staff stories of Hurricane Helene

Hot Springs Elementary FEAST Instructor Natalie Hesed was on the ground supporting community during Hurricane Helene and this is her story... Hot Springs is a town that straddles both the French Broad River and Spring Creek. In hurricane Helene, both of these rose up to unthinkably high levels a and flooded many businesses and homes. 

One of my passions in typical times is paddle boarding. I am very familiar with many miles of the French Broad. I watch River levels almost daily, both historic and predicted. I saw the levels that were predicted. I knew that we expected unimaginably high levels. What I learned is that I lacked the experience to be able to extrapolate that number into a picture that would truly show the devastation that would occur. Paired with the damming up of the Spring Creek bridge in town, which unexpectedly sent the entire flow of a flooded Spring Creek raging through downtown businesses and homes, we were all stunned.

The most incredible part, however, was not the flooding but the response. Within three days our town had assembled an entire disaster response team completely composed of volunteering Hot Springs residents plus town officials and the fire and police departments. We had people going door to door, even in rural areas, to assess if homes were accessible and check in with residents. Owners of large equipment cleared roads and established temporary footbridges. Throughout the night, residents took shifts to guard our downtown area from looters so that police and fire workers could sleep. A temporary kitchen was set up that cooked 3 hot meals for hundreds each day, with delivery to elderly and those in need of their homes could be reached. A few of us huddled around the two starlinks in town in order to communicate with the ‘outside world.’ Many many of my friends, new friends, and fellow residents worked tirelessly to cover all angles of disaster response and I am incredibly proud of us all! 

The best way I could see for myself to contribute to the response was as a logistics assistant. I helped to facilitate communications between teams and create needed documents and forms. 

My favorite moments, though, were seeing our community children at the meal sites in town and playing with them for short moments. They would run around on their school front lawn, joking and playing. It almost seemed’ normal’,  but just 100 feet away their ball field had turned into the emergency helicopter landing pad, their library into a disaster response command center,  and their gym into “ Hot Springs’ largest free grocery store.” Children are beautifully resilient. 

This past week I went back to work at Woodson Branch, a K-8 school that was not severely affected by the flooding. They have opened up their registration to all area K-8 students and are currently operating as a safe and fun “camp” where kids can enjoy the forest, gardens, and time with peers. It’s brought a smile to my face to be back with kids making garden art, gathering bouquets to distribute in our affected towns, and crafting, reading, and laughing together! I look forward to returning to work with HSES students in the near future as well as the public schools reopen.

The Gather and Garden team has been checking in on the school garden for me, as I haven’t had time to set foot in it just yet! It really is a community garden. They’ve sent community members there to harvest a few fresh items to supplement many canned and boxed products we are receiving. 

This flood has torn apart our homes and buildings and dismantled our roads and bridges.
The flood has fractured the landscape of our towns and neighborhoods
BUT ALSO
The flood has assembled our innate human ability to work as a team and care for each other. 
The flood has united the landscape of our communities. Collectively we’ve formed new, strong, connections to those we may have otherwise never met. We are resilient and strong. 
It’s been a beautiful thing to watch and be a part of.