Carolina Native Post Helene Update
Hurricane Helene: Our Story
By Bill Jones
I went to the nursery on the afternoon of Friday September 27th when the storm lessened to check on the nursery. We had weathered storms in the past, had a checklist we went through earlier in the week to make sure the drainage ditches were clear and so on. We did everything we could to prepare. The rain we received in Asheville at my home over the previous hours was intense, dumped the rain gauge out a few times, it holds 6”, over the previous days but was unsure how much we really got.
As my wife Jill and I drove up Highway 19 through Madison County it didn’t look so bad. The water was high on the stream bank along the road but nothing I hadn’t seen in the past. But as we came through Ivy Gap into Yancey County things looked different. The water had gotten much higher. When we turned onto Prices Creek Rd, about 1 1/2 miles from the nursery, we noticed nursery pots in the hayfield to our right. As there are not any other nurseries along the creek I did not have a good feeling.
A little farther, before we got to the bridge to turn over the creek, we were stopped by some officers. The guys were from somewhere in NY, told us to turn around, and had no idea what was going on further up the road. We could see water coming over the bridge and a tremendous amount of debris packed against it. Turned around, tried another way, got behind someone going really slow, and tried to stay calm. Maybe it wasn’t too bad. Got back on Hwy 19, back into Madison County, went another way. Over downed power lines, around trees and mud slides. As we approached the nursery the valley was full of the creek but I could tell the level had already dropped. We came over the hill and my wife burst into tears. I wasn’t far behind.
The creek was running through the middle of the nursery. The plants, 100,000’s of them, were gone. The water had receded a bit allowing us to walk along the main road through the shrub nursery, every row of cold frames to our left was empty of plants and full of water, flotsam, and jetsam. Chairs, pallets, oil tanks, some of our trailers, and plants bereft of their pots. 3’ to 4’ and higher. We made our way over to the perennial farm around the corner, crawling through some downed trees. Here the plants were gone too. But the cold frames were still in good condition. Not as much clean up here.
Watch Perennial Farm Flooding video 
Needless to say, I have had better days. This is even hard to write about a week later. Now I had to go find Shelby and tell her. Plus I had to check on my Mom in south Asheville. Mom was fine, but I couldn’t find Shelby. No service and she was not home. Even getting to her house on Friday afternoon was hard. Where was she? On Saturday I met my brother at my Mom’s place. He brought me some supplies and took Mom to Charlotte. Came home to find Shelby on my front porch. She had been to the nursery. We hugged and cried. Then we worked to find out how everyone else on our team was. That took days. Everyone is safe. What now?
