Damage from Hurricane Helen in Asheville, North Carolina.
Stephen Vaughan Nichols/ZDNET
Early on the morning of September 27th, as Hurricane Helen was announced and the wind and rain pounded my home in Asheville, North Carolina, I flipped over and went back to sleep. At that moment, I woke up with a jolt. It turned out that my house was okay, but over the roar of the storm I could hear trees falling on neighboring homes around me.
Still, little did I know how bad the situation was.
Assessment of damages
When morning came, the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day, as is often the case with bad storms. My partner and I didn’t know until we went out that there was a large old tree that had fallen on every house in Montford’s historic district.
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Our neighbor had three trees down, but miraculously none of them caused any serious damage. If there were three houses on the other side, it would have been a different story. There, a huge 100-year-old tree had crushed the front porch and part of the second floor.
As I walked around the neighborhood, this pattern repeated itself. There were fallen trees and power lines everywhere. All streets were blocked in all directions. We can’t walk more than two blocks from our house, let alone drive there.
However, after talking with our neighbors, we learned that there were no deaths or injuries from the hurricane in our area. We didn’t realize how lucky we were.
Nearby, the French Broad and Swannois rivers set new flood records. The entire Asheville area and nearby small towns were swept away. Dozens of people died, and as I write this a week later, more than 200 are still missing.
Water remains a major problem in the region, with pipelines destroyed and roads to water treatment plants washed away.
asheville city government
We did not know this information at the time. The power went out, the internet was down, and the phones were out. A few hours later, the water was turned off, but a week later, most services were still out. (Cellphone reception has improved in some areas, but it’s still not as good as before.)
completely disconnected
After the first day, I began to realize how alienated we were – not only from the world, but also from our friends, who were only half a mile away. It’s scary when you start to realize how bad things are in your community and not being able to check in with people to make sure they’re okay.
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I expected the power and internet to be off. ERC Broadband 100 Gigabit/s fiber backbone cables were down in the front yard. But I didn’t expect to lose my Verizon cell phone service. Please make fun of me more.
Although most cell phone towers were still operational, 70 percent of cell phone towers and equipment in Western North Carolina were out of service because their fiber connections were down. We had no fiber optic, no internet, no telephone, and no connection to anyone outside of our neighborhood.
Without connection, life changes. I stay in touch with friends, colleagues, and family through email, Slack, social networks, and in a pinch, phone calls and texts. However, all these means of communication were out. It also meant that my loved ones, friends, and colleagues were unable to contact me and make sure I was okay.
Technology that may have helped us
It turns out that if you had an Apple iPhone 14 or newer, you could keep in touch with people outside your area. Later model iPhones can connect to satellites, but connectivity is limited. Apple now also offers an emergency SOS satellite service.
Related article: Your iPhone gets this life-saving messaging feature in iOS 18 (it’s not AI).
Additionally, AT&T is currently deploying a satellite phone system using AST SpaceMobile for high-speed satellite phone and network services. My neighbor across the street used the service to stay in touch with the outside world. Verizon currently also offers satellite text messaging service and plans to launch full satellite cell phone service soon. These services work on both the iPhone and the new Google Pixel 9.
Of course, without electricity, these services won’t last long. Although I was able to charge my cell phone from the car, I also didn’t have the gas to run these devices for long periods of time. Some people had generators, but they ran out of gas within a few days.
I had considered solar power for my home before, but there were too many trees around me to make that approach a wise idea. But if I had done that, I would have had power to spare, combined with a home battery and backup system.
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So why didn’t we do this beforehand? Well, I live at an elevation of 2,200 feet and about 600 miles from the coast where Helen made landfall. Never before had we been hit by a storm as strong as Helen. But we do know that thanks to climate change, more tropical cyclones are expected to hit us in the coming years.
future technology plans
Looking to the future, we plan to invest in a portable power station with optional solar panels. The Jackery Portable Power System comes highly recommended and is currently on sale.
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What I won’t do is buy a solar powered power bank. In the words of ZDNET’s resident power expert, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, “All of the devices were unfortunately ineffective, and some were even potentially dangerous.”
If I had the power, I would have at least been able to watch the news and have fun on TV. Several local over-the-air television channels remained operational, and outdoor and indoor antennas were undamaged.
I also wish they had a satellite internet system to back up the AT&T fiber internet connection. I’ve used older satellite systems, but their speeds and latencies pale in comparison to SpaceX’s Starlink. Other new high-speed, low-orbit satellite services are in development, but none are ready. Had we been connected to Starlink, we would have been able to stay in touch.
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Without electricity, internet, and reliable cell phone service, I couldn’t work. It was the first time in my career that I didn’t write a single novel for many days. Let me tell you, I’ve written over 12 million published words and submitted articles from payphones and areas affected by tornadoes and earthquakes.
But what happened in North Carolina was the worst situation I’ve ever faced.
long way home
As a result, I am still in a state of shock. My partner Mary and I have left the area for now because we don’t have access to water. Ironically, it wasn’t until we left Asheville that we realized how bad things were.
We’re fine, or as good as you can be under the circumstances, but Asheville, and indeed the entire Blue Ridge, North Carolina region, is in terrible shape. Thank you for your cooperation. On behalf of my neighbors and friends, I would like to thank you.
