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FACING HURRICANE HELENE TOGETHER AT PENLAND

With very limited connectivity in the wake of Hurricane Helene, it has been a challenge to tell the story of what has been happening at Penland. Things are slowly improving, and we wanted to take a moment to share the story of what those first days were like and how our community has come together to help one another. 

GETTING THROUGH IT

As the forecast worsened on Thursday, September 26th, 2024, Penland staff made the decision to cancel the end-of-session show-and-tell and urged those who could to travel to safety. Of about 90 students, 70 were able to travel. Those who remained were in for a bit of a wild ride. Spoiler, everyone is ok!

Western North Carolina was hit hard by Tropical Storms Debbie and Helene in short succession. At Penland, the power went out at 3:00 AM on Friday morning. Around 7:30 AM, Penland staff member Wes Stitt was awakened by a call from a student staying in the sleeping cabins— a tree had fallen on their roof. Heading up to help, Wes soon discovered that driving from one place to another on Penland’s campus was simply not possible. Roads were littered with downed trees and wires.

As the storm continued to rage, everyone on campus gathered at The Pines, Penland’s dining hall, which has a generator. Cellular service in the area had ceased abruptly on Friday morning, making it impossible to check in with loved ones as well as to discover the outside situation. Folks on campus played music and kept eachother company. The wonderful kitchen crew continued to keep everyone fed. 

Of this time, Wes Stitt had this to say, 

On a personal note, there were a few days that were really scary here. For several days we didn’t have a water system up. The generators were on, but there were breaks in the water lines, so the tanks drained. For a couple of days, we were in a real emergency mentality. We were afraid we might run out of water and we had never run the generator longer than two and a half days before.

MAKING CONTACT

Happily, things got better much more quickly than anyone had expected. Contact with the outside world was established about 30 hours in, when former Penland Resident Artists Rachel Meginnes and Jacob Huston hiked in with a StarLink cube, allowing everyone to let their loved ones know they were safe. Wood studio coordinator Kylie Little and former Penland Resident Artist Adam Whitney also hiked in with news from friends and from Bakersville, which had flooded during the storm. While Penland’s campus had sustained significant damage, we soon realized that compared to the surrounding areas, like Spruce Pine, Bakersville, and Burnsville, Penland had been relatively lucky.

PROBLEM SOLVING

Members of Penland’s facilities and grounds crew got to work. They identified and closed the water leaks, a muddy task. Franklin Oldham and Matt Moore went above and beyond, as usual.

Next was the problem of access. Rather than wait to be rescued, folks swung into action. Beginning at the facilities and grounds maintenance shop, everyone who could gathered a chainsaw and started cutting their way down to Conley Ridge Road. Once there, they were able to bring out a tractor and start moving trees off the road. Working their way down the mountain, they heard another crew working their way up. They were surprised to learn that, rather than the Department of Transportation, Casara Logan, Penland’s grounds manager, her partner Pablo Soto, and a team of friends was on the other side. After a day and a half of hard labor, the roads were clear enough to allow people to get in and out. The next day, the Ledger Volunteer Fire Department came up the road with a backhoe, shoving every tree off the road. Supplies and people could now come and go. 

Once the roads were passable, a caravan of Penland and private vehicles carrying the remaining students and instructors prepared to leave the mountain, headed to Charlotte airport and from there to homes around the country. 

Core fellow Grace Anne Odom put her chainsaw sharpening skills to work!

A photo was taken just before the caravan left and shortly after a number of community members had finally made their way up to campus to trade information and lay eyes on one another after several days of isolation.

Paula Harding, a student in the fall short session, who was among those who lived through the storm at Penland, had this to say about that moment:

This moment was a lot of emotions in one. We had all just shared our last meal together. This was the night before we were all going to start parting ways. It felt really surreal to be leaving as we spent days prior working together to cut our way out of campus. These are bonds that will never be broken. It’s incredible to see the way everyone came together, the community up there is a strong one. Every person held such compassion towards one another.

UPDATES

We are still taking stock, but we have some important updates to share:

  • All Penland staff are safe and accounted for.
  • All students who were sheltering during and after the storm have been able to safely leave for home.
  • Our campus has been serving as a community hub, with food, satellite internet, water, and fuel for our generator. We have been doing what we can to help in the relief effort, housing relief workers and connecting people with resources as we can. 
  • Members of our staff and community are working hard to restore our campus and help in our communities.
  • Aid has been pouring into our area, including nearby Spruce Pine, Bakersville, Burnsville, and Celo. 
  • While some phone and power services have been restored to our area, they are not universally available. Internet is not available in most areas.
  • All fall programming has been canceled. 

ACCESS UPDATE

  • Roads leading to campus are in hazardous condition and are subject to intermittent closure. All unnecessary travel is discouraged so as not to impede the progress of the people working to repair the road and restore services.

Community member Julie Wiggins has been working hard to connect people with rescources

THANK YOU

Thank you to each and every one of you that has reached out to us— we are deeply touched by your support and feel more connected than ever. Thank you to the amazing people who have bravely faced these uncertain times and challenges with love and community. Look for more updates with their stories. There is more work to be done. Recovery will take time. Our local and craft communities have been deeply affected.

Click https://penland.org/suppo…/helene-relief-recovery-support/ for recovery resources and ways to help.