On the death toll in WNC [View all]

This was written by a friend here in Asheville.

——

On the death toll

The national news coverage I've seen of what happened in Western NC and parts of East TN refers to the storm as "deadly" and often mentions the current known death toll to summarize the impact of Helene in the region. If I were reading these headlines or seeing this news from elsewhere in the country, I might think that it was just kind of a bad storm.

In no way does the reported death toll convey the impact of this disaster.

First, it does not even accurately reflect the loss of life, since there are still many people missing. And the lists of missing people are undoubtedly incomplete. Many undocumented people and people with language barriers and other barriers have almost certainly not reported family members and friends that are missing. People who were homeless at the time of the flood, their whereabouts not known by their families, have very likely not been reported missing. Many rural areas still don't have internet access and have had communications difficulties which have made reporting missing people difficult. Both the death toll numbers and the missing persons numbers are only those that are known by specific public safety agencies, not sourced directly from communities with any kind of attention to ensuring everyone can participate in reporting.

Beyond the number of deaths, there is so much individual and community trauma that is invisible in those headlines.

People injured. Sometimes horribly. In my community there was an older man who broke all of his ribs trying to save a neighbor and ended up hospitalized for days. He and his neighbor both survived so they are not counted when the death toll is reported. The trauma they must have endured, I can only imagine. Then there is my friend's across the street neighbor who was carried away inside her house as it was torn from its foundation and swept down the raging river. She somehow survived, eventually crawling out of the river battered and naked. A couple in McDowell County, friends of a friend, were in their home when a landslide hit and partially buried them in their house under the mud. One is still hospitalized and can't walk, the other was also badly injured and still recovering. These are just a few of the stories of serious injuries I've heard directly from people in my community.

And so many people had terrifying escapes, narrowly avoiding death. A friend told me her cousin survived by climbing a tree and hanging onto the branches for hours. I read the testimony of a mother and child in my town that had to break out their highest windows and swim. People were rescued from the top floor of a submerged apartment building as it was swept down river, watching as neighbors were pulled into the water. Families were rescued from rooftops, or huddled in attics waiting to see if the water would stop rising or if they would drown. A couple from Swannanoa told their story of being completely submerged in the toxic flood water, pulled out to safety by a group of neighbors. A family escaped by wading through toxic river water with their elderly mother floating on a mattress because she could not swim. I have met two groups of neighbors in different areas near me who had to dig neighbors living and dead out of rubble and mud. These are just a few of the real experiences of real people who survived and helped others survive.

And then there are all of the families who lost their entire home and everything in it. We don't actually even know how many people this is. I will tell you I have personally met dozens in the past three weeks. Whether it was a conventional single family home or a mobile home or an apartment, there are so many whole structures that just disappeared down the river in the flood. The people who lived there don't know if they were smashed apart or floated intact, but either way their homes and all of their belongings are gone. Their clothing, their furniture, their kitchens full of food. The beds they slept in, their kids' toys and special things, house plants, books, family treasures. One mother whose mobile home was swept away said to me, "I don't even know where my home might have ended up." Can you imagine?

Children and adults who witnessed any of these things are living with trauma. People are experiencing nightmares, anxiety, insomnia, irrational anger, outbursts of emotion, exhaustion, uncontrollable crying, depression and hopelessness.

Even those of us in hard hit communities who are relatively unscathed and physically safe with our homes intact are living in a landscape where all the places we knew are devastated or destroyed. My child's favorite playgrounds, our supermarket, our post office, my car repair shop, the drugstore. Trails we walked on, farms that grew our food, beautiful places that we went to to find peace. Places we used to swim and wade and take our kids to play in the rivers and streams that are now full of murky green water clogged with trash and trauma. The roads we drive every day lined with the remains of people's homes and lives. Routes to school and work now impassable or dangerous. People all around us who are grieving the loss of their homes, neighborhoods, belongings and loved ones.

And the rippling economic impact only beginning to be felt - people out of work, housing lost in a community that already had a crisis level lack of affordable homes, no school or childcare for a month for working parents, businesses destroyed or closed for months to recover.

And the trauma on the land itself. To the wildlife, plant life, trees, and soil.

Please witness our stories and keep supporting our recovery. This place will need resources for healing and a recovery and reconstruction that doesn't leave anyone behind. The first step in this is truth telling about what is real here right now and the true impact of this disaster.

---
Image: impassable road a few days ago in the Riceville community