It took Al Panico 4 days to get back to their home in devastated Asheville, North Carolina
“It took us four days to get back, due to flight cancellations. We spent a couple nights in Atlanta and finally rented a truck to fill with relief supplies, including a couple chain saws we’d need to cut our way through downed trees when we returned home to Asheville.” – Al Panico
When ARCAN member Al Panico and his spouse Robert DeJonckheere found their retirement home in a mountainous cove 10 minutes from downtown Asheville, North Carolina, it seemed the perfect safe and special place to purchase – so stated the national real estate rankings. Then the remnants of Hurricane Helene hit his city.
Helene was no doubt the strongest hurricane to hit Florida's Big Bend area north of Tampa since 1851. It made landfall near Perry, Florida, late on Sept. 26, as a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 140 mph. Who would have thought it would wreak the destruction it did, flooding and wiping out homes, property and infrastructure in Asheville and scores of towns and villages tucked away in the Blueridge Mountains?
Al and Robert were making their way back from vacation in Morro Bay, California when Helene struck Asheville. “It took us four days to get back, due to flight cancellations. We spent a couple nights in Atlanta and finally rented a truck to fill with relief supplies we’d need when we returned home.” They carried back water, water containers, a couple chain saws, gasoline and other supplies they’d need to cut their way through roads with downed trees and set up for “camp-style” living at home due to power and water outages.
Al is no stranger to disaster. He worked for 30 years in American Red Cross domestic disaster services and led delegations for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) for another 22 years in East Africa and South Asia. Among the disaster responses he’s led are the IFRC’s Indian Ocean Tsunami response that began in 2004, an earthquake in Nepal, and the response to bombings in Kenya. But one thing Al will tell you is how much he doesn’t like being on the receiving end of the disaster response spectrum.
Regardless, he’s done a great job of taking care of himself and doing what he can to help his neighbors as they prepare to recover together from Helene. Power was out for three weeks. A day short of one month after the tropical storm hit, water was turned on in his neighborhood. Until then, Al and Robert took a trip to Charlotte to shower, do laundry and buy more supplies, such as a portable shower, foot pump for his sink, more water cans and an electric kettle. They also used creek water from their property instead of the brown dirty water now flowing in the system. Luckily, forethought and experience led them to keep a generator among their preparedness supplies and their dog sitter was able to flip it on when the storm hit. It provided enough power for the refrigerator, microwave, bathroom lights and kitchen lights. Now Al is organizing his neighbors to plan for how to rebuild their private road that leads to their properties and how to build back their neighborhood stronger than it was before Helene hit.
Damage is still extensive. Homeowners on the ridge just above his experienced a microburst that flattened trees, and contractors and neighbors are creating makeshift workarounds for downed electrical lines so cars and delivery trucks can get through. Mail is slow, taking a week for orders to arrive as opposed to one or two days, and some items are hard to find at the grocery store. Many restaurants and shops are still closed, and the university is shut down for the semester. Only half the neighborhood road has been cleared of trees, costing $38,000.
“I visited the Red Cross disaster headquarters in Asheville and wish I could have stayed to help, but I’ve just got so much going on in my own situation right now. We also visited some of the Red Cross comfort centers for showers, laundry, water and a bite to eat.”
Some things his Red Cross service provided Al are patience and years of experience knowing what to expect in a disaster. “On my first disaster assignment to the 1974 Tetons Dam Break in Idaho I met Bobbie Baines and Virginia Baker. They saw that I was raring to go to work and they said, ‘Wait a minute. The first thing you need to do is take care of yourself. We’re going to go find a hotel to stay in, come with us.’”
Al says his part of North Carolina is still in the relief phase. The search and rescue phase lasted two weeks. He’s able to provide information to his neighbors about what to expect from these phases of response and recovery, and he collects road repair bids, talks to the county and shares that information with his neighbors.
What most surprised Al was that this disaster happened at all. He’s very careful about property purchase, avoiding areas prone to disasters. “The vastness of the damage was another thing that surprised me. There are towns and villages that took weeks for anyone to reach, and they are still lacking water, power and internet. Another thing that surprised me is how emotional I felt in the early days of this situation. I was on edge, and that’s not like me. When I responded to disasters with Red Cross and FEMA I could always easily compartmentalize my feelings. I’m very grateful for all my Red Cross and other friends who reached out to me to check on us, especially in those early days.”
What advice would Al give to all the new volunteers who have responded to the disaster? He’d tell them, “Take care of yourself, be patient, and smile.” When asked what one thing he’d like to say to others who have suffered losses due to Helene Al replied, “It will get better.”
