Hope in the Face of Disaster
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, my wife and I booked a cabin in the quaint mountain town of Lake Lure, NC. It was a beautiful cabin, a stone’s throw from the lake, with a small galley kitchen and living area. The selling point, to me, was that the cabin had a large bedroom with a jacuzzi mere feet from the bed. Spending a week at that cabin with a stack of Sinatra records did more to unwind my nerves than a weekend retreat at a luxury spa. I remember eating at a restaurant on the side of the lake and traveling across the bridge into nearby Chimney Rock. Chimney Rock is a small tourist village with shops and restaurants that formed around the entrance to Chimney Rock State Park. In addition to our trip to the cabin, I have many great memories from my childhood involving Chimney Rock.
That’s what makes it so devastating to see the destruction that Hurricane Helene has wrought on the area. The small restaurant down on the riverside where I had the best buffalo wings I’ve ever had? It’s gone. The tourist shop where, as a teenager, I cut my hand showing off with a butterfly knife and hid my wound until after I bought the knife? It’s at the bottom of the lake. In fact, the entirety of Chimney Rock village now lies in Lake Lure, swept away by Helene’s destructive wraith. And it’s not an isolated incident. After Helene passed through, dropping fathoms of water on Western North Carolina, entire towns were leveled, roads washed away, and neighborhoods destroyed. It is utterly overwhelming to me when I look at the destruction that has been wrought on that area that holds so many memories for me. When I watch the videos and pictures from the area on social media, my heart goes out for these people. I absolutely cannot imagine losing everything in a disaster such as this.
However, I’ve also seen stories of determination and hope among the desolation. A family used a machete to hack their way to the top of a mountain where they could get a cell signal to send out a message that even though they had lost their home and vehicles, the family was okay. I’ve seen restaurants open their doors and give away free meals and water. I’ve seen a whole lot of humanity forgetting about their differences and banding together to help one another because that’s what we do. In a world that seems to be constantly dividing us into smaller and smaller niches, we tend to come together when needed, which helps my faith in humanity. It’ll take a long time, but I do not doubt that places like Chimney Rock will rebuild and recover. But it will take a long time and a lot of determination. But the western end of my home state has no shortage of it. In the meantime, consider donating to the United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County, which is mobilizing resources to help those in need. Keep Western NC in your thoughts because it will be a long haul back to normal.
– Ryan
