Mark Starling, the morning show host and news director for iHeart Media-Asheville on News Radio 570 WWNC, has been on the air since 3:30 a.m. today, trying to keep local residents informed and calm after Hurricane Helene devastated the western North Carolina city of Asheville. But as a resident himself who lost neighbors in the storm, Starling says it’s been hard to process the tragedy.
“Some of our neighbors — their homes didn’t make it and neither did they,” he tells Yahoo Life. “People were literally just swept away.”
Starling says that his wife, son and four dogs got caught in floodwaters and had to take shelter at a gas station during the storm. “I lost touch with them,” he says. It wasn’t until hours later that he learned his family was OK. “We’re just extremely lucky that all of us escaped unscathed,” he says, adding that he’s not sure when he’ll be able to get back into his home due to the loss of power and water.
Starling, who has been sleeping at the radio station, says his team hasn’t had running water or been able to shower, noting that they’re getting portable toilets delivered to help with plumbing. His station is currently being run with generators and a Starlink unit, and even got his news from a ham radio for a while when the internet went down.
“This is home. These are our neighbors. These are our family members,” he says. “These are people that tune in to our radio stations every day and allow us to have a job. It’s time to pay them back for all of that.”
But he admits that he’s struggling to cope with it all. “I just repeat the same phrase in my head over and over again, ‘It’s OK to not be OK.’” He also has been saying the phrase, “Don’t get bitter, get better,” which he’s repeated on his show for decades.
Starling is one of many Asheville residents who are relying on each other after the city was hit with nearly 14 inches of rain in just three days — the equivalent to what the area typically sees in three months. Local officials described the aftermath as “biblical devastation,” which has claimed the lives of more than 200 people across multiple states, including Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina and Virginia, while hundreds remain missing.
“We’re leaning on each other, and we’re loving on each other as much as we can,” Starling says. Some volunteers have brought food and supplies to the station, and employees have brought their dogs to work. “Pet therapy has been helpful as well,” Starling says.
Many residents are without water, power and internet, and others are trying to dig out their homes and businesses, while attempting to figure out their next move. “We have hundreds of thousands of people who are going through the worst imaginable crises you can imagine,” says Starling. “They’ve lost everything.”
Asheville residents are speaking out about the destruction, along with the anxiety they feel about the future. But they’re also repeatedly stressing the importance of community at a time like this. “A tragedy like this allows for a community to come together,” Thea Gallagher, a clinical assistant professor at NYU Langone Health and a co-host of the Mind in View podcast, tells Yahoo Life. “It also helps to give you a sense of control experiencing something that was out of your control.”
In addition to Starling, Yahoo Life spoke with four other people who live or work in Asheville about the toll of going through such a catastrophic event — and why they’re so proud of their community.
‘At some point, we’ll sit down and think about what it means to have lost our livelihood and belongings’
Asheville photographer René Treece has a studio in the River Arts District, which experienced catastrophic flooding. “The building’s lower floor is now sideways,” she tells Yahoo Life. “I think the building is condemned.”
When asked about her mental health, Treece says, “I can’t tell.” Instead, she’s been focused on trying to help people in her community. Treece says that family and friends have sent her money that she’s used to buy groceries for people in her area. When she notices people who only have three or four items in their grocery cart, “I am able to very discreetly hand them $50 and $100 bills they can use to buy food,” she says, noting that the store is currently only able to accept cash.
“Mentally, I’m just in the ‘go’ mode of doing what I can to help people,” Treece says. “That is making it a little more digestible.”
Treece says that her boyfriend recently put his things in a storage facility in preparation for building a new home, and it was all wiped out. “All of his things are now underneath a foot of mud,” she says. “Everything is gone.”
Treece’s boyfriend is currently trying to help recover bodies. “There are a lot of people that were being pulled out of the mud yesterday, and some are still alive,” she says. “So the loss of a photography studio or art or furniture or having a moldy basement just really isn’t a priority.”
While she’s focused on helping others right now, Treece says she knows there will be hard decisions in her future. Her daughter is currently in a different city and safe with her father, for example. “When she comes back to me on Friday, it’s going to be a real game changer,” Treece says. She also has tough conversations ahead with her boyfriend. “At some point, we’ll sit down and think about what it means to have lost our livelihood and belongings,” she says. “Right now, it’s not important, but it’s going to be. It’s not like our mortgages are going to stop being due.”
Despite everything she’s going through, Treece is eager to help her neighbors. “I would love to be useful and be helpful,” she says. “I would love to help anybody who I can.”
‘We’re confronting all of these things that we have no idea how to handle’
Jessica Wakeman is a freelance journalist and former staff reporter at Asheville’s weekly newspaper, Mountain Xpress, who has lived in the area for more than 3 years. “We have electricity, but we don’t have water or internet,” she tells Yahoo Life. “We need to drive to the public library and sit on their front lawn to work, and we’re using a bunch of buckets of water, but we’re fine, all things considered.”
Wakeman lives on the top of a steep hill and says her house wasn’t damaged, but homes at the bottom of the hill flooded up through the first floor. “The water covered the road sign at the bottom of the hill — that must be 9 feet,” she says.
She says the mental toll after such a catastrophic event is the hardest. “It’s just now sinking in,” she says, pointing out that people in her community are “very, very upset, but ultimately grateful that the people they love are still safe.”
“I know people who had trees fall on their cars, but they’re like, ‘At least we’re OK.’ We’re really trying to find the silver lining,” she says.
Wakeman says she’s noticed “waves of anxiety and sadness” in people she’s spoken with. She also describes the “tension” of living through this. “Nobody really knows exactly what is the right thing to do,” she says. “We’re confronting all of these things that we have no idea how to handle.”
But Wakeman also says that there are moments that feel more positive. “You meet up with your neighbors, share some food with them or pet their dog and you feel a sense of community,” she says. “I’ve also had the opportunity to meet more neighbors because of this. People are being so generous, offering water, food and toilet paper.”
Wakeman says she and her husband plan to stay in Asheville permanently. “We’re not moving,” she says. “I could see us driving to a town an hour away to go to a laundromat because I don’t want to wash all my clothes by hand, but I don’t want to leave.”
She also has this request for people in the future: “When all of this gets cleaned up, come visit Asheville and spend money here. We’re going to need the support.”
‘You need something, there are 10 people that will try to help you’
Brandegee Pierce and Danielle Del Sordo are co-founders of Pirani, a sustainable party goods company in Asheville. Pierce tells Yahoo Life that the couple is “extremely fortunate” that they only had flooding in their basement, front yard and backyard, noting that they “still have a home” that they can sleep in.
“There are no words that truly explain how we feel,” Pierce says. “Danielle and I have spent the past six years building Pirani and there are so many companies that have lost everything. The same companies also poured everything they have into their business for years and, like that — gone.”
But Pierce says that “if there is a ‘good news,’ it is the community is strong. Asheville is one of the most amazing communities we have ever seen prior to the storm and the way they have come together is truly heartwarming.”
Pierce says there was a “honeymoon phase” in the aftermath of the storm because information about the devastation hadn’t yet spread. “All phone service was nonexistent so we didn’t know Chimney Rock doesn’t exist… Swannanoa is beyond belief,” he says.
The couple left for Atlanta in an effort to keep working and to keep their business afloat. “Upon arriving and learning about the destruction, I personally had guilt that I abandoned my community,” Pierce says. “It has been really hard to see what our home has become and the fear of what will happen in the coming months… the places we love… the people that make our place great are hurting and in turn, we are all hurting.”
Pierce says that the community has created group messages to support neighbors and to share things like food, gas, water and internet. “People are offering their homes if they have water,” he says. “People are doing supply runs. You need something, there are 10 people that will try to help you.”
‘We will dig out and come back stronger than ever. We have no choice.’
Eddie Foxx is a native resident who hosts The Eddie Foxx Show on 97.9 iHeart Radio in Asheville, along with his wife, Amanda. His family lives in Weaverville, about 15 minutes north of Asheville, and have been without power since Friday morning. “We’re lucky, considering how a lot of folks are dealing with tragic loss and complete devastation. We’ve had no damage,” he tells Yahoo Life.
Like many people in the community, Foxx didn’t think the hurricane’s effects would be bad. “We have not had a power outage since the blizzard of ‘93. It was one of those situations where you think, ‘It’s not going to be me,’” he says. “It’s hard to wrap your mind around it.”
Foxx says he drove into the city on Sunday and was shocked by the devastation. “There was a van upside down with a truck on top of that, vehicles wrapped around telephone poles, buildings leveled. … My heart grew sadder with every mile we went into the city,” he says. “Me and my wife … we just sobbed.”
Foxx says he’s reported on tragedies like hurricanes in the past. “We’re the first ones in the community asking our community to give to people they don’t know,” he says. “They’ll give their last dollar.” Foxx says it’s “surreal” to be living through a natural disaster and to be on the receiving end of aid. “The outpouring of love and support is amazing,” he adds.
Foxx praises his neighbors. “Mountainfolk are so giving,” he says. “Before the mud stopped sliding, there were people saying, ‘I’ve got a truck. I have water. How can I help?’ not even knowing if their own families were safe. That’s the caliber of people that live here.”
He says the community is focused on recovery. “We will dig out and come back stronger than ever. We have no choice,” Foxx says. “We will come back out on the other side.”
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