SurvivingHurricaneHeleneInAsheville

 An Asheville resident "H" gave a presentation on how she and her family survived without clean water or electricity for weeks after hurricane Helene devastated the city by sharing resources with others, reusing water several times, sharing backup generator electricity, etc.

Some salient details:
Many houses and businesses in Asheville are low lying and/or near a river. There were really two storms - first a huge rainstorm, then the hurricane with high winds. So many trees down, electricity off, flooded basements. At first it felt like camping, grilling outside, neighbors spending time outside together. We had to sit in our cars twice a day to hear reports on what was happening because there was no internet service. H's daughter and some neighbors had propane generators and would use them for selected periods of time to avoid the effects of continuous noise, inviting neighbors to come and charge their chargable lights and phones. Eventually we used up our candles and had to go stay at the beach for a few days. There was only one road out of town, lined with trucks coming inbound with supplies. All restaurants in town were closed and Asheville depends on Tourism. Everyone had to throw all refrigerated food out. There were no groceries available in town. One gas station that was open had long lines. H picked up oxygen and food for a neighbor, etc. It took two weeks to get power back on. Luckily H had a gas stove for cooking. When power came on it was intermittant and many power lines were still down, which was also a safety hazard. Even after months there are still power lines down. People filled bukets with water from the rivers to flush toilets. FEMA and other groups brought in jugs of potable water and other supplies. Water had to be used multiple times - for washing vegetables, washing our bodies, washing laundry, flushing toilets, etc. Churches supplied people with showers, laundry facilites and food. Farmers gave away food. Many grocery stores and restaurants went out of business; others are still in the process of rebuilding. Some facilities accepted donations of and gave away food. Helen cooked pots of rice and gave them to neighbors. Hospitals had backup generators but not water. Everyone had to share a single portapotty.
In California fires, people had to band together afterwards to fight realestate buyups by big corporations. We didn't here about similar efforts in Asheville. What we did hear was that FEMA and other groups helped people whose jobs or businesses had been lost due to the storm to pay their rent. Many artists (big Asheville community) had to relocate.

VOAD organizations are active in disaster relief. Many churches and national organizations prepare for and provide disaster relief. Tufts University has a ComFood program. Some links: https://nesfp.nutrition.tufts.edu/about/staff/colleen-hanley, National VOAD: nvoad.org/our-work
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hugh-Joseph. Why are farming communities, sustainable energy communities and peace communities not getting to know each other? People come from Burma/Myanmar to practice sustainable farming here. Climate change is creating many of the disasters we are seeing. How is this related to degrowth? What do we want to recover to? It relates to a sharing economy. How do we survive, and how do we scale it up? How do we make it national policy? How do we reach the necessary changes in time? Even if we don't, it's worth fighting for. Justice is in the effort here and now. When one of us didn't have a refrigerator, she only bought what she could immediately cook and consume. What sacrifices do we need to make in the Global North?

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