Helene

 

Sometimes an event happens that is so catastrophic, so tragic, that normal activities seem even abnormal.

I’m talking about the flooding and devastation last week in upper East Tennessee and western North Carolina. By now, you’ve probably seen all the media reports on how horrible it is.

Last week, we got about 8 inches of rain at my house, which is an extraordinary amount for such a short period of time. Yet, in Asheville, they got over two feet! All the rain that hit the mountains quickly traveled down into the valleys below, creating floods at never-heard-of levels.

I knew that Erwin and Newport were hit hard but it really hit home when I saw a video of helicopters evacuating patients from the rooftop of the Unicoi County Hospital. I had heard about it and sort of assumed it was an orderly removal of patients from a helicopter pad.

It wasn’t. It wasn’t an orderly evacuation. It was a rescue.

It hit home about how important our hospitals are, even small, community hospitals in maybe remote regions.  Those hospitals serve an important purpose and are an essential asset to their communities.

It also hits home that not everyone has access to quality health care. That there are doctors and nurses and physical therapists working in places that don’t have the amenities found in bigger cities. Health care professionals that choose to live in underserved and rural communities.

I saw videos of entire homes being swept away by raging floodwaters. Nasty, churning, brown water that is powerful beyond our imagination. Trailers are particularly susceptible but I saw entire homes swept off their foundations and quickly broken apart.

Homes where the contents will be so scattered that the families that lived in them will never find any evidence of what they left behind in. In one particularly macabre scene, I saw a video of a casket floating down the river.

I saw bridges that you might think could hold up to most anything crumble as though they were made of Tinker Toys. Can you imagine how long it will take Interstate 40 through the Smokies to be fully restored?

I saw a map of access to Asheville. All roads in and out were closed. No power. No cell service.  I read one story of a fellow who hiked 11 miles to check on his parents, finding stranded folks all along the way as roads were either destroyed or impassible.

I heard about the Tennessee National Guard rescuing people and dropping massive loads of supplies off in places where only helicopters could reach. It’s often been said that in the event of a crisis, look for the people running toward the problem.  There seems to have been plenty of those.

I’ve seen a bunch of local folks and businesses gathering supplies and arranging for transportation to areas without water, power, food, or shelter. This won’t be a one-time, short-term thing. These folks are going to need a lot of help for a long time.

I would ask that you open your hearts, your wallets, and maybe even your homes to those that so desperately need help right now.