Damage from Hurricane Helene in Asheville, North Carolina.
Steven Vaughan-Nichols/ZDNET
When Hurricane Helene announced itself with wind and rain hammering on my house in Asheville, North Carolina, in the early hours of Sept. 27, I turned over and went back to sleep. Then, the crashes awoke me. I could tell my home was OK, but over the storm’s howls, I heard trees falling all around me on my neighbors’ homes.
Even so, little did I know just how bad the situation was.
Assessing the damages
The morning came, and as often happens with severe storms, the sun was shining, and it was a lovely day. Until my partner and I went out, we didn’t know that every other home in our historic neighborhood of Montford had large, old trees down.
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Our neighbor had three trees down but, by a miracle, none had done serious damage. Three houses down the other way, it was a different story. There, a huge, century-old tree had crushed part of the front porch and the second floor.
The pattern repeated as we walked around our neighborhood. Downed trees and powerlines were everywhere. All the streets were blocked in every direction. You couldn’t walk more than two blocks from our home, never mind drive.
However, as we talked to our neighbors, we discovered no one had died or been hurt by the hurricane in our area. We had no idea how lucky we had been.
Nearby, the French Broad and Swannoa Rivers had set new flooding records. Entire Asheville neighborhoods and nearby small towns had been washed away. Dozens of people had died, and as I write this a week later, over 200 people are still missing.
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Water remains a major problem for the area because the pipelines have been destroyed and the roads to the water treatment plants have been washed out.
Asheville City Government
We didn’t know this information then because our power had failed, the internet was down, and our phones were out. A few hours later, our water stopped, and a week later, most of these services were still out. (Cellular reception is better in some areas but still not what it was.)
Completely disconnected
After the first day, it began to sink in just how disconnected we were — not just from the world but also from friends only half a mile away. It’s horrible when you start to realize how bad things are in your community and can’t reach people to see if they’re OK.
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I’d expected my power and internet to be off — an ERC Broadband 100 gigabit per second fiber backbone cable was down in my front yard. However, I didn’t expect to lose my Verizon cellular service. More fool me.
While most cellular towers were still up, 70% of western NC’s cell phone towers and equipment were out of service because their fiber connections had been cut. We had no fiber, no net, no phone, and no connection to anyone beyond our neighborhood.
Life is different without connections. I stay in touch with my friends, co-workers, and family through email, Slack, social networks, and, in a pinch, phone calls and texts. However, all of these communication methods were out. That also meant my loved ones, friends, and colleagues couldn’t reach me to ensure I was okay.
The tech that could have helped us
It turns out that I could have stayed in touch with people outside the area if I had an Apple iPhone 14 or something newer. Late-model iPhones can connect to satellites for limited connectivity. Apple also now offers an Emergency SOS satellite service.
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In addition, AT&T is now rolling out a satellite phone system with AST SpaceMobile for high-speed satellite phone and network services. A neighbor across the street had this service so he could keep in touch with the outside world. Verizon is also now offering a satellite texting service and will soon have a full satellite cell phone service. These services will work with both iPhones and the new Google Pixel 9.
Of course, without power, even these services could only last for so long. We could charge our phones from our cars, but we also didn’t have gasoline to run these devices for too long. A few people had power generators, but these devices ran out of gas in a few days.
I’d previously looked into solar power for my home, but there were too many trees around to make that approach a smart idea. Had I done so, though, combined with a home battery and backup system, I would have had power to spare.
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So, why hadn’t I done this work beforehand? Well, because I live at an elevation of 2,200 feet and about 400 miles from the coast where Helene came ashore. We had never had any storm remotely as strong as Helene hit us before. But I know we can expect more tropical storms to attack us in the years ahead, thanks to climate change.
Future tech plans
Looking ahead, I’ll be investing in a portable power station with an optional solar panel. The Jackery portable power systems are highly recommended and are on sale now.
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What I won’t be doing is buying a solar-powered power bank. To quote ZDNET’s resident power expert, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes: “Every single device has been disappointingly ineffective — and some have even been potentially dangerous.”
If I’d had power, I would have at least been able to watch the news and entertain myself with TV. Several local over-the-air TV channels had stayed up, and my outdoor and indoor antennas were undamaged.
I also wish I’d had a satellite internet system to back up my AT&T fiber internet connection. I’ve used older satellite systems, but their speeds and latency pale next to SpaceX’s Starlink. Other new, fast, low-earth orbit satellite services are in the works, but none are ready. Had I had a Starlink connection, I could have kept in touch.
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Without power, internet, or reliable cell service, I couldn’t work. For the first time in my career, I didn’t write a single story for days. Mind you, I’ve written over 12 million published words and turned in articles over payphones and from areas hit by tornadoes and earthquakes.
However, what happened in NC was the worst situation I’ve faced.
The long road back
The result is that I’m still in a state of shock. Without access to water, my partner, Mary, and I have left the area for now. Ironically, it was only after we left Asheville that we saw how bad things were.
While we’re fine, or as fine as you can be under the circumstances, Asheville, indeed the whole NC Blue Ridge area, is in terrible shape. Your help would be appreciated. On behalf of my neighbors and friends, thank you.
