Students Speak on Tumultuous Hurricane Helene Experience
Echo Staff | November 8, 2024
Morning After Hurricane Helene Hit
On Friday, Sept. 27, the Warren Wilson College (WWC) community awoke to the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, shaken by the destruction left in its wake. Fallen trees had blocked main roads off campus. Power lines were slicked against the pavement. The Swannanoa River had surged past its banks onto the road. Mud water coated the valley — debris and trash littered throughout the river. For students, faculty and staff, this was a surreal scene, something out of a dystopian novel.
WWC is nestled in the Swannanoa Valley in Western N.C., surrounded by mountains, farmland and the Swannanoa River. It is a unique college, being one of nine federal work colleges in America. WWC prides itself on its agriculture, and typically upon visiting campus you can find vibrant pastures, livestock and gardens. Many considered Swannanoa ground zero for Helene, with severe flooding damaging much of the township. Once thought to be a ‘climate haven,’ few expected a hurricane of this magnitude to strike the area, especially one strong enough to kill dozens, with many still missing. The morning after Hurricane Helene hit the school, students did not realize the extent of the damage until they stepped outside.
Nora Ellis is a junior double majoring in sustainable agriculture and food studies and cultural anthropology. They are typically on the Garden Crew, but are on the Forestry Crew post-Helene.
Ellis, like many, expected heavy rain and the power to be out for a few days, but nothing extreme.
“I knew [Gladfelter] was gonna be closed for a little while,” Ellis said on the campus cafeteria. “I think me and my suitemates were already planning on playing some board games in the morning and just hanging out with no power, and so that's what we did until people started talking like ‘Oh, my God, it's not good out there.’ And then I think starting to be like, ‘okay, it could be kind of bad.’”
After leaving their dorm, Ellis encountered downed trees and power lines, which led them to Night Pasture, a farm field on campus. There she could see the river had flooded throughout the pastures and roads. She went to the garden to check on it, finding damaged fields and greenhouses.
Unfortunately, the garden will be unable to grow food leading to a temporary disbanding of the crew.
Similarly, Lily Walker, a senior majoring in outdoor leadership, ventured to Night Pasture to assess the damage from a wider perspective.
“We went to Night Pasture and looked from there, and that was the holy shit moment,” Walker said. “And then it definitely just got worse when we went closer. It was so jarring, it was just so much brown, you know like the river was just huge. It was like, ‘How is that the river? How could that possibly be the river?’ The river was the main thing, just seeing how much it had eaten up, how much space it had taken up.”
Not all were lucky enough to have a lackluster wake-up call. The same morning across campus, the Eco dormitory flooded. Willa Ayres, a senior at WWC who lives in Eco and is on the Ecological Landscaping Crew described awakening to their Resident Assistant (RA) Sal Ward knocking on their door, informing Ayres the downstairs was flooding.
Flooding reached several inches on the first floor, ruining clothes, furniture and causing a mad dash to get to safety. Eco RAs Ryann Langdon and Ward quickly sprang into action, moving residents to the second-floor living room.
“We [Eco residents] were all sitting out in the living room, just blankly staring and watching, feeling doom and dread,” Ayres said. “Then that big tree crash, I remember I saw Sal [Ward] leaping to the ground like a frog, like Spiderman. I was like, ‘Damn.’ And then she [Sal] was like, ‘Everyone go in the bathroom,’ and then we were like, ‘Wait, I think it fell on the side.’ We were running across the kitchen all in a herd.”
The hurricane also caused panic for off-campus students as they attempted to make their way to WWC post-hurricane.
Donnie Henry is a junior at WWC, currently majoring in creative writing and working on the Herbarium Crew. They described their journey to get to campus:
“We literally saw a down tree that had a car like 10 feet up in it,” Henry said. “I think someone had been driving, and then the tree fell, and it just continued…When we got to campus it was so surreal because people were like, ‘Is Swannanoa fine?’ Because they hadn’t been out to see it yet.”
The Following Days
In the days following the storm, temporary work crews were organized, beginning with a meeting led by President Damián J. Fernández on Saturday morning outside Gladfelter. This meeting became a daily tradition, even when there were only a handful of students left on campus.
There Fernández, along with other staff, including Dave Ellum, spoke with students, reassuring them on matters like food and water. They also pledged to release updates to the public and WWC twice a day; once during the morning meeting and once in the evening. Fernández spoke calmly, offering sentiments stressing how WWC was not special in dealing with this, given that many others did not have running water and power.
Ellum speaks to students at a 9 a.m. meeting.
Temporary work crews were created including ones like Flush Crew, who dealt with toilets, manually flushing them using collected water from streams around campus and setting up flush stations.
Help was needed all around campus, and students assisted with projects like chainsawing trees, clearing debris, preparing food, washing dishes, river cleanups and rescuing farm animals.
Students help with the pigs at the farm.
Allison Lienemann is majoring in conservation biology and is a junior. During the Saturday work day, Lienemann volunteered to start the laborious process of cleaning up the campus.
“I went down to the farm on the Saw Mill Loop, and we did a cleanup down there,” Lienemann said. “We found a lot of carp, which was probably the funniest thing to come out of the hurricane. was just seeing carp swimming in fields. And then we went closer to the river. I walked on the river trail a lot, and I was standing there, and I couldn't tell where the river usually was, where the river trail was, I just didn't have any landmarks, and that really messed me up. We started finding a lot of stuff washed up from people's houses. We were finding family photos and ‘my child is an honor student magnet,’ and the contents of people's homes, which was really difficult, and none of us really anticipated that.”
Ellis also participated in the work day, helping around campus in the farm and garden.
“That day was really surreal,” Ellis said. “I feel like that whole week was really surreal. I was just taking it minute by minute. Trying not to think about everything all at once. It did feel good to just do things, get stuff done with people.”
While many students found purpose in the workdays, the experience was emotionally challenging, as the trauma from the hurricane still loomed large.
“I felt kind of a sense of guilt that I wasn't ready to––just like what they praise at Wilson–– just get up and you just go to work,” Ayers said.
Walker also commented on the struggles
“On Saturday, I felt a combination of being restless and also being, so utterly, exhausted,” Walker said.
Traumatic Events and Problems
On Sunday, Oct. 29, shortly after 8 p.m., a new scare gripped the campus as word spread that the Bee Tree dam had broken. Many learned this through word of mouth from students and staff running throughout campus instructing students to evacuate to high ground. Many students evacuated to Dogwood Pasture, a farm pasture on campus, and the soccer fields. The video below shows the tail end of the evacuation videod by RA Emily Cobb in front of the trail leading to Dogwood.
For Ivy Sauter Sargent, a sophomore, this was the straw that broke the camel’s back. They decided to leave while they were able to because it was clear that there was no way to ensure their own safety on campus.
“Sunday night was actually the reason I left,” Sauter Sargent said. “I was still deciding and then, there was the scare of the dam breaking. And I think it was just insane because it really showed how fast information can spread… It felt like a minor mass hysteria…everyone essentially was preparing for a flash flood, which kind of just felt like a death sentence.”
Though this turned out to be a false alarm, students did not learn this information until almost an hour later.
Cecilia Oseguera, a sophomore, was also convinced that she had to leave after experiencing the false alarm.
“The Sunday after the hurricane — like two days later — when we were all told that we were about to die because the dam was breaking and the water was coming,” Oseguera said. “There was a mass hysteria. Everyone was deranged, and I knew that I had to leave after experiencing that.”
Aila Givins is a sophomore at WWC majoring in environmental studies. Givins is on the Herb Crew, a sub-crew of Garden Crew.
“The whole time that I was on campus, it felt very surreal and almost exciting, like an adventure because I didn't know what the reality of the situation was,” Givins said. “Except for when we had that scare of the Bee Tree dam breaking, and we went up to the soccer fields and just panic everywhere. People running, saying, ‘Get to higher ground!’ That was really terrifying, I just had the image in my brain of the entire valley being wiped out from that. It was awful, but I'm so glad that it was a false alarm.”
Another struggle at WWC was the cut-off from the outside world. With cell service and Wi-Fi down, accurate and timely information was hard to come by.
“I think the biggest difficulty with being cut off was not knowing what it was like around us,” Lienemann said. “I knew my parents knew I was fine, I was able to get a text through to them and I know the school was doing its best to keep them updated, so I was fine. I was just worried about people in the area and my friend's parents who we weren't hearing from, and the people I work with in Gladfelter that we hadn't heard from.”
The aftermath had been difficult for students, but some people did not know just how bad it was in the surrounding area — particularly Swannanoa, considered by many to have been ground zero for Helene — until a few days after the storm when people were able to find cell signal in certain areas.
“I was talking to my friend Chloe Bordenness, she lives off campus, and she told me that she had been pulling bodies out of the river for the first day of the hurricane, alive and dead people,” Ayers said. “It was unbelievable to me that she did that, and then she was just standing there a couple of days later, just sitting with everyone and able to function and tell me about it. I was just so impressed and so sad for her.”
Evacuation from Swannanoa Valley
On Sunday morning, President Fernández announced to the student body the revised schedule — at first, the students were meant to take the week off classes, and then fall break would begin. Though encouraged to stay on campus for the remainder of the week, some students believed it would be best to leave.
Eliza Minde-Berman, a sophomore from Yellow Springs, Ohio initially thought they would not be able to evacuate — having just a bit of gas left in their tank — but as people rushed to make evacuation plans out of the area, they were able to find students who were headed in a similar direction.
“The actual day of the evacuation felt unreal, but I was with an absolutely fantastic group of people, and it made it 10 times better just evacuating with people that you're comfortable with and enjoy being around,” Minde-Berman said. “I was able to go home, but my friend and I, neither of our cars had enough gas to go back to Ohio, where we're from, so we hitched a ride with our pal who was driving through Ohio to go to Illinois…it took a lot longer than usual.”
Toby Freel, a junior at WWC is a biology major and on the Holden Arts Crew. Freel planned to evacuate, but also had little gas to run on, and access into the area was extremely difficult so nobody was able to pick them up either.
“The entire time my partner Michael was trying to figure out ways to get me out,” Freel said. “So he was texting me open gas stations and texting me routes that were open. It was all confusing, but eventually, he texted me a gas station that he saw that was open in Hendersonville, about 30 minutes away. At that point, I only had 1/4 of a tank of gas, so I wasn't sure if I would even make it to that gas station, but I was so desperate that I tried anyway. There was a line from the gas station about a mile long, and I had been waiting in line for about 30 minutes before I realized that I would run out of gas before even getting to the gas station. So I pulled over to the side of the road, and I was stranded at that point, but I told Michael that I would not be able to get any gas. He ended up driving from Winston-Salem down to South Carolina and then back up on I-26 to get to me.”
All the international students, including Kyle Cassar Cardona, Shuree Ochirbat, Nassime Ghatrif and Lena Bernier faced shared challenges, such as limited access to basic amenities. Cassar Cardona recalls the physical and psychological strain of water shortages, having to forgo showers for a bit. The greatest struggle was dealing with the lack of control over their circumstances, with constant updates and a rapidly evolving evacuation plan.
For Cassar Cardona, the evacuation meant an extension of an already-planned trip to New York and Washington D.C. The journey, however, was anything but smooth. Constant worries about canceled flights and twice-altered travel plans left him in a state of limbo. Finding accommodation became a particularly complex task, as he was traveling with another student, Jake Navarro. Hence, any host family must take in two students, as opposed to one. After Rachel Kerr and Nan Jordan, from the global engagement office, reached out to family members and college friends, Cassar Cardona and Navarro found respite in D.C., where they were welcomed with open arms by Sue and Pete.
“If it weren’t for them, I don’t know what we would have done,” Cassar Cardona said. “We miss them, they became family in just a week. In fact, we still keep in touch.”
Shuree Orchibat, a senior, went to Arden, North Carolina, where she was accommodated by her work supervisor from her first year. Reflecting on her experience, Orichibat feels that the contacts she managed to cultivate during her previous years at the college were invaluable in helping her secure temporary shelter.
Ghatrif, on the other hand, managed to stay with a friend in Raleigh. His friend Alexandra Gore, hearing about the hurricane, immediately offered him a place to stay.
“Thankfully I had a real savior here, and when I explained the situation, she just said that she would come and pick me up and that I could stay with her,” Ghatrif said.
Returning to Campus
When students initially evacuated, they had no idea when WWC would be able to resume classes, let alone return to on-campus living. After three weeks of hiatus, online classes began the week of Oct. 21. Then, on Sunday, Oct. 27, WWC welcomed students back onto campus, which garnered mixed emotions.
“Honestly my mind went to a year just because I thought from the damages around us, they were so bad that I thought our campus was going to be in worse condition, but being back now, I'm very happy to see the progress that has already been made in such a short amount of time, and the community is just absolutely amazing and flourishing and wonderful,” Minde-Berman said.
While some students were prepared for the return, others were unsure if they were ready to come back. With the lack of potable water, students were concerned about tasks like showering, cleaning dishes and washing their hands.
“Directly following the hurricane, after I left Warren Wilson, I went back to my home, and I felt very safe and secure because all my immediate needs were met, like food, shelter, water, safety, etc,” Oseguera said. “But I don't think I was ready to come back so soon. I definitely needed more time to process.”
Thoughts, Takeaways and Silver Linings
While the campus has been operational for several weeks now, many members of the community are still navigating the aftermath of Helene's chaos, each at their own pace.
“I feel I still haven't processed everything, and I'm still in that recovery mode when maybe people who have been in Asheville have had just more exposure and more of an opportunity to be like, ‘Okay, this is the reality,’” Givins said. “We're doing the work now to come to terms with it. And my being away, I felt like I didn't really get that chance, which I'm sure a lot of students relate to.”
Amongst the majority of students who were able to leave campus, Oseguera has kept in mind the many people in the community who had nowhere else to go.
“A lot of us are privileged enough to have homes in other places,” Oseguera said. “But I feel like it's important to not forget that still, a huge part of our community wasn't able to leave after the hurricane, and people's houses were destroyed, people's neighborhoods were destroyed. People probably know people who passed away in the flood, and they were the ones that had to stay here while everyone else left, and they're also the ones that now have to go back to work like everything is normal.”
For Ghatrif, the hurricane did not diminish his enthusiasm for studying abroad; instead, it reinforced the importance of community. Amid the uncertainty, he felt a strengthened bond with his friends and the wider WWC community. Many students agreed with this sentiment.
“It was really nice to see a lot of the communities around there kind of come together,” off-campus student Clover Davis said. “Especially a lot of communities that live near Haywood Road, a lot of cafes and a lot of small businesses trying to help and give out hot meals and give out anything that they can.”
