charge us for his connections —the gravel yard where resources were scarce. His bill was a pittance. I hope we tip him well.

And I have a store of essays to write about his water and land knowledge; he tutored me on his breaks.

There’s more to do on our road—much more. Paul, Stacy, and I decided to stop the work because we accomplished the goal of securing the road, and Stacy is needed in many more places.

Stacy Ogle, our 4th generation Black Mountain contractor made a road out of thin air.

Miracle #2::

My people. Thank you.

Thank you

Elena Brower

for your text at that precise moment, saying this is what I am here on Earth to do.

Thank you, Trish O’Kane, author of Birding To Change the World, whom I’ve written about in previous posts, for telling me I will be in shock for a long time and to carry a sweater because I will be cold even when it’s hot. She’s right.

Thank you to my New England family for forgiving me for saying that some nights were damn lonely. Thank you to my cousins for the surprise Venmo deposit. How many times can I cry?

Thank you

Lauren

and your family and your church for your brave husband’s trip to the bottom of my road when my five days of dog food and other supplies ran out. The flashlights!!

Thanks to my best friend for finding a way up the war zone of Highway 9 to deliver my absentee ballot! Thank you, Taylor, for being my twin. Thank you Pappy and Sunshine Price for being the best dogs.

Thank you to my community for bonding, wow, just wow.

I can’t thank you enough for being here. I feel your love.

I was gifted with lessons that will inform

Matters of Kinship

for years to come.

Hug your people. Hug them hard.

love, Katharine

PS My book recommendation is by

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

WHAT IF WE GET IT RIGHT? Magnificent!

Based on Ayana Elizabeth Johnson’s book What If We Get It Right: Visions of Climate Futures, here is my Climate Venn Diagram. All these days later, I would add: KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORS to the What’s Needed category. kbw