After recent cancellations in 2019 (hurricane warning) and 2020 (COVID), they were excited for their September 26, 2024 anniversary and had chosen a destination they’d never visited before — Asheville, North Carolina.
As a Christmas gift they had also invited Erik’s parents, Rick and Loretta, who had visited Asheville before and had a wonderful experience, to join them and be part of the celebration.
In the four days after their Tuesday, Sept. 24 arrival, so much rain would fall in the Asheville area that the French Broad River in Asheville crested at a record-breaking 24.67 feet, bursting the banks and flooding the community. Roads and bridges were washed away, power and cellphone service was lost for days. More than 400 roads in North Carolina and eastern Tennessee were closed.
The storm resulting from Hurricane Helene has claimed more than 230 lives, about 100 of those in North Carolina, and dozens from Buncombe County where Asheville is located.
But all of that was yet to come, as early-week forecasts for the storm focused more on Florida impacts and possible inland issues in Georgia.
Tuesday-Wednesday, Sept. 24-25
The Augustin couples arrived in Asheville late Tuesday afternoon and settled in to the VRBO rental on a rise outside Asheville’s downtown along with Lindsay and Erik’s dogs, Lucy and Maddy. They enjoyed dinner out and discussed plans for the rest of their visit before enjoying some games and retiring for the night.
Wednesday started cloudy with occasional light rain, and after touring the Arts District, they took a drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway to experience some of the scenic mountain vistas.
“We found information about the National Park Center and went in there to see if they could direct us to some overlook areas,” Lindsay said. “We started talking with the ranger and he said they were getting ready to close some roads.”
Erik’s father asked why, and the ranger said “the hurricane.”
“It was at that point we realized that something big was coming,” Erik said.
They started thinking about what they should do — “things like filling up the gas tank, going to the grocery, stuff like that,” Erik recalled.
They got something to eat, and by the time they came out it was pouring down rain so badly they were concerned about hydroplaning.
“We were going to try to go to the grocery, but it was raining so hard you couldn’t even see, so we just wanted to get back to the house,” Erik recalled.
They got gas, bought a case of water and settled in for another game night, hoping for better weather Thursday.
But by Wednesday night, meteorologists were issuing warnings about potential flash flooding near Asheville.
Thursday-Friday, Sept. 26-27
The families were midway through a tour of the Biltmore Estate on Thursday when Lindsay received a text that Biltmore would close at 3 p.m., and remain closed through Saturday. They completed their tour and headed for a grocery to pick up some snacks, peanut butter and bread and pizza. And candles.
Erik had a conversation while at the grocery with someone who recommended he fill up the bathtub at the rental property, which was on a well, to ensure they would be able to flush the toilet if the power went out. That was the first thing they did when they got back to the house.
They rescheduled their anniversary dinner to Friday and planned to stay in for the night. The anniversary party turned into pizza for dinner and games for the evening.
When Lindsay and Erik awoke at 6 a.m. Friday they realized the power was out.
“You could hear the rain pelting against the window. It sounded like someone was slamming 10,000 marbles agains the glass,” Lindsay said.
Erik looked out the window to see trees bent by the wind, and Lindsay noticed another tree on the property split in half.
Lindsay called her mother around 10 that morning to check in and let her know they were fine.
Despite no power and the downed trees, the road was passable and Erik said the situation didn’t seem that bad.
The next time Lindsay tried to use her phone, the service was out. With no access to news or weather information, they were in the dark in more ways than one.
The four hunkered down, playing games by candle light and eating leftover pizza and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
Saturday, Sept. 28
They were scheduled to check out Saturday morning and debated whether to stay or go. Erik and Lindsay decided to take an exploratory drive to see if the road was open.
A huge tree was down across the road, but someone with a chain saw had cut an opening just big enough for a car to get through. Power lines were down but people were driving over them. They saw traffic moving on the highway in both directions, so they decided to pack up and head home as originally planned.
Erik’s parents had a GPS navigation system so Lindsay and Erik, who had been relying on cell phones for travel information, decided to follow them out. They got on Interstate 40 and traveled 10-15 minutes when they realized that cars were being turned around. They started to drive the other direction only to see traffic again reversing to go back the way it came. The bridge on I-40 had been washed out.
Credit: NYT
Credit: NYT
The GPS redirected the two couples to a two-lane road where they found a non-functioning gas station. Still, long lines of people were waiting, hoping the power would come back on so they could get gas.
At this point, they were two miles from Tennessee, and state troopers were turning people around because the town of Erwin, Tennessee was flooded.
“This is where it gets real,” Erik said. “At this point we have a little more than half a tank of gas left and obviously no where to get gas. We began to think we were going to be stranded along the side of the road with all these other people, with nowhere to go.”
Erik’s mother, Loretta, found a cafe down the road operating on a generator and serving food. They ordered hamburgers, and Loretta had struck up a conversation with a woman named Deborah as Erik joined.
“The lady invited us to stay with her. She had a barn at her house and only lived 2 miles away,” Erik recounted. “She told us she had a freezer full of food she needed to cook because it was going to go bad.”
They all headed together down the “twisty, turny, winding, hilly roads,” Lindsay said, leading to the house and barn of Deborah and David (whose last name is not being used by request). The barn looked “as rustic as rustic could be,” according to Lindsay. “I’ve had a couple of people say ‘I’m surprised it didn’t collapse on you’ when they saw the pictures. You could see through the walls, you could see through the floor.”
Deborah and David’s house was too small for the four visitors to stay there, but they had furnished the barn with a kitchen table and chairs, a rug and some furniture, Lindsay noted. “So there were places to sit, and they very kindly brought this roll-up foam mattress and a camping cot for us to use.”
Loretta asked if they might have to worry about bears since the door of the barn was propped open and unable to close.
“Well, we’ve lived here for 24 years,” Deborah reassured her, “And we’ve only seen two bears.”
A nearby stream allowed them to get water for the dogs, and Deborah supplied plenty — a camping toilet, propane lantern and extra flashlights, plus snacks, paper towels and trash bags.
The Augustin group played some games by lantern light, and after some close encounters with flying and crawling bugs, they decided to sleep in the cars.
Erik said his mind began to race that night, thinking they might be in this situation for a while.
“Number one, I didn’t know when the roads would be open. Number 2, what about gas? Even if we try to get gas, people are going to be swarming the gas stations, and if they run out of gas, how long is it going to be before trucks can to them to refill the tanks. No communication. No power, no cell phones. I really started feeling a little panicky.”
“All I could think about that night was my poor mom,” Lindsay remembers. “We were supposed to be home that day.”
Sunday, Sept. 29
By Sunday morning, they were starting to establish a routine. Erik and Lindsay took turns describing it.
“Go down to the stream and get some water for the dogs.”
“Get fresh water in the bucket to wash your hands.”
“Take the dogs for a walk to go to the bathroom.”
When they returned to the barn, Deborah had delivered blueberry pancakes and bacon for breakfast, cooked on a gas stove.
“And for lunch, we’ve got some deli meat that we need to eat up for sandwiches,” she told them.
Erik suggested they could walk up to the house when it was time to eat. “Just let us know when you want us to come up.”
Deborah said she had an old cow bell she could ring to summon them up the hill when it was time to eat or she wanted them to come up to the house.
That afternoon Erik was digging a hole to bury waste, and when he returned he noticed string lights in the barn were on.
“We have power!” He announced to everyone. But the power would go in and out, and the television was still not working.
When they went to the house for dinner, Deborah greeted Lindsay at the door, asking if she had cell phone service. Lindsay did not. But Deborah’s cellphone showed she had extended network service, so she let Lindsay call her mom, who had been frantically calling North Carolina and other family members trying to find out what had happened and where Lindsay and Erik were.
“You could tell with her it was a huge relief for her to talk with her mom,” Erik said.
Lindsay would learn that people were calling local authorities to ask for wellness checks on her and Erik and trying to look at the VRBO location where they stayed on satellite images, all to reassure themselves that the couple was safe.
Monday-Tuesday, Sept. 30-Oct. 1
On Monday, Erik and his dad decided to take a drive back down to the gas station to see if anyone had information to share. Now that some power had been restored, they were able to get gas. The gas station was rationing supplies, limiting people to 7.5 gallons. Erik returned with his car to gas up too.
While there, they talked with a state trooper who told them they could get through on Route 23 by going through Erwin, which had been closed due to flooding but was now letting people through.
“It was now starting to come together. We were able to get gas and to find there was a way out,” Erik said.
They joined Deborah and David in making dinner and spent the evening at their house playing the Farkle dice game, and said their goodbyes, planning to leave on Tuesday morning.
They wanted to thank their hosts for their generosity but were afraid to part with what limited cash they had because vendors were asking for cash due to the inability to process credit cards.
“For our anniversary, Erik’s mom had given us a check” Lindsay remembered. “We opened it on our anniversary and normally she makes it out to both of us. But this time she left the “To” line blank. She said didn’t fill it in because she wasn’t sure if it was harder to cash when it was in both our names or if it would be easier in just one, so she left it blank. If you want to leave something for them, we told her, why don’t you just make that out to Deborah and give it to her when we leave. So that’s what we did.”
All of the “what ifs” and “whys” of the entire experience continue to make Erik wonder. Deborah and David had food for their dogs only because they fed a stray that showed up a few weeks earlier.
“Like why did (Loretta) leave the check blank? We would have had no other way to give Deborah a proper thank you,” Erik said. “There were so many of those things that happened.”
They left Tuesday morning, returning for breakfast to the cafe where they first met Deborah, then taking Route 23, a two-lane road marked by “hairpin curves ... twisty, turny, hills for miles,” Lindsay said.
“All we saw were trees down everywhere. So many trees had come down and had been shoved to the side of the road to make it passable … We couldn’t believe the destruction that we saw when we got to Erwin.”
“It was like a movie,” Erik said. “It was bare land with smoke coming up from where they were burning downed trees.”
“There was mud everywhere, things in ruins,” Lindsay added.
Traffic was heavy through the small town, which was the way to get around the bridge that was out on Route 26.
From there they found their way to the interstate and followed his folks for a while until the elder Augustins made their turnoff in Virginia, then Lindsay and Erik were finally on their way back home to Ohio, arriving Tuesday evening. Their own bed, a hot shower — the wonderful feeling of being home.
As she recounted the experience, Lindsay recalled another “what if” that made her wonder.
“When we were looking for a VRBO, Erik had found one that was within walking distance of the River Arts District. And the River Arts District is no more.”
Reflecting on the week
While their phones were still working early in the trip, they received some flash flood warnings and information on road closings, but not being from the area, they didn’t recognize the locations. They didn’t receive an emergency warning for a hurricane or a tropical storm.
Both said it wasn’t until they were able to see television news Monday night and had cell phone service that they began to see and understand the devastation that surrounded them. The reality of what they saw in Erwin was breathtaking.
They both have thought about all the others — those who lost their lives or lost loved ones, the people stuck on the side of the road trying to find their way out, and all the “what ifs” that led to a different experience than their own.
Hard-hit areas of the southeast will be recovering for months. People who want to help can donate to the Red Cross, or, specifically to help western North Carolina, to the North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund at www.nc.gov/donate.
Erik and Lindsay also came home resolved to be more prepared for the possibility of disaster.
Their first day back they bought additional storage shelving and stocked them with supplies including batteries, drinking water, bags of dog food, a small charcoal grill and charcoal. Their cars are equipped with fire extinguishers, blankets and tire inflators.
“We were only out of power for about 50 hours,” Erik stresses. “What if we had to go a week?”
“We were just lucky,” Lindsay said.
Credit: NYT
Credit: NYT
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