Important Tree Update
The tree has gotten even prettier.
Autumn continues busting out all over here in Western North Carolina, which I feel is important to remember and document given how many of the pictures I see and take are of particularly memorable bits of destruction lately.
While I was out delivering food and supplies today I drove through the River Arts District for the first time since the storm. I've seen the pictures, but it's different in person. With a photograph, the photographer has analyzed the scene and framed the shot, given you a context that lets you understand what you are looking at. Here is a ruined building, here is a pile of debris that was a bridge. When you see it in person, your eyes don't make sense of most of it, especially when you're driving by. Sometimes you'll see a whole collapsed building and understand that, but I drove right past where the Salvage Station used to be and almost didn't notice at all because it just wasn't there in the way I would've expected. The one thing that nearly brought me to tears was a little red Cuban food truck, clearly ruined and derelict, sitting in a washed-out parking lot. I didn't know anything about it except that it was somebody's business and it was gone now and it was small enough for my brain to take in in one big gulp and be really sad about.
In happier news, we got up to see the relatives in Yancey County for the first time since the storm. They have gotten their power back and their well always worked for them, so they are doing all right except it's hard to get in and out of their neighborhood. They live on a road past a bridge over a creek that used to have houses all up and down it and does not anymore. Three weeks out from the storm a lot of the debris has been cleared away and the bridge is safer than it was, but they couldn't even get out for almost a week. We got to catch up with them for awhile and share storm stories and pictures, which was nice. Everybody has a storm story, and pretty much every social interaction longer than five minutes these days will involve sharing some part of it.
While we were up there, they also insisted on taking us up to their church, which like pretty much every church and civic building in the county has become a storage and distribution center for donations. I literally lost count of the signs for supplies and distribution centers on the road towards Spruce Pine. Indeed, their fellowship hall was absolutely packed to the gills with clothes and food and supplies. I dropped off three 3-gallon water jugs in case anybody needs them (I know the schools in the county still don't have water, so probably some of the people don't either), and we did pick up some supplies. Some I will probably pass along to others in the community, some will probably end up in our emergency stash. There was just so much that the pastor is worried about what they are going to do with all of it, especially since more continues coming in.
I do feel a little weird about taking relief supplies, even from a place that is drowning in them, considering we are in a very lucky spot compared to others who endured the storm. So when we got home, I made a decent-sized money donation to one of the relief agencies in the area that is pooling funds to buy things like heaters and industrial dehumidifiers for people trying to get their houses livable again. I figure that is a good tradeoff, if i take what nobody is using and give back what they really need. And hey, now I have enough macaroni and cheese to fill the little food pantry with for weeks!
