What Actually Happened in Asheville: A Hurricane Helene Story

no way this car is completely under oh my gosh oh my you've got look at all this damage here these are all it's like a storage facility we were literally just there at that sheet that is nuts hey it's Nathaniel and Jillian and we are full time musicians and filmmakers our band is called the bergamont recently we have been getting ready for a big Christmas tour starting in November and making a new album so because of that we were offered an artist residency down in Charlotte North Carolina and we were leaving on September 25th and we stay the night in Asheville and little do we know that the hurricane would move 800 plus miles and the eye of the storm would hit Asheville the night that we got into town so we knew that there was going to be some sort of rain and a little bit of wind but it was just supposed to hit Florida and then dissipate and then this is what ended up happening so we're currently about 30 minutes away from Asheville in a hurricane storm and it did this to our windshield wiper so we couldn't see and it was terrifying and we just bought a new one so there she goes wish us luck hurricane weather oh man we're about 33 miles or 33 minutes from Asheville how you doing good we safely made it to Asheville thank the good Lord Jesus is 321 [Music] a. m. we went to bed on Thursday September 26th at 4:10 a.

m. after driving 12 hours from aund Dunes Indiana to Asheville North Carolina heavy rainfall on Thursday prevented us from leaving Asheville so we went to bed on Thursday night knowing that hurricane Helen had made landfall in Florida the expectation was Ash would get hit with some rain from the outer bands of Helen on Friday then it would be clear to [Music] leave so we just woke up here in Asheville North Carolina and woke up to this it's the hurricane wall which came up through the night lost power in the hotel room so we in a flood morning right now you can kind of see that it's really pulling up here and this is on the upper level so we need to go check which is what right now we're just checking out the situation and wow that's completely blocked so we can only get our car out now luckily from that one angle that one [Music] entrance what do you think not good it's the emergency lighting so we're currently in a state of emergency the roads are flooding the Broad River is flooding we got trapped in Nashville because of the hurricane and now it is noon and we are going to attempt to drive 2 and 1/2 hours plus to Charlotte I40 is completely closed we just got an alert so we're going to take a different route uh and Ashville got hit by the eye of the hurricane which the winds are incredible 80 to 100 Mil and there's just debris everywhere so it's been an interesting 48 hours we had our windshield wiper Buckle I've never had that happen before and then one broke off and one buckled and kept working thank goodness it's the driver's side what a crazy start to this it's literally noon and it feels like it's 4:30 just to give you an idea of how incredibly exhausting this whole thing's been all right off we go and I also don't have access to uh internet so I'm going to take a moment here be careful be careful just have to wait till no one's around I think all right we're getting on the main road here hopefully we're leaving Asheville oh my God just completely oh my goodness holy sh maybe oh wow um go really really it's a little better here man that's not good it is water almost yeah that W that yeah that lane is gone that that whole Lane is completely gone it's to us it's to ey level that Medium is holding back all that water yeah [Music] tons of roads are closed and stuck and there's just everything's kind of he said 15 I need your help though cuz I think there may be ongoing traffic that direction okay good to go good to go good to go right no no right now you are go go so then yeah just get off where he's go I guess come on BL over just pull over here oh my gosh what that DQ is well underwater that's the most underwater building I've seen yet that's flooding in from there it's coming in from underneath the system holy crap yeah there's trucks that are lost no way lost car is completely under oh my gosh oh my you've got look at all this damage here these are all it's like a storage facility maybe we should just pull off here and talk to people go to the bathroom yeah we got and we have no we can't get any information from anything so we need to all both of our phones are down no service so we need to talk to people cuz like they'll know what roads the truckers will know if roads are closed looks like this uh gas station doesn't have any power either it's pure chaos right now as you can see it's just a parking lot everywhere J's trying to get some information we're about to find out phones are unusable she does not look happy are you going to try and go up the hill this way again yeah okay then go as fast as you can go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go my God ho go go go bab go worst case scenario is our car should sound go go go go go yeah we need to get to Higher Ground and then just figure it out but we need to get the hell out of this area as fast as possible right here for now uh no just keep going yeah this is good this is good J this is high high enough and if we need to we have access to the highway might be this might be our parking spot for night all right park right in between these guys then this place is completely closed this place is completely everybody's just piling up on top of each other we're all watching the waters rise and it's terrifying so and we got a lot of in this car no I know you can't go anywhere you can't get back to Asheville you can't get South here you can't go that way you can't go that way you're basically trapped so he's like just get to high high ground we are currently at the highest point that we can get to right now we making new friends ex and now I mean that is that's way more underwater than it was 20 30 minutes it's amazing amazing when there's an emergency it doesn't matter if you're a Republican or a Democrat or if you're an independent people all around us right now they're all going to other cars being like are you okay do you need anything hey I've got carrots I've got water I have beer in the car if you need a beer you know we just have talked to a bunch of the cars all around us there's a mother with a child single mother with a child I said hey are you okay she asked me if we're okay I said are from around here and it doesn't matter we're all looking out for each other we're seeing if people need something hello so I think I'm going to try getting home because my map seems like it's updating and now it's saying and there is like a back path that it it looks like it's open this is a unprecedented flood 100e flood we're probably going to have to spend the night here a little bit we just came from there and there's no way have we waited a few more minutes we would not have been able to come back up the hill to safety for now we're going to need to assess the situation to see if we need to continue climbing and going higher I have never seen anything like this in my entire life this is coming and creeping up that's still right here we're right here and there's nowhere to go this is so bad got to give that again no [Music] way we were literally just there at that sheet that is nuts I have never in my life seen anything like this so I have never in my life seen and it's pretty it's pretty terrifying we were literally parked we were parked right over there right before all of this water filled in they're rest resuing people right now from that gas station that we were at so this is pretty wild there's a little kid right there and man I told him to call me on the radio if he makes an airport R and then I can tell you you're going to do it at your own [Music] risk we're head back to Asheville [Music] so there's a curfew we only have about 30 minutes to uh to try and get some internet here we're back in the hotel I want to show you this this is currently the line to get gas and what is it 10:00 bab yeah there's no way currently that we know how to get out of this gas station has been completely packed since 10 9:00 last night here we are and this is one of the only gas stations that's open what do you do when you don't have any point of contact no reference points we have none right now done scary this is crazy this is so sweet of them to do this so right now we're here in Asheville and this shop Old Europe is gifting everybody water for free food for free it's it's incredible they have fed hundreds if not a thousand plus people today it just uh it hits me there's no National Guard there's no water because there is no cell service there's no TV there's no radio so the only thing you do is get on Wi-Fi and there's only a couple places in Ashville that have it so you have to walk to it we are currently walking to the MOX here in downtown Asheville get uh Wi-Fi but no water so the going to the bathroom situation is getting very dicey dicey so we've actually have a plan now to go to the bathroom outside so that's where we're at we're currently at a Moxy Hotel this the first time we've gotten internet to text our family everybody know we safe and people are freaking out this is the first time we've had wi trying to send can you hear me yeah do me a favor [Music] it is currently Saturday September I think it's the 29th we keep staying here cuz there's no way to get out safely just got out of the grocery store and we were able to get some food for later we yeah got what water we could whatever was left it's fine so we're going to post up for another 24 and see what happens green Bel you go up 85 yeah that's I got the other map ped up from here to like at least you can go south on 26 like 20 miles yeah like to the airport down that in like near uh the Bitmore or bit Yeah completely screwed we lost water this morning because of contamination so yeah the power guys were saying it'd be at least a few days every single power line on every street for 20 mil is gone it's not I just to drive here I probably drove over like 300 power lines what yeah where did you drive in from 3 miles from here 3 mil that way yeah yeah you can see behind me right here all of these trees are down this is just a street off the main drag where people live in Ash though it's messed up it's a messed up stuff from what I heard earlier like Asheville does have water but it's just not it's not strong like the pressure is not there and it's not clean the problem is what areas were flooded like the river was contaminated really really badly with feal stuff or what feal probably because from from what people said um the whole river Arts District which was a really cool part of Asheville um gone that's completely gone the dam was about to break so they open the levy to let out the extra so that's what they did and I think that did help it out a lot but ohk God yeah it's going to be a long clean up your friends are leaving at day break I think that's what we should yeah I agree with that well here we are marman Avenue somewhere in Asheville it's like I mean you've got cars just backed up for indefinitely no so so you want people out tomorrow yeah we we're not going to be able stand anyone yeah except for like so this is these are the updates a green mil open there you go6 Charlotte [Music] Green okay we're and then come down here to go that's the play where what's the game plan out of here at 600 I I'm so worried about my cousin I don't know if anyone's heard from her yet it's been what 3 [Music] days so one of the things that's been kind of strange to see is it's been a very tense atmosphere at this gas station I'll show you here in a second but we just heard a bunch of screaming and yelling and it's it's 5:45 in the morning so it's been like that since we I don't know what the last 3 days so fuses are running short mat for sure and uh yeah time to time to roll all right choose at least we're going to be in a caravan we met some friends we're all 3/4 of a tank of gas a lot of food and we're still ready for whatever may come all right just so it is let's see here 5:30 and we're basically fleeing Asheville because it's our best chance to get out of town and uh it's getting kind of well I'd say it's getting very unsafe here so we're uh making our way out yeah and by unsafe I think it's like you know water is limited food is limited people's options are limited and people are just getting frustrated hold on there is no water the food is waning there is no Internet it's not like you see the National Guard's going to arrive today or tomorrow but I don't know so we're going to attempt to go I'm a little bit nervous we also found out that we can't stay tonight at the hotel either because all the cuz there's no more water so they're telling everyone they have to evacuate so there's nowhere to go yeah let's get this in the car and get out of here so we've got a little over a half tank now we're going to drive over to the Renaissance to get together with the Caravan of people that we met so we're all going to try and get out together it's 5:51 a. m.

we've got 280 miles so that gets us it more to Charlotte we almost get Charlotte back so we've got the Caravan here and it's actually a wedding party that we befriended you got a game plan yeah we it yeah yeah we're all going to take a stop at this place and then that'll be probably trying to fill up gas mhm great it's probably what I would imagine to be your best bet great it is officially 6:31 a. m. and the Caravan is rocking the Caravan is officially moving we're rolling out of Asheville attempt number two let's pray to God this attempt Works definitely hopeful we're getting on 240 West we're asking for God to protect us and keep us all safe because there's really no help and this is the most vulnerable all of us will be now this is the first time we've been on a highway in 40 hours unfortunately man people are waiting in line now for money to get money out of the ATM and the gas stations are shot off people are already waiting in line and it's 6 I said it's a difficult thing to keep you know obviously to keep everyone together because there's no way to communicate other than we have our flashes on so we know who's who but there's two cars in our Caravan without gas we tried to make a stop for gas but even on the Southside Ash before we get out Town cuz after that there's no l you can also see that there are just abandoned cars like this one MH we're going back on uh 26 yeah East or 26 East so where are they going going they're going 26 I don't know go so is this the right way yeah all right well I wonder if I should stayed with them are they even going to be able to get a hold of each other don't know shoot so what happened back there is we all got off to try and find gas for the two cars that were running on fumes and it just was a bad situation the gas stations were closed people were lining up early waiting for the gas station to open and who know they could beat for there for hours and so we all tried to get back on this Interstate 26 but it all got JBL some people went the wrong way some people couldn't turn it was brutal I've never seen anything like this in my entire life here's the same shot as on Friday yep and the water is still there it is down thank God isn't this where the water was spilling over from that side just a couple days ago oh so they were able to get that lane open so all that water or is that further up babe this is all this all was that was that was the low point back there yeah just rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain we had no idea what we were about to drive into and we drove into Nashville it was absolutely insane there are very few cars on the road right now it is 7:39 a.

m.