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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
People still in the dark almost 3 weeks after Hurricane Helene are
finding power through community and creativity
By Sarah Dewberry, Taylor Galgano and Amanda Musa, CNN
Updated:
3:10 PM EDT, Wed October 16, 2024
Source: CNN
In the 20 long days since cut through the southeastern United States,
yanking down electric lines and washing away power poles, millions of
people have gradually had their lights restored.
But tens of thousands are still dealing with the intense stress of not
having electricity and have had to find some creative ways to get by.
CNN spoke with a number of people this week who have been without power
for nearly three weeks, including some who just had power restored.
Their stories highlight the community they found when Helene forced
them to turn to neighbors and friends for basic necessities like a warm
shower, a home-cooked meal or clean clothes.
In North Carolina’s hard-hit Asheville, one man told CNN he has held
evening cookouts with others in his apartment complex to share food
since the storm pummeled the area. He finally has water, but showers at
his place are cold, so he has an innovative way of washing himself: a
water bottle and body wash concoction.
In the small Georgia town of Hazlehurst, a woman told CNN she spent
more than $1,000 on the generator that kept her refrigerator cold. She
felt grateful for the neighbor who called and told her to come over to
do laundry and have a bite.
No power to cook, but gas for the grill
Evan Kolosna’s six-unit apartment in Asheville went dark when a tree
crashed down on the line that connected his building to the
transmission lines, he said.
On the second night without power, a neighbor started a fire pit to
cook their meat before it spoiled, and neighbors got to know each other
as they sat around the flames.
“Since then, we kinda have evening gatherings,” he said.
Kolosna told CNN he is using his car’s power as a charger for his
electronic devices. Sometimes he powers them at work, a nonprofit for
the homeless where he is a case manager.
His water just came back on, so they no longer have to use rainwater to
flush toilets or just go out in the woods. But there’s still no hot
water.
“I actually developed a pretty good system where I can ‘shower’
by filling one bottle with water and a little bit of body wash and
shake that up,” Kolosna said. “And then put that on a rag and then
lather myself down with that. And then use another one or two just
clean bottles of water on another washcloth just to rinse myself
off.”
Kolosna said he left for a few days for the comfort of a friend’s
place in Greenville, South Carolina – where he also grabbed some
supplies – before coming back for his job at the nonprofit, a
facility that houses 85 full-time residents.
Kolosna is now accustomed to life without power at home, but he said he
hopes it comes back in the next day or two.
‘The goodness of others is what’s gotten us through’
In the south Georgia town of Hazlehurst, Susie Stevenson is one of
thousands of residents who went without power for nearly three weeks
following Helene. Her power was restored late Tuesday night – marking
the end of a 19-day long period without light, hot food or running
water.
“I took a bath in a pond a couple of times and once in a creek,”
Stevenson told CNN Wednesday. The rest of the time she took showers at
friend’s homes. Dinner often consisted of cold Chef Boyardee eaten
straight from the can, she added.
All together, Stevenson says she spent $530 on a generator to power her
refrigerator and another $500 on the gas needed to fuel it. Still, she
lost a lot of food she doesn’t have the money to replace, Stevenson
said.
“The goodness of others is what has gotten us through,” Stevenson
told CNN on Monday when her power was still out. “Just when I wonder
where I’m going to wash clothes, I get a call this morning telling me
to come shower, wash clothes and eat tonight.”
In her part of Georgia, about 100 miles west of Savannah, the streets
are littered with downed trees, fallen power lines and other debris.
Leslie Breedlove, another Hazlehurst resident, also went nearly three
weeks without power until it was restored Tuesday. The well and pump
that supply her home with water need electricity to work, so she got by
on food donations and by taking showers and washing her clothes at
other people’s houses.
The first thing she did when the lights turned on was the dishes, she
said.
“I’ve never been through anything like this before,” Breedlove
told CNN on Wednesday morning.
While she was excited to have power and water, she said she still
doesn’t have internet access, which her daughters need for school.
Students in her county are expected back in class on Monday, October
21, Jeff Davis County Schools said in a social media this week. “For
families still without power on Monday, please notify your school’s
front office to keep them informed,” the post said.
Power crews battling heavy debris first
There just under 1,000 customers still reporting outages in Jeff Davis
County as of Wednesday afternoon, according to .
Stevenson’s Hazlehurst home is powered by an electric cooperative
called Satilla REMC, which is struggling to access hard hit areas in
the county, along with Appling, Atkinson and Coffee counties, because
of the severity of the damage.
“Helene is without a doubt the most devastating storm to ever impact
our region,” the cooperative’s CEO, Romeo Reyes, said in a social
media Tuesday. “It has forced us to rethink and change many of the
processes and procedures that we have used to manage storms in the
past.”
Jim Tucker, a spokesperson for the cooperative, said they hope to have
everyone’s power back on by Sunday.
Hurricane and tropical storm warnings from the National Weather Service
were in place across Georgia when Helene struck the state. Hazlehurst
saw the worst impacts on September 27.
Stevenson said nobody in the city knew they were in the storm’s
direct path until the last minute.
“We were so unprepared for this storm,” Stevenson told CNN. “We
didn’t get any kind of evacuation warnings or shelter in place.”
“Someone should have done something – the county or city – there
should have been a contingency plan in place,” she added.
But officials point to the storm’s extraordinary intensity, which
outmatched local resources and preparation efforts.
It was a 100-year storm that was “completely off the grid for us,”
said Charles Wasdin, director of the Jeff Davis County Emergency
Management Agency.
“We had severe challenges that we did not anticipate,” he said.
“Total devastation.”
Wasdin said it will be months before all the storm debris is removed.
CNN also reached out to Jeff Davis County officials for their response.
As power restoration crews struggle to reach storm-damaged areas,
Tucker said, the process has been further slowed.
“In many cases we have had to spend hours clearing fallen trees and
other storm-related debris before we can even begin to repair the power
lines,” he said.
On Monday, before her power had been restored, Breedlove said she was
thankful for the line workers.
“We are a small town, but we’re strong with one another and helping
one another,” Breedlove said.
Stevenson, too, said the area needed a lot of help. “I know other
places are having hard times, too. I pray they also get as much help as
they can.”
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