News release from the City of Asheville:
The City of Asheville continues to provide Tropical Storm Helene recovery resource updates on a daily basis.
Water Service Restoration
As of Wednesday, November 13, the turbidity reading at North Fork had fallen below 15. The third round of in-reservoir treatment will begin today. North Fork’s capacity to push treated water into the system has risen to a little more than 20 million gallons per day. It’s important to note this process is contingent on turbidity continuing to fall.
The private contractor for The Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) interim pre-treatment system conducted a site visit Monday. Materials and equipment could start to arrive as early as this weekend. The timeline is still on track for late November/early December.
Water Resources is coordinating with USACE, FEMA, United States Geological Survey and others for the removal of storm debris around and within Bee Tree Reservoir along with the rebuilding of key access roads. The facility remains offline.
Every City of Asheville water customer remains under a Boil Water Notice. In the absence of bottled water or water that has been purified, any water intended for consumption should be boiled a minimum of one minute beforehand.
Storm Debris Collection
As of November 12, the contractor has collected 59,387 cubic yards of storm debris which totals over 1,100 truck loads. Work is still focused on public right of way cleanup and we continue to encourage all residents and businesses of Asheville to sort storm debris appropriately and move storm debris to the curb.
Today, November 13, the contractor will have 27 trucks running. The zones will be as follows:
1 grapples/trailers in Zone 1 (West Asheville)
6 grapples/trailers in Zone 3 (Downtown Asheville)
8 grapples/trailers in Zones 4 & 5 (North and Northeast Asheville)
5 grapples/trailers in Zones 6 (East Asheville)
7 grapples/trailers in Zones 7 & 8 (Southeast and South Asheville)
Our storm debris collection contractor continues to rotate throughout the City, focusing on collecting in areas with high concentrations of storm debris. However, the contractor will continue to collect storm debris in all areas of the City, including in City-owned parks, until all storm debris is removed. The City of Asheville Public Works team continues to remove trees that are hanging or leaning over the right of way. More information on storm debris management can be found here.
Small Business Recovery Grants
The City of Asheville has made just over $700,000 available for Small Business Recovery Grants. The grants will be distributed by our partners at Mountain BizWorks as part of the Asheville-Buncombe Rebuilding Together Grant Fund.
Businesses within the city limits of Asheville that employ fewer than 200 full-time workers will be eligible to apply for grants of up to $25,000. These grants are meant to help businesses recover losses that aren’t covered by other forms of assistance. This could include repair and replacement of lost business infrastructure, inventory, equipment or working capital.
The grant application and requirements are available on the Mountain BizWorks website.
Recovery Organizational Structure
At the November 12 Council meeting as part of the Managers Report, staff presented information on an organizational structure designed to align federal and state funding resources to initiate both rapid response and long term recovery processes. This structure includes 7 focus areas:
Housing
Storm Debris
Economic Recovery
Water Recovery
Infrastructure
Arts & Cultural Resources
And functional support which includes cost recovery, community capacity building, administrative, and data communication.
Hagerty Consulting Inc. has been contracted to provide support through the recovery process in the focus areas mentioned earlier. Staff has scheduled a number of meetings with Council on the following dates:
11/19 Recovery Briefing
Recovery Support Group Updates
Planning for 12/10 Work Session
12/5 Recovery Briefing
Recovery Support Group Updates
Overview of recovery related items for Council action on 12/10
Planning for 12/10 Work Session
12/10 Recovery Work Session
Facilitated Discussion on Recovery Strategies and Priorities
More information on the recovery process and Hagerty Consulting can be found here.
Before you comment
The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.