It started with rain — lots and lots of heavy rain.
Mary Beth Cochran knew it was coming. Widespread news coverage of Hurricane Helene’s imminent arrival made sure of that.
So when the Category 4 storm made landfall near Perry, Fla., on Sept. 26 and started sweeping its way north toward her home in North Carolina, the 55-year-old grandmother expected the skies above her town to open up.
She had seen it before, after all. The community had yet to recover from another storm three years prior in Clyde, a town west of Asheville with a population of about 1,200.
She figured this time around it would be much the same. And she was right.
As the rain continued to fall, coming down heavier and heavier as the hours passed, the creeks and rivers in the area began to swell. Then they breached their banks and began rushing into yards, roads and buildings.
“Even little bitty creeks flooded, ones you would never think could flood,” she said. “It happened so fast. I thought I was going to lose my life.”
Cochran, who was born in Allentown and grew up in Reading, hunkered down at her mother-in-law’s house in nearby Canton to wait out the storm, growing more and more frightened as the winds began to howl and power and phone service was knocked out.
She and her family made it through the storm unharmed, suffering only minimal damage to their properties and possessions. But many of her friends and neighbors weren’t so lucky.
Speaking last week from Hamburg — where she was visiting family — Cochran said that when she left North Carolina the previous week she left behind scenes of sheer destruction and desperation.
“This flood was devastating to our communities,” she said. “This is going to affect us for a long time.”
‘Need a lot of help’
Cochran, a 1985 Reading High School graduate, has lived in western North Carolina for the past 25 years. It’s where her husband, Joey, is from, and where she has raised her children and grandchildren.
The area is deeply rural, she said, with small towns dotting a landscape of thickly wooded mountains and crisscrossing streams. The towns are connected by small, winding roads, many of which aren’t even paved.
Income levels are low there, with Cochran saying most families live well below the poverty line.
All of which makes the impact of Helene and the flooding it caused all the more painful.
“There are still communities that are cut off, that help still hasn’t gotten to,” Cochran said. “And these are people who are going to need a lot of help.”
Cochran said many homes in the area were built by families who have handed them down through the generations. Many don’t carry homeowners insurance, let alone flood insurance.
And the flooding has affected people’s ability to get to work, she said. For people who can’t afford to miss a paycheck, that has been crippling.
The result is an overwhelming amount of need that will likely last for years to come. And while Cochran said the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other relief agencies and organizations have been on the ground doling out supplies, more help is necessary.
“With the cold weather coming in soon, these people are going to need kerosene heaters, generators, gas canisters, maybe even RVs,” she said. “And they’re going to need cash to pay their bills, or gift cards or gas cards to keep them going.”
Cochran is planning to return to her home in North Carolina this week. She said she’s eager to get back and lend a helping hand but also terrified about the situation she will see.
“I have so much going through my mind,” she said. “Just so much devastation, destruction. It’s hard to believe.”
Source: Berkshire mont
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