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.

Swannanoa is downstream from the North Fork Reservoir, which was eight feet below the level of its dam when the storm hit.

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%.

Google Street View shows what the neighborhood looks like normally.  

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.