Op-Ed: Beyond belief in Ashe County

This column is syndicated by Beacon Media.

One Sunday morning in November of 1977, my little sister Ann woke us up and said “The field is full of water.” No one believed her for a minute or two. Our Ashe County house had been moved in 1948 to be above the ‘40 flood line. Those four days of rain laid ruin to homes and bridges throughout Ashe County and I had been raised hearing stories about it.

My Mama looked out the window and flipped the main on the fuse box and we all ran to the car. We got up on the farm road, which today is my driveway, and watched as the water came across the road and into the house. The water line was 5-foot plus in the house when it was all said and done.

For days, family members cleaned out the house. There were car parts from up the road in our house and batteries laying on top of the cookstove. Daddy was building a wood stove and he set it up to dry out the house. Anna had just been diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes; she was 10. We stayed with Aunt Ruthie and Uncle Dale because everything we had was gone; all the food that was put by, the freezer with beef and two hogs, all the canned food.

Gone.

Getting back to normal took a long time. HUD (the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) helped repair the home. Red Cross gave us $100 each for new clothing. We had one plate, a wood stove, a hotplate, and a percolator. Honest to God, we took turns eating out of that plate for the longest time. It was Mama’s wedding ironstone, white with a green rim.

I know this sounds like a tall tale, but it’s not.

When Helene cleared and it was safe to go outside, I took a picture right from where we watched the water from in 1977. That year was bad. Hugo was bad.

But this, y’all. This is beyond belief.

I’ve lived in the North Carolina mountains all my life. I’ve never seen anything like what has come after tropical storm Helene. Houses are gone and the roads look like Swiss cheese. I’ve heard stories of people who hung on to floating couches.

It’s hard to know what recovery here will look like. But what we do know beyond a shadow of a doubt is that the hardest hit are always the poor. They are the people who will find it hardest to find a new place to live, to buy new plates, to replace the food that was lost.

I thank God for the many helpers: The local churches and businesses that immediately started reaching out to provide food and shelter. But in this long recovery, we need to make sure we don’t leave anyone behind.

There will be dollars coming from Raleigh and from Washington to help places like Ashe County and for that we are grateful.

But local people, those of us who have raised generations here, need to make sure that those dollars are used to provide for everyone in our community.

Rebuilding comes with opportunity. Opportunity to build affordable housing of better quality than the run-down rentals so many poor folks have been living in, to repair our schools even in the poorest places, to repair roads that run to all our neighborhoods, not just the vacation or retirement communities. To make these dollars go to these places that need them most, local citizens will need to hold our elected officials accountable. We must — clearly and without hesitation — state our needs.

North Carolina’s mountains are a beautiful, special place. Even as I sit surrounded by mud and tragedy, I am so proud to call this place home. I’m glad to be from people who will rebuild — for themselves and for all our neighbors.