And the pigs did swim, along with Jake, as the water rose in the barn. Jessica and Jason put on waders and evacuated the animals to higher ground. All are fine, albeit a little soggier than before Helene’s fierce strike.
The most important thing I can share with you at the moment is that Keystone and our employees were all incredibly fortunate through Helene. Remarkably, the lower portion of camp maintained power, and after one fix of the main water line, we restored full water on the Sunday after the storm.
Those of us who live up on the hill: Mark and myself, Catherine, Jessica and Jason, and Tripp went without power for 11 days at our homes. Without power, we had no water either. Power returned on the 8th at lunchtime. We camped out down in camp to charge phones, cook meals, and take showers. Family members of our employees came over to do laundry and use our water and electricity. We were glad to be able to share these resources with others. Again, we are so fortunate. We are now working with local agencies to house volunteers coming to the region as well as to offer temporary housing through the winter to those who cannot occupy their own homes.
In spite of three or more feet of water through the barn, all of our animals are safe. We also had a couple of feet of water flow through two thirds of my grandmother’s house along the creek below the archery range. We had multiple trees fall across our back roads, and a series of four fell onto the riflery range. We worked together that Monday and were able to clear the trees off the roof of the riflery range, and we will need to repair the upper back corner of the roof. However, this is so minor compared to what the rest of our community and region have suffered.
Gratitude, good fortune, pure luck are words constantly passing through our thoughts. As we work to help our neighbors here in Western North Carolina, we are very concerned about our friends and camp families in central Florida. There is no rest for the weary this year. We will look for ways to contribute to our Florida friends as their needs become known after Milton.
The mountains have always seemed to be an idyllic place to live and work. Those of us high up on the hills have had very little to worry about over time. The incidences of serious flooding were few and far between in the 20th century. I have often told the story of the founding of Keystone in the midst of the Great Flood of 1916. Miss Florence, my grandmother, and six of my grandmother’s friends left Jacksonville, Florida, on July 16th on a train to open Keystone’s first summer in Fairview, North Carolina, just outside of Asheville. The trip was supposed to take two days. Rain from two hurricanes, one from the Gulf and one from the Atlantic, began to fall on Western North Carolina on July 15th. By the time the train reached Columbia, South Carolina, the railroad bridges had washed out and tracks had been lost. The Keystone group spent more than a week in the YWCA. They were finally able to reach their destination, the Fairview Inn, on July 24th. Miss Fannie had been delayed in Jacksonville due to a family illness. She and other campers joined the group a week later. The Fairview Inn, owned by relatives of Miss Fannie’s, served meals to the girls while they stayed in an outbuilding and enjoyed their first summer at camp in the mountains.
The topography of the mountains, combined with the Blue Ridge Escarpment between North and South Carolina, provides the ideal backdrop for tremendous rainfall, particularly when hurricanes pass across our area. In 2004, hurricanes Frances and Ivan converged here. The damage in Asheville that year was also bad in the Biltmore Village area, as it was this year. Brevard typically receives approximately 85 inches of rain per year. Just west of us, in Lake Toxaway, they annually see well over 100 inches of rain. Thus, we are classified as a temperate rainforest. Helene gave us a quarter of our annual rainfall in just 36 hours.
Mountain people are strong, resilient, and determined. The work here is ongoing and the road to recovery will be long. The best way to help those impacted is to donate money for relief efforts. Our favorite local agency is Sharing House here in Brevard. This is an organization that has worked in our community for over 43 years, and they will continue the work long after the attention is gone. Their strength is in lifting folks from poverty to independence. They have been instrumental in the housing crisis that existed before Helene and will continue to be as we see an increase in need across our community. If you are so inclined, they accept online donations: Sharing House
Please make a note in your donation that you are with Keystone Camp. One of our most dedicated alums, Meredith Ragains, has started a drive for Sharing House and is tracking the Keystone contributions.
We are grateful for each and every one of our Keystone Family members. Thank you for your care and concern as we look forward to putting this flood behind us and to the summer of 2025, our 109th season!
