Swannanoa, NC. 6 Oct 2024 @ 1300 local. On the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.Originally posted on my Patreon, hence the personal context. Excuse poor formatting; time is short.
Numbers are fluid and I don’t know the latest. I’m trying not to contribute to the fog of disaster. But it’s also important to document things. Don’t take the following as hard data, but as general context for these photos.
Buncombe County, where we live in the city of Asheville, currently leads the state in terms of body count. The hardest hit area in Buncombe County is a town called Swannanoa. We often call it Swanna-nowhere because it’s basically just a name for a stretch of Hwy 70 between Asheville and Black Mountain.
Around daylight last Friday, Swannanoa began flooding. In the Beacon community of former mill houses, Edwards Avenue was the hardest hit. Of the few dozen houses there, we had old friends in three of them. I attribute this coincidence to our class demographic: Two of these families were co-workers of mine. My family also lives in former mill housing. This is the kind of place where middle class Asheville professionals live.
Edwards Avenue is in a 500 year flood plain, meaning that its annual chance of flooding is 0.2%.
On October 4, one of these families invited me to accompany them to Edwards Avenue. This is an important point, because the national press has descended on Swannanoa like the plague of yellow jackets that are tormenting survivors there. Residents have differing attitudes about this, but the family I accompanied are no longer press-friendly. It was important to them to have the loss of their home documented by someone they could trust. I have the permission of the families involved to post these photos.
According to my friends, the neighborhood often sees minor flooding. That was the case around daybreak last Friday. By the time the emergency alerts came in, trucks were already unable to navigate Edwards Avenue. Knowing that driving through floodwaters is incredibly dangerous, my friends chose to shelter in place. By noon, they realized they could not do so and survive.
One of these families swam to safety; another climbed onto their roof and were rescued by neighbors one street over in kayaks. Other families on Edwards Ave were trapped in their attics and rescued by kayaking neighbors with axes. In some of these photos you can see the holes in the roofs. Captions where appropriate. All photos here taken on the afternoon of October 4th, exactly one week after the flood.
Above: Urban Search and Rescue X codes are painted on every house and vehicle, indicating the number of survivors or bodies that were found inside.
Below: Charles and Katey point to the waterline on the front of their home.
Below: John Zara in front of the window through which his family of four escaped to their roof.
I photographed John’s wedding. Here he is with his new wife Stephanie in 2013. They have two children and ran a business from their home.
Below: John and family who has arrived from out of state to help.
Below: John indicates the level of the flooding, pointing to Short Street, from which the neighbors with kayaks arrived.
Above: Neighbors escaped through a hole chopped in their roof.
Below: Andrew places flowers on the grave of a pet the family had to leave behind when they swam from their kitchen window:
Below: Andrew and Christine in front of their house and the tree to which they clung in the flood waters with their two teenage children, one of whom could not swim. He survived because Christine carried him on her back. Their humor is not diminished.
Photos from this afternoon’s rally. Big takeaways: As far as I know there was no violence, and it seems like Asheville’s lefty protesting crowd did not take Trump’s bait. This scene was far more orderly and civil than the Trump rally I covered at the Civic Center in 2016, in spite of barricading that could have encouraged a lot of conflict in small spaces.
Full disclosure: I am strongly anti-Trump.
Prior to the event, APD barricaded two paths on Haywood Street, one for rally attendees and one for protesters, and designated three “demonstration areas” at 37 Paige avenue, Pritchard Park, and Pack Square. 37 Paige is the empty lot commonly called The Pit of Despair, but that actually was NOT the designated demonstration area. That lot was reserved for a medical tent. Demonstrators were congregated in the steep alley beside the lot that leads up to Battery Park Alley. Also, people were allowed to demonstrate as long as they kept moving up and down the sidewalk on the west side of Haywood Street.
Interestingly, the path for attendees was bordered by waist-high metal barricades, while the entire sidewalk on the “demonstration area” side of the street was enclosed with tall chain-link fencing. This created a corridor between the two for APD, security, and emergency vehicles. The fencing began at the corner of Haywood and Battery Park Ave, and following the “demonstration” side of the sidewalk resulted in a dead end at the St. Lawrence Basilica, after passing the demonstrators and the medical tent. Not so great for keeping folks moving or allowing egress. I was told by a state trooper that this was done because Trump’s motorcade needed to access the venue via Haywood Street, and the trooper seemed to imply this was done at the request of the Secret Service.
The result of all this was that, when attendees and protesters inevitably mixed, they were effectively trapped together at the bottom of the steep alley (can’t find a name for it on Google maps). There was no police presence in this alley that I could see, though officers did communicate through the fence. The two groups yelled at each other across the corridor, but didn’t physically mix until the venue reached capacity and the folks that were there to attend the rally were turned away. At that point, Trumpers deliberately came to the space at the bottom of the alley to agitate the protesters. I’m very glad to say nothing got out of hand, but there were some tense moments, and it was scary being crammed into that space with people who were very angry at each other.
That said, it was still better than the “gauntlet” that occurred at Trump’s 2016 rally at the Civic Center. APD were very aggressive about keeping folks moving.
Re: Crowd sizes vs venue . . .
I’ve looked back at my archives, and there were many more people OUTSIDE today than at the Mitt Romney rally in 2012, and at least as many people OUTSIDE as the Trump rally in 2016. But, as has been widely reported, the Trump campaign requested the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, with its ~2400 seat capacity, rather than the Civic Center, which seats 7000+. I have no idea about total crowd size, and I’m sure there will be lots of speculation because Harris and Trump have been trading barbs about it.
My updates earlier received pushback re: the “thousands” of rally-goers that were turned away when the doors were closed. Of course I don’t have any way to actually count, but at 2:48pm (doors closed around 3:00pm) the line stretched from the venue to the corner of Haywood and Battery Park Ave, up the entirety of Battery Park Ave, and then on to Otis Street behind the Citizen Times building. It petered out right at French Broad. Google maps says that’s 1830 feet, or a third of a mile. That’s a lot of people.
Interestingly, there were far FEWER protesters than at either of those past events. I can’t give a total count because I couldn’t be in all the “demonstration areas” at once. At the bottom of the alley, there were “dozens,” which is media speak for more than twelve but less than 100. I’d guess there were twenty to thirty at any one time. At both the Romney and Trump ‘16 rallies, the space outside the Civic Center was packed with protesters.
After the rally, small groups (2-3 on each side) of attendees and protesters argued loudly and somewhat incoherently in Pritchard Park and were still going when I left around 6:10pm.
FB post from APD re: closed streets and demonstration areas:
My original updates, edited for clarity and typos:
~3pm:
Drove in via Smokey Park Hwy > I40 > I240 around 2pm. Parked in college st deck.
NC state troopers were waiting on I40 and I240, presumably to stop traffic for motorcade.
Downtown is normal, if a little crowded, outside the main rally zone. Line of Trump supports stretches from Thomas Wolfe Auditorium to French Broad, snaking around Grove Arcade and Federal Building. People at end of line are starting to realize they won’t get in.
Hearing people say Trump has landed at airport. NC State HWY Patrol choppers circling downtown.
Overall not too crazy and everyone is mostly respectful. Lots of cops.
— 318pm. Doors closed. No one else is getting in. Still thousands in line. Trump supporters have moved to zone reserved for protesters to stir things up.
— 344pm.
Things are heating up in the demonstration zone across from the venue.
Trumpers locked out of venue have gone around the barricade to confront anti-Trump protesters. Raised voices. There are no police on this side of the fence/street.
There was a big commotion a few min ago and Trumpers ran for the path of the motorcade, so I suspect Trump has arrived.
— 3:49pm: big black SUV just drove conspicuously thru barricades and everyone went wild. No idea if it was actually Trump.
I think it would be a fair description to say there are a “handful” of anti-trump protesters here. Both sides are trading volleys of “[your guy] rapes little kids.”
— 404pm. Walked up to pack square. Traffic outside of rally zone is heavy but moving fine. Handful of folks protesting in support of Palestine at site of former Vance monument.
— 418pm . Crowd is now mostly congregated in front of the venue. Both sides still trading insults but it’s quieter now.
— 445pm. APD and USSS pushing folks back from venue doors. Some of the Trumpers in the crowd suspect Trump will come outside and work the ropes after the speech.
— 520pm. Sounds like the speech is reaching a climax from what I can overhear on trumpers phones. No movement outside. Yep, speech is wrapped at 521.
— NCSHP helos have been circling again for the last 15min. Perhaps an indication motorcade is going to move soon, but don’t quote me.
— 612pm. One group of folks still yelling at each other in Pritchard Park. Otherwise everyone seems to have dispersed. I’m heading out. Haywood still blocked off, otherwise downtown traffic is normal.
TL;DR: The Yancey County Public Library is the target of an anti-LGBTQ takeover by the county commission.
— The library’s 2023 Pride display drew complaints from the community.
— Yancey county commissioners appointed themselves and a resident who made the complaints to the local library advisory board
— The commission has voted to remove the library from a regional tri-county system
— Most of the library’s assets belong to the regional system
— No assurances have been made about how the library will be funded in the future
— Changes take effect in June of 2025 unless the process is stopped
— Three of five commissioners are up for re-election in November
— Monday evening library supporters walked with signs and chanting from the library to the county courthouse ahead of a commission meeting in which the commissioners again appointed themselves to more seats on the advisory board
About 100 people gathered Monday evening in Burnsville to support the Yancey County Public Library, which is slated to be withdrawn from its regional tri-county library system after complaints about its Pride Month display last summer. The crowd walked about three quarters of a mile from the library to the Yancey County courthouse on the town square. In a special meeting this summer, county commissioners voted unanimously to withdraw the library from the Avery-Mitchel-Yancey (AMY) regional library system, reversing an apparent compromise reached with AMY administration last year. In Monday’s regular meeting, the county commission appointed three of its own members to serve on the county’s Library Advisory Board (a fourth, the commission chairman, is already on the board).
Very little information is available: Yancey County does not have media in the common sense of the term. The paper of record is the Yancey Times Journal, which, according to library supporters, does not employ a reporter, and directly re-printed a county-issued press release regarding the vote to withdraw the library from AMY (full disclosure: I worked at the YTJ as a reporter in 2000-2001). County press releases do not appear on the county website, but have appeared on the website of a local radio station. A Facebook group called Burnsville Hub was the center for local discussion until its activity was “paused” by its administrators, one of whom, I was told by rally-goers, reports to the county commission. Commission meetings are open to the public, but, as far as I can tell, are not recorded in any way. Minutes are available on the county website.
The county commissioners have made no comment about their motivation for removing the library from the AMY system, in spite of requests from WLOS and Carolina Public Press. But last fall, the commission received a formal complaint about the Pride display from Yancey resident Sheila Poehler, who complained on the library’s Facebook page over 75 times. The commission responded by packing the local library advisory board with seven new members, including Sheila Poehler, and ordered County Manager Lynn Austin to investigate withdrawing the library from the AMY system, a maneuver that would give the commission total control of the Yancey library.
The commission’s vote this June began the process of withdrawal, which will be complete in June 2025. Three of the five commissioners are up for reelection in November.
AMY Regional Board member Frank Hughes said Monday evening that AMY owns 80% of the Yancey library’s books and all of its computers. At the meeting, Austin reassured commissioners that funding would be forthcoming after the withdrawal from AMY, but gave few details, and library supporters believe the withdrawal will devastate the library’s assets and ability to serve the public.
Pictured:
— The table in the library where last year’s Pride display was placed, on the other side of the building from the children’s section. Detractors said the display was targeting children. (See a picture of the display in the CPP link below)
— The two books featured in the display, “The Savvy Ally” and “They/Them/Their,” are now shelved in the adult non-fiction section
— Frank Hughes speaking to the crowd
Media coverage:
Citizen Times: Yancey commissioners take over library board, add 7 new members after June Pride display
Nurses rally during negotiations between their union and HCA, which owns Asheville’s Mission Hospital system.
I’ve covered previous rallies on assignment from National Nurses United, but I covered this one independently.
Nurses and supporters numbered about 300 people.
Mission security was on site and watchful, which is a change from past rallies. Security ran attendees off of the hospitals mulch landscaping and recorded the crowd from the hospital’s pedestrian bridge over Biltmore Ave.
As of 23 August 2024, negotiations have been unproductive and I’ve heard nurses are voting on whether to strike.
One year ago today my coverage of the Crossroads development was a small fraction of the public outcry that went unheard by anyone who mattered. The land where I learned to fish was slated to become the largest housing complex in western North Carolina. Controversy ensued, and everyone played to type. Establishment media ignored the two aspects of the story that were most important: The land itself and the fact that the bureaucracy is not designed to consider that land or the people threatened most by the development.
I didn’t want any part of either side for/against, or of covering the story in a traditional way. I wanted to act directly, outside the framework set up by the government and the media. So I took photos that attempted to convey how it actually feels to be there. I released these shortly before a meeting of the Buncombe County Board of Adjustment that would decide the fate of the land and the project.
I covered the meeting live on my Twitter feed. I’d done the same countless times as an actual journalist, but in that role I could never say what was self evident: Such meetings are shams meant to convince the public that the bureaucracy cares about their feelings. So this time, instead of presenting a balanced, factual account, my goal was to highlight the absurdity of this process.
At the time, I worried I was being a little too dramatic, and that my coverage was needlessly offensive. A year later, the project has been approved and I wish I’d yelled louder. It’s easy for such an issue to get lost in the madness of 2020. However, Citizen-Times columnist John Boyle did take a direct approach to the procedural con that is the county’s process of approving such developments. It’s too late for Crossroads, but maybe not for the next tract of land in the crosshairs.
Here I’m presenting my original coverage from last year, beginning with excerpts from my live Twitter coverage of the meeting. I hope you laugh a little bit. At this point, there’s not much else to do.
December 11, 2019. 9:44 AM:
Good morning #avl! I guess I’ll be attending the Board of Adjustment meeting on the development . . . If approved today, the development will be the largest housing complex in WNC and it’s totally controversial and there’s definitely a chance public outcry will stop it.
10:29 AM Hardened #journo that I am, I’m a bit chagrined that photos aren’t allowed during public comment, so I plan to undermine all the good work I did documenting this land by documenting this meeting.
11:23 AM Can you believe it’s been 6 years since I covered a meeting in this room? Since that time, the entire institution of journalism has collapsed and words have lost all meaning, but for some reason I’m back to help GovCo pretend your voice matters!
11:39 AM Srsly y’all, it’s fun to use satire as a coping mechanism, but this scene is tense. In case of actual news, I will tag real observations with #srsly because apparently I can’t turn the journo thing off long enough to make fun of being a journo.
11:44 AM Heavy police presence as APD arrives on scene to hold back the NIMBY hordes.
11:45 AM Flashbulbs going off outside, developers disembarking from their motorcade.
11:50 AM #srsly the room is at capacity.
11:54 AM Lead developer guy is currently unbuttoning his shirt to show off his Roger-Stone-esque back tat of Pat McCrory’s face.
12:01 PM Here we go. Chairman bringing meeting to order. “HOW YA DOIN CHARLOTTE!”
12:10 PM I’ve decided to take a shot everytime I hear the phrase “quasi-legal.”
12:12 PM Chairman Moore says anyone speaking will need to be under oath. Unrelatedly, it looks like 30% of attendees just remembered they left something in the oven.
12:14 PM Ok #srsly I’m pretty sure the chairman just said no one can give an opinion on traffic if they aren’t an expert. Literal hissing from crowd. #avltraffic
12:23 PM There’s a lot of swearing and affirming going on in here.
12:39 PM Echoing Harry Truman, the president of Malvern Hills HOA says if proceeds their neighborhood will “wage a total war the like of which Asheville has never seen.”
12:44 PM Lawyers currently arguing for/against the standing of testimony. In other news, no one here knows what that means.
12:48 PM Attorney for developer #srsly arguing that because all properties in the county have mountain views, mountain views do not impact property values.
12:56 PM County staff now explaining the land use plan to the public in what will likely result as the weirdest ASMR video ever.
1:07 PM So basically, when they say “public comment” they mean “comment from members of the public who can’t be found faulty by the developer’s lawyers.”
1:19 PM Ok #srsly, NCDOT is here and wants to be bumped up in the presentation because they are in a hurry. I guess they want to get home before the construction backs up I26?
1:29 PM Former #avl city attorney Bob Oast is representing the developer, Catalyst Capital, which got its name from a B-rate dystopian future sci fi novel.
1:42 PM Meeting now in recess. Chairman Moore on the swings, Oast chooses monkey bars.
1:44 PM If this were satire it would be to point out the utter failures that modern government and journalism have become, but it’s totally not satire, so I don’t even know why you brought it up.
2:00 PM Recess over. Naptime.
2:05 PM Developer: “neighborhood village” will have a “mountain modern” theme. #srsly
2:08 PM Developer lives in an “active, engaged” community … in Charlotte. #srsly
2:10 PM Developer bringing up story of small biz owner in Charlotte that was recently shot to death. For some reason. #srsly
2:15 PM Not sure why this is related. Neither is the crowd. Loud reaction causes board member Keith Levi to tell the crowd to be silent “or your green space is next.”
2:25 PM Expert traffic witness says, under oath, that peak traffic happens during rush hour. #srsly
2:29 PM Traffic expert says roads will be widened to accommodate the project. Outrage ensues from sector of room who say roads aren’t wide enough to accommodate the project.
2:37 PM Chairman slams gavel, reminds the public that this is definitely not a waste of time.
2:39 PM Speaker from NCDOT approaches the mic. Underlings proceed ahead of him with orange cones.
2:42 PM Ok #srsly NCDOT guy did not bring “exact dates” to this quasi-legal meeting, but there might be some major construction on Brevard road for the next 4-5 years.
2:51 PM Chairman Moore just stole my joke about NCDOT leaving early to beat traffic. Room explodes in laughter. I regret not going into standup.
2:54 PM Proceedings have stalled. NIMBY warriors offering ritual blood sacrifice in the corner. Fire Marshall says no open flames but camp stoves ok.
2:58 PM Developer currently reading news article about a sandwich shop owner that fell down a manhole in Charlotte.
3:00 PM DOT spokesface outlines plans for widening Brevard Rd at I240. Maybe. Someday. #srsly
3:02 PM Developer now reading from the Diary of Anne Frank.
3:12 PM #srsly the traffic expert has not modeled impact on traffic if the NCDOT doesn’t complete their work on time. Good thing that’s never happened before.
3:14 PM Developer now singing a rousing rendition of “Stars and Stripes Forever.”
3:17 PM Someone from the Sierra Club is here. Her name’s not even Sierra. #wtf?
3:20 PM These people are #srsly deadass telling us that they have no reason to believe that NCDOT will not complete the project on time.
3:23 PM “Actually, my question was related to the pedestrian crosswalk” is the new “I am not a crook.”
3:29 PM Brd member George Lycan pinning down developer and traffic expert: is it possible that construction could be nearly completed before the NCDOT even starts traffic easing projects? #srsly
3:30 PM Answer: no one knows.
3:35 PM We’ve all been in this room for 3.5 hrs. Not a single member of “the public” has been recognized for comment. This is the reality of public meetings. Those who are here are folks who can afford to take an entire day off work.
3:37 PM And the crowd is thinning. Obviously all the attrition is coming from the NIMBY side, because the folks from the developer’s side are paid to be here.
3:44 PM Crowd down by half.
4:11 PM Back after taking a short break to eat a frozen powerbar from my car cause I can’t afford any food in walking distance. #livingthedream #avl
4:15 PM It’s bitter cold outside. Clears the mind. Some thoughts: if you didnt get here early, you didnt get signed up to speak. So it’s fair to say that opponents have been here at least five hours. I took the whole day off, but I am well versed in public meetings……Most ppl aren’t prepared for this. And at this point I’m curious to see how the board is going to handle the few ppl that try to comment but aren’t “experts.”
4:22 PM But back to the coverage, the NIMBY warriors are now crafting ranged weapons from the sinews of the deer that would have been displaced by the project. Smell of blood and rage. It’s like a Cormac McCarthy novel in here.
4:25 PM Developer’s counsel has taken a short break to shoot flagging workers in the fields from the Chamber balcony.
4:30 PM Another recess. Establishment media folks are all checking their phones to see if they’ve been laid off.
4:37 PM Board members filing back in, wiping cocaine from their noses. Empty Catalyst Capital briefcase visible behind the dais.
4:39 PM Proceedings back underway. Developer calling witness to explain how they will cut down on construction impact by straight piping sewer lines into Hominy Creek. #avl
4:46 PM BREAKING: leader of the NIMBY separatists killed by predator drone. Chairman Moore says the body will be buried “in accordance with dirty leftist beliefs.”
4:55 PM New witness explaining how property values of adjacent communities will “rise faster than the sea levels in the coming post-Trump wasteland.”
5:00 PM We are now “going through the contents of the manila folder.” Also the opposition counsel just used the word “tribunal.” Pretty sure someone is taking themselves too #srsly
5:05 PM Staff announces that the doors to the building have been locked from the outside. We’re in this together now.
5:11 PM Spokesman for Catalyst Capital confirms that there will be “a small alien xenomorph breeding facility” on the property but that all safety precautions will be observed. One board member raises hand, is quickly silenced by the others.
5:26 PM Developer: “ok, lemme see if I can explain. Have y’all ever been to Charlotte?”
5:42 PM 5 hours 40 min in: opposing counsel begins its argument.
5:42 PM Opposing counsel: “Your MOM requested a variance!”
5:56 PM The chairman #srsly just instructed a witness not to say that the intersection at Sandhill/bear creek is misaligned, because only an expert is qualified to say that. This lady lives there. Her HOA took pics of the traffic jams but the board won’t accept them.
5:56 PM Correction: they accepted the photos after argument and say they will decide what weight to give them “at the appropriate time.”
5:56 PM Alright. Tonight I’m going to do something I was never able to do as an established media journo: Leave. After being here for 7 hrs I’ve satisfied myself that the only thing more ridiculous than my coverage of this meeting is the idea that anyone here cares how the public feels. . . . Here’s the bottom line: None of us can do anything about this, and reporting on it is just pretending otherwise. The headlines should read “No Public Comment Heard in 7.5 Hour Meeting.” The real story is that public opinion is *literally* not taken into account by this board. That’s not how this system works. “The biggest project we’ve ever had in this county” will pass or fail without us.
—- Original statement and photos, Dec. 2019: —-
A piece of land I’m personally attached to is slated for development. I have no desire to join in any political advocacy on the issue, and I’m not a conservation expert or a civil engineer. But I am a photographer, and I’ve spent a lot of time on the land known as Crossroads.
The land’s namesake, the Crossroads Church, invested in it decades ago and has now partially sold it to a developer from out of town. Locals are very unhappy with what they say will be an immensely out-of-scale project, bringing 800+ apartments, as well as retail and commercial space, to a two-lane road just outside the city limits. Environmentalists are concerned the development will force out flora and fauna, raze dozens of oak trees at the peak of their life cycles, destroy wetlands on the property, and flood the already beleaguered Hominy Creek, which the property borders, with waste and thermal pollution.
Establishment media have covered the facts, and to some extent the political quarrel, but there has been no in-depth look at the land itself, nor a broad-scope look at how human beings decide to do these sorts of things.
I’m not qualified to take the broad-scope look, but I can show you what this land actually looks like. I lived right next door for many years and I learned to fish in Hominy Creek, a body of water most locals assume to be too polluted to contain life. They’re wrong about that, and while no one is claiming that Crossroads is a tract of pristine wilderness, it is a wild space, full of animals and forest and meadows and wetlands. I did my best to document what I could before it’s gone.
The fate of the land will be decided by the non-elected Buncombe County Board of Adjustment at a meeting at 12:00 noon on December 11, 2019. The Board will meet in the third-floor County Commissioner’s Chamber at 200 College Street, Asheville, 20881.
Some notes: The photos here are largely from the first week of December, 2019, though some are from years past. I’m not affiliated with any party involved in any of this, and I’m posting pictures of advocates’ signs for informational purposes only. Here are links to media coverage as well as information from advocacy groups (I can’t find any statements/info from the developer and I haven’t reached out to them – or anyone – for comment).
Asheville Citizen-Times: West Asheville meeting does little to gain supporters
