I was thinking of everyone. Glad everyone is OK. Scary!!!

 

NOT the usual post and photos here that generally recap our Annual Fall Events !!

I attended our Fall Crossfire event is Asheville last weekend.
I chose to fly to Asheville, NC just to spend time with all the others there.
32 Crossfires out of the 68 registered still came to the Biltmore Hilton in Asheville with weekend weather looking uncertain but not knowing what Hurricane Helene truly had in store.
We all slept Thursday night unaware of the destruction happening nearby as we were asleep in this solid built Hilton hotel.

(The Aftermath)........
The Hilton lost power Friday morning about 9am
A solid 6 story hotel with NO POWER, no operating elevators etc.
None of us had WIFI , data , cell service or TV to see or know the magnitude of what the Hurricane / Tropical Storm had done around us over nite.
Several of us stayed throughout the day on Friday and others chose to leave and venture out to make there way home not knowing the devastation all around the hotel at the time.
The hotel restaurant was closed as well as the entire city itself without power...NOTHING was open !!
A few brave souls ventured away from the hotel in search of food and were successful in finding a Target store open and bringing back a lot of stuff for us all to share.
Within a 4 mile radius and beyond many areas were under water or flooded yet our hotel was standing strong on dry undamaged land.

Several of us stayed Friday night at the hotel which had generators keeping only emergency lighting on all night.
The hotel staff then told us Saturday at 9:30am we had to leave the hotel by 4pm because the power was certain to not be restored and the generators would run out of fuel making the hotel fully CLOSE and they had no choice but to evacuate the property.
This was a first for them and had never happened before.
We had no idea what was ahead but had to leave and there were NO other places to stay in Asheville without power .
We were all out of the hotel pretty quickly once we found out we needed to leave.
I was very fortunate to have a ride out of there with my friend many here know as (Rob, Owner of Needswings) heading back to Michigan.
I was originally to fly back home on Monday morning but the airport was also without power and closed just 4 miles away, plus 2 more nights without a hotel to remain at anyway.

We left the hotel and began looking for roads that were not closed.
ALL gas stations nearby were closed and without power and we needed to get pretty far away to even find gas and the lines to the pumps were down the street.
We finally found the way after driving 230 miles over 7 hours with road closures after road closures and turning around for everyone of them after many miles.
By the time we were in the clear we were only 98 miles from the hotel in the town of Newport,TN. where we had a clear shot to the open interstate.
So finally after road closures after road closures, floods trees, down power lines, and traveling mountain back roads after back roads
(All of us in different groups) heading in different directions from Asheville made it home back to:
Michigan , Louisiana., Kentucky , Kansas , Tennessee , Arkansas , Texas, Washington DC , New Jersey and even Canada but most of us devastated over what we all saw first hand.
We got to leave it behind but saw first hand what those who live there are dealing with, the devastating aftermath and are unable to leave it behind because it's their home.
Here is an unusual collection of my pics and others pics taken as well as a lot of what has been shared by others who were there on their Facebook pages......

Crossfire Fall Event & Hurricane Disaster

 

Not exactly the beautiful pictures we are used to seeing. Glad everyone made it home.

 

Roberta & I were lucky in that no large trees were down on our property and/or home. Others in my neighborhood weren't so lucky.

We got up at 3:30 AM to monitor the storm at our house.The power went off around 8-9 AM on FRI, along with the cable service from Spectrum. Duke Power had over 1 million customers w/o power in the Carolinas & over half of their sub-stations knocked off-line. Fortunately the power came back on SUN PM around 3:15. We're fed underground from sub-division behind us. Just us & our next door neighbor have power. The rest of the sub-division is all overhead wiring so still no power. Sub-division is mostly 1950's brick ranches. Cable is still out. And our LAN line is back.

 

The local shopping mall ( Haywood Road) parking lot has been turned into a disaster center for Duke Power. Mobile cabins, dining halls, kitchens pulled into parking lot & setup to support power crews, both local & from afar, that are here restoring service in Upstate SC.

 

What made things really bad down here was the area got anywhere from 4 - 10 inches of rain a couple of days before Helene from a storm front that came thru. Soil was extremely wet & streams were already somewhat cresting. Wet soil made it easy for Helene to knock over trees! Helene rainfall had nowhere to go!

 

Another thing to mention........
There was a Tesla automobile charging station (lot) across from the hotel.
We saw many Tesla's throughout the day on Friday pulling in to charge their cars only to find NO power
As I said before....the entire downtown Asheville was without power.
Not sure how far they ending up going to find power and if they even ran long enough either

 

I'm just curious, can gas stations pump gas if the power is out? Thankfully I've never had to deal with long term power loss.

 

Only if they have a generator onsite. I had to drive many mile away from the affected area before I found power and gas stations to sell gas.

@Valk Thanks for the picture collection. It was good to meet you and glad you got home safely.

 

Death toll is reported to be 200 with most recent figures from GA & NC. Earlier report said over 600 missing persons were reported in Buncombe County / Asheville.

 

Here in Upstate SC stations have power but many don't have internet. Result - Cash Purchase Only! Lucky that most Bank ATMs are working.

 

Heard a report yesterday that Black Mountain, NC (which is just East of Asheville) got 31+ inches of rain!

 

My groups exit from Asheville, on Saturday, eventually took us on NC-19E, through Burnsville and Spruce Pine. This area was in that same rain band as Black Mountain. The devastation from the flooding and mud slides were unbelievable. Our group's timing through that area couldn't have be any more perfect, any sooner and we probably would've had to turn around.

 

Chimney Rock Park re-opened today exactly 9 months after Helene hit the area.

Chimney Rock at Chimney Rock State Park Reopens June 27, 2025