After Helene, disabled folks and seniors still vulnerable and in need of water in WNC

By Katie Myers, BPR

This coverage is made possible through a partnership between BPR and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.

Disabled people are among the most vulnerable populations in a disaster. During Hurricane Katrina in 2005, wheelchair users were left behind in evacuations.

In the initial days after Tropical Storm Helene impacted Western North Carolina, many people were unable to refrigerate their insulin or charge their oxygen tanks or couldn’t hike out or use chainsaws as others did to free themselves from their homes. Even in the relatively well-resourced urban environment of Asheville for the past two weeks, many elderly and disabled people have been living without consistent access to power and water, a serious problem that is only now beginning to fade as nonpotable water is trickling slowly back through the system, house by house.

Every day since Helene, volunteers with Asheville’s Flush Brigade gather at the parking lot of the Gold’s Gym on Fairview Road, disperse buckets and climb into water tank-laden trucks to check in on different apartment complexes in the city.

Some of them are filling water in massive totes from a group called Flush AVL, which operates out of Highland Brewing.

“We are focusing on low-income, high-density areas that cannot evacuate, don’t have the means to get water for flushing their toilets to, you know, older communities, all the people who could get really sick and die if we don’t maintain some level of sanitation,” said Teresa, a volunteer with Flush AVL.

In Aston Tower, an 11-story public housing complex, volunteers hauled buckets over dirty floors and under dim lights, crowding together into elevators. There, people needed help flushing almost every day.

Volunteers, some of whom were nurses, expressed concern that the situation could breed diseases like dysentery. One described serious toilet overflow in multiple apartments. Another vomited from the smell.

Seniors, who are more likely to have chronic illnesses and medical devices, are also at risk in a disaster. At Arrowhead Apartments, a privately owned Asheville retirement home, generators were running some hallway lights, but otherwise the power was out as of this past Wednesday. Water pressure has improved, allowing residents access to nonpotable water, but it remains brown, unfit for dishwashing or showering.

Some, like Annie Harris, haven’t had enough water pressure to flush, and can’t haul it up from the donated tanks themselves.

“I can’t carry a big bucket,” she said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has resources for disabled disaster survivors, though reduction in related staffing in the agency has prompted criticism. Sherman Gillums Jr., FEMA’s disability coordinator, is currently on the ground in Western North Carolina, trying to connect disabled disaster survivors with resources for their water, food and medical needs. He helps states, counties and cities think through their plans to resolve these problems.

“First of all, who do you have at the table informing you about what the needs will be?” Gillum said. “And then we can move through all the … predictable areas of inequity. Communication. How are people getting updates? How do they find out about where they get water? Do we have enough people? Do we have enough sign language interpreters going out canvassing the neighborhood to make sure that people can effectively communicate their needs during the application process, so on and so forth?”

There are special provisions for disabled people within FEMA. Gillum says FEMA “pays for things like over the counter drugs, maybe somebody needs medication, access to water, or certain foods, special diets, to get through that first couple of weeks.”

People could also be eligible for rental assistance or repairing a home to a point of greater accessibility.

More information from FEMA on assistance for survivors can be found here.

To request help from Flush AVL to a high-density residential area, call 828-407-0216 or email flushavl@gmail.com.