Just as Brandon Smith ’09 and his Wednesday-night running group departed for their weekly jaunt though the trails and streets of Black Mountain, North Carolina, it started to rain—hard.
It poured during their entire 5-mile run, and when they returned to their meeting spot at a downtown running shop, soaked, Smith told his friends, “This is going to be really bad.”
Hurricane Helene was nearly 500 miles away bearing down on Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 4 storm, and its remnants were predicted to hit western North Carolina, where Smith and his wife Sarah live, by Friday morning.
A native of Mahomet, Brandon Smith graduated from Illinois State University in 2009 with a degree in school health education and spent the first seven years of his teaching career in the Champaign-Urbana area.
Yearning to live near the mountains, the Smiths moved to Black Mountain—15 miles east of Asheville, North Carolina—in 2017.
On Wednesday, September 25, the creeks and rivers near Black Mountain were rapidly rising because of nearly four inches of rain from a separate slow-moving cold front, with Helene approaching from the south.
“I knew that it was going to be worse than anything I’d seen since moving to North Carolina,” Smith said. “We were already starting to flood before the hurricane.”
The front continued to dump rain through Thursday, and the remnants of Hurricane Helene arrived Friday morning, bringing torrential downpours and strong winds.
“You couldn’t really tell what was from the first system and what was from the hurricane,” Smith said.
When the rain finally stopped Friday night, Black Mountain had received more than 22 inches of precipitation, resulting in catastrophic flooding, damage, and deaths across western North Carolina (89 storm-related deaths were reported in North Carolina as of Tuesday, October 8, with at least 230 deaths reported across six states).
During the storm, the Smiths lost power and access to running water, and cell service ceased for the entire area. Fortunately, their house was not damaged.
Cut off from communicating with the outside world, Smith hopped on his mountain bike Saturday morning and rode across the neighborhood.
Flat Creek, which runs behind the Smiths’ house, was flooded far beyond its banks, carrying with it debris from nearby homes. Smith also saw downed trees and power lines nearly everywhere.
“The sad thing is, a lot of the marginalized populations and low-income folks live in the areas that flood easier,” Smith said. “There’s a trailer court up the road from us, right by the creek, and a couple of those trailers got swept away, and a couple other ones got moved off of their foundations, and their stuff was everywhere in the creek.”
Smith checked in with his neighbors and helped pick up branches that fell during the storm. They also collected buckets of water from the creek to pour into their toilet tanks, enabling them to flush.
On Sunday, the Smiths ventured into town where they saw more destruction from the storm.
While grocery stores were closed, without power, a few convenience stores remained open to sell their remaining inventory of non-perishable food. The Smiths stopped at one, its parking lot covered in layers of mud from flood water, windows broken, and vending machines tipped over. An attendant at his usual spot behind the counter inside the wrecked store sold Smith some ramen noodle cups.
“People were walking in and out through the mud, buying things with cash,” Smith said. “Everyone there was just like, ‘I survived.’”
Still without cell phone service or internet access, the Smiths stopped at a pavilion in downtown Black Mountain where handwritten information was posted on several easels. A list of road closures and community resources, such as meal and phone charging locations, were listed in blue and black Sharpie.
On their way home, the Smiths saw two large tanker trucks that had begun distributing drinking water. They also received word that residents were encouraged to leave the storm-ravaged community, if they had the means, until at least power and water were restored.
The Smiths decided to drive back to Central Illinois, where they could stay at Brandon’s parent’s house in Mahomet.
“I felt a little survivor’s guilt,” Smith admitted. “But we didn’t want to be consuming resources there. We felt bad eating public meals, knowing there were people way worse off who needed the meals.”
Smith, a high school guidance counselor for the School of Inquiry and Life Sciences at Asheville (SILSA), also realized that he could more effectively contribute to community relief efforts by using his internet and cell phone access in Illinois to connect with students displaced by Helene.
“I created a spreadsheet with all the students on it, and that coincided with the district sending out a student check-in form,” Smith said. “So, families and students were filling out the check-in form, and then I was updating our spreadsheet with who we’ve heard from and where they’re at.”
Smith said many of the school’s 350 students and their families left the area after the storm. With the school closed indefinitely, students are encouraged to enroll in local schools where they’re living temporarily until Asheville City School District, which SILSA is part of, reopens.
“The fact that I have Wi-Fi and a place here where I can operate and organize things, I feel way more effective,” Smith said. “I’ve created appointment slots in my calendar, and I’m encouraging students to reach out for 20-minute conversations.”
Smith’s video calls with students range from discussing how they’ve been personally impacted by Helene to strategizing now-altered plans for applying to colleges.
“I’m encouraging students to lean into their community, accept help, and talk about what they’re feeling,” Smith said. “Students are also in the heat of college application season right now, and we’re trying to support them through that.”
Smith is planning to travel to Asheville this Friday, where he will begin directing support for students on campus. Schools are serving as distribution sites for water, meals, and donated supplies.
He is also beginning to think about the important role he’ll play when school resumes. As the city of Asheville forges ahead with extensive water system repairs, Asheville City School District is digging its own wells so schools can reopen sooner, possibly by the end of October.
“There are going to be a lot of challenges for sure,” Smith said. “As school counselors, we do not offer clinical counseling, but we do connect students to those resources. Prior to returning to school and in the first few days of returning to school, we will work with teachers to identify students most impacted and create small groups for processing grief. Once everyone is back together, then students might reprocess some of the trauma, and they will need additional support.”
Despite the tragedy, Smith is optimistic about his community’s future and looks forward to eventually reconnecting with his Wednesday-night running group.
He’s also thinking about the residents of Florida, including his Illinois State roommate who lives near Tampa, as the area received a direct hit from powerful Hurricane Milton just two weeks after Helene.
“Right now, western North Carolina is devastated,” Smith said. “The thing that gives me hope is seeing people, putting any differences they have aside, and coming together for the greater good to help those who truly need help.”
