Delivering Starlinks
Recap of our initial work responding to hurricane Helene and overview of what we are focused on next.
A few of the team members including myself were living in the Asheville area when the storm came. One of our team members had massive property damage from the flooding and her dog died of acute poisoning from chemical pollution the flood left on her property. Other than that, we were all fortunate to fare well. Obviously many were not.
The fire marshal (and his nephew) in the small town where we live died in a landslide during the hurricane while working to rescue others. On a friend's property nearby one of the men was battening down the hatches when the wind sent a piece of plywood at him and broke his neck. The roads were already destroyed so friends carried him out in the hurricane using a ladder as a stretcher. We met a man still in a state of shock the day after staying at a church who was a retired coast guard who had to dive under his trailer as the water was sending it at him from a flash flood. The water took out the whole valley he was in and some of his neighbors didn't make it out alive. A friend saw her neighbors, an elderly couple, get washed away. Countless stories like this.
If you haven't seen it personally and heard the stories, it's hard to really imagine. The two main rivers running through the town rose about 26 feet rapidly from the storm. A three story wall of water out of nowhere rushing down a river valley is a hard thing to really get a sense of.
These videos don't really convey it but give some sense. This one is just a minute. If you are wondering how affected the area still is 6 weeks later, watch these.
The community response has been truly inspiring. From search and rescue missions to clearing roads to get to people who were stranded, local people have been working around the clock since it happened, risking their lives, to save and help people they’ve never met.
Many people who are fortunate enough to get to normally take infrastructure (and what it takes to maintain it) for granted, have gained a much deeper appreciation for people who know how to drive tractors and fix broken pipes and use chainsaws.
We were fortunate to be in good enough shape to be able to help out a bit. After clearing the trees in our path and helping some neighbors, we decided to try to get to where there was cell service so we could find out what was going on. As much as we’ve become used to and dependent upon it, losing internet and cellular was in some ways more impactful than losing water and electricity. Realizing this issue was affecting everyone’s ability to coordinate their response, we decided to focus on communications infrastructure first. We bought all the starlink systems we could get in Charleston and drove back with them (along with generators, gas cans, chainsaws, water pumps, dehumidifiers, PPE, heaters, and other immediate needs).
Even though the fire department and other emergency services have radios to talk with each other, no one had access to call 911 or communicate to anyone where they were or what was needed. We prioritized getting those starlink systems to fire departments, search and rescue teams, sheriff stations, medical centers, road clearing crews, and the main community organizing hubs. This enabled their work, plus created internet zones people could come and use.
Then we connected with others bringing starlinks to the area and got them to more community centers, nursing homes, schools, churches, and to remote stranded areas. With the help of several people who came together to get more units, find out where they were most needed, and deliver and install them, we set up over 100 starlinks in the first couple weeks, with 75 set up at the most critical places within the first 5 days.
Here is a video from the leader of one of the first response crews about the effect it had getting communications.
With the help of local operations like Beloved Asheville, Venture Unknown, and We are Love, we got many units to the most affected areas like Batcave, Gerton, and Swananoa, and to remote places like Spruce Pines, Burnsville, Ledger, Yancey County and some all the way out to Tennessee.
Around a dozen more went to search and rescue operations – like ARG rigging and rescue, The Cajun Navy, and Savage Operations in Black Mountain – performing air drops and making first contact with stranded communities in hard to access areas.
The ones being brought to stranded areas where the roads had been destroyed were delivered by helicopter, ATV, and mule packers.
Many units went to local churches, school systems, nursing homes, fire departments, sheriff stations, hospitals, and community centers.
A few went to a group of midwives who were responsible for bringing in new life into the world in the midst of a disaster.
One unit went to the software development team working on Ashevillerelief.com. Another to support the water distribution efforts undergone by Be Well AVL.
Here is a video, made by a collaborator, of units being delivered to hard hit remote areas, and another news report detailing the devastation and how vital the starlink we brought them was for enabling communications.
Even with the amazing local response and incredible work being done, there is vastly more that needs done than there are resources for. For many remote areas it's being estimated that it might take a year to get electricity and internet back on. Countless people whose homes were destroyed are displaced. Many are in tents as we head into winter. Others are trying to get back into their homes out of necessity that have mold damage from the flooding. (One Stanford study showed that after a hurricane, death rates stay significantly elevated for the next 15 years - likely due to factors like moldy buildings and toxic exposure from flooding. We don't want that to happen here.)
So much of the infrastructure in this region was destroyed and needs rebuilt. There is an opportunity in that. Some areas that were built with extreme weather in mind were fine, right next to places that were built without the extra security that were decimated. How we rebuild really matters. This could be one of the most disaster resilient areas in the country in a few years if we design with that goal in mind. If we rebuild similarly, there will be more disaster that could have been prevented in the future. The understandable desires to build back quickly, and with the least expenditure could foreclose the opportunity to rebuild better. In the most likely path ahead, while a lot gets repaired and rebuilt, a lot will also slip through the cracks. A lot of the chemical pollution from flooded chemical and sewage plants wont get properly remediated. Many people will go back into homes and buildings that have mold issues and will get chronic health issues as a result. Many of the poorer people who lost their homes and jobs will not be able to get the aid they need and end up much worse off. It does not have to go that way.
Given the wake up call about resilience and the need for such comprehensive rebuilding, some high level goals seem clear and possible. In 5 years, there should be less moldy homes than there were before the storm. The environment should be cleaner and healthier than it was. The watershed should be more robust. The infrastructure and homes should be designed to be more resilient. People without much money should be economically better rather than worse off.
Wrapping up this initial emergency response, we are putting together a small task force to work with and in support of the other groups doing good work, to help expedite recovery and make sure we do what we can towards ensuring that we are rebuilding better. We are talking with leaders of other projects about what they need and assessing where the greatest gaps are. We just started working on a few new focus areas involving school repairs, immediate and long term housing, fire prevention, tree clearing, water testing, mold solutions, legal aid, etc. There will be a post with more info about that project soon. It will include a link to donate and to get in contact.
Many people participated in what we’ve worked on to date. More than can be named but I want to highlight a few. Chad Fuentes and Charlie Kubik brought more units in than anyone else, with their own money at first, then crowd funding for more. Andrew Hewit made a request form with information about needs so we could prioritize the units based on where they would serve the greatest need. Cathy Bliss, Zac Wine, Tiffani Hardt, Ben Cote, and others who weren't in the area but helped with research and connections remotely. The many people who helped deliver and set up supplies, particularly in hard to reach areas. Jerilyn Stone, Chris Eddy, Sophia Karuna, Summer Fae who were with me and dove in to help. And the people who donated the money needed to get the starlinks and tools: Sanjiv Sidhu, James Schmactenberger, Wes Carter, Liv Boree, and others.
