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Our Experience During Hurricane Helene This is firsthand footage captured in Asheville, NC, from Thursday September 25th to …
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A huge thank you to everyone who has watched our short film, left positive comments, and helped those affected by Helene's devastation from Florida to North Carolina. We’re truly humbled by your love and support, and we wanted to be sure to share a bit more about the journey that led us to pass through Asheville when we did.
So first and foremost, we are full-time touring musicians and documentarians, since we’re always on the road, you can find us with a camera in our hands documenting everything just like we would do on any other day. (this is how we got the footage you saw in the film)
Since 2018, we’ve been living out of our 2012 Dodge Grand Caravan. Right now, it has 208,000 miles on it, the engine works but the side door is broken, and the trunk doesn't work as of yesterday night, but it still gets the job done and we’re grateful this van has kept us safe and can haul all of our gear!
On Wednesday September 25th, 2024 we loaded up all of our gear and left Indiana (as our mid-west tour had just concluded) and we were super excited to head to Charlotte, North Carolina to start a Artist Residency which would give us time and space to record new music and prepare for our upcoming Christmas tour, kicking off right after Thanksgiving at The Morris in our hometown of South Bend, Indiana.
After we left Indiana we had heard that a hurricane was heading for Florida, but we didn’t think much of it as we just thought it would hit Florida and then dissipate as it made its way to North Carolina. We expected that the outer bands would carry some heavy rain and winds. Honestly, we had no idea that it would be this catastrophic— growing up in Indiana we had no clue that Helene could maintain such power and travel 800 miles and that the eye of the storm could hit Asheville!
Now, here’s an important detail to note: as we got closer to Asheville, just 32 minutes away, the rain started pouring down so hard that we could barely see out of our windshield so we turned our wipers on full speed, and then within two minutes we heard a super loud bang on our windshield. To our shock, the passenger-side windshield was completely gone, and the driver’s side windshield wiper had buckled leaving three inches of space to see out of as the rain was pouring down. To this day we’re still not 100% sure what exactly happened to cause that windshield wiper incident, and right now as of October 6th we’re still without a passenger-side windshield wiper as the mechanic shops are booked for another week.
Once we arrived in Asheville around 3:21 AM on Thursday, we spent the night, and woke up to heavy rain, we called some local shops to see if they might be able to fix the passenger side wiper on our van. Then after talking with them we quickly realized after looking at it more closely the passenger-side wiper mechanism was extremely damaged and completely shoved under the hood and off the track, so the local mechanic's couldn't get us in quick enough to order the new part and fix it.
Since we couldn’t get the passenger side wiper fixed on Thursday September 26th, we decided to wait it out, so we booked another night at the hotel and we planned to leave Asheville with a bunk passenger wiper once the rain has stopped on Friday as the many weather stations had reported that by noon on Friday the rain would subside.
So we thought it would be safe to travel the rest of the way to Charlotte on Friday after the rain stopped as the drivers side windshield wiper was the only one working.
We hope this gives a bit more context as to why we were in Asheville and the issues that kept us there. Of course we have been feeling all of the emotions and have learned a ton from this experience and will share another video about that with you all soon.
In the mean time, thank you for all your love, light and support! We really appreciate you being part of this wild journey and above all we deeply appreciate your prayers and donations for all the people and communities left in the catastrophic wake of Helene.🙏
Please consider supporting the following worthy organizations, ❤
BeLoved Asheville
Venmo: https://venmo.com/BeLoved-Asheville
Old Europe (who’s been providing free food and water to the community since September 27th, 2024)
PayPal: @DangHeleneHelpOE
And also charitable organizations like Samaritan’s Purse and local churches.
MANNA FoodBank:
Donate Here: https://donate.mannafoodbank.org
Asheville Survival Program:
Venmo: @AppMedSolid
Thank you all!
5 months later and we are still trying to recover
We lived in AVL until '20. Our kid barely escaped his apt in Swannanoa. We didn't have immediate contact. He had to stay with us for a few months in NE TN until he finally found a new one (old one gone). I had warned him to be hyper vigilant, and despite that, he woke up to 6" of water in his room. It came up that fast.
2004 was pretty bad, but this one was worse.
I live 10-15 mins from this Burger King my road was trapped on our road by water everyone walked end to end for three days before we could get out and I waited on this hwy 25 for gas the fourth day for 4 hours with one side still blocked off
Would love to watch but can't stand the drama music.
Come on dude. You only put this on five months ago? You should have been there trying to carry old timers in waist deep wate to safety knowing you can't swim just to try to get them to high ground. It still messes with my head. The water was crazy!!!! We can handle the wind but the water I don't know how to explain it!!!!! Seeing it with your own eyes is the only way to say it
BY DESIGN
Y’all could’ve stayed and helped.
Wife is annoying
I live in western North Carolina. And I witnessed. It
Hadn’t really thought much about it lately. My fiancée and I went for Thanksgiving since the Airbnb we booked was in Marshall and still ok to take on guests. We ate Thanksgiving dinner in downtown Asheville proper. We tried our best to stay away from the wreckage and we didn’t go to the RAD, knowing they were hit so very hard. We went to Black Mountain and I wanted to cry. They were also devastated there. A true sight to see, but not pleasant in any way.
We cannot wait to go back and once again bring money to the community.
living in the valley of mountains right by asheville when this happened.. i swear it was like a tornado went straight through my whole feild/yard. we were lucky enough that our creek only flooded out whole fwild but thankfully didnt touch our house. the water was less than 2 feet from our house. lucky is all i can say.. finally was able to get out to town after a whole 7 days without power, running water, and any way to get out bc of the thousands of trees and power lines down. plus most places were like islands for multiple days. seeing all the destruction done to my hometown still 5 months later was so insane. i could hardly sleep the night it hit. the wind was so terrifying my cats slept so close to me all night:(
It wasn't from the hurricane the dam gates were lifted
Yeah their was a dam busted in Tennessee and it just followed through
I've watched this a couple of times now. Between this & LA fires, I have since bought a solar battery, 2 solar phone chargers, fireproof document folder filled with everything important, crank/solar radio. I also have 2 months supply of food, bottled water & cat food/cat litter stored. I have paper maps, all phone numbers written down, & keep car gas tank above half full always. Natural & manmade disasters are becoming too frequent to ignore these scary wakeup calls.
background music to way too loud
There's no part of a hurricane where there's just "a little bit of wind and rain". Talk about being uneducated
They didn't know how to manage the dams
The truck driver coming out of the floodwater and his truck spraying it out is a clip i’ll show anyone who asks how North Carolinians handled Helene. Thanks for covering this! (from asheville)
Double. Monster. Inland. Hurcain
National. Desaters
National. Detrution. Very. Historic. Inland. Hurcain.
lived though this. now like everyone affected I have weather related PTSD – I was home. looking out the front door.. watching the water rise…. and rise…….. and RISE………. watching trees jump out from the road edge blasting to the ground… like dominoes.. every 15 – 20 min..taking out the electric line poles… BOOM – the wind was tipping the trees over with such ease… very intense. sure.. we were told a hurricane was coming inland… but where I sit.. deep in the mountains .. SO far from the ocean… no way did anyone think it would hit like we were on the oceans edge. I live near chimney rock.. a cute little town that was along the river bank….. G O N E.. every home and person on the waters edge .. washed down a mean raging turbulent rush of water which was – mother natures blender… whirling everything into mush. let that sink in. everything.. everybody whirled into mush – the body count is not accurate because theres nothing to find to confirm death… they had no warning. the river raised up 30 feet in minutes. the entire affected area had no internet or phone cell service either. my home finally had cell service mid october..grateful I have a 4×4 tuck to get me through the soggy grass ..around the downed trees blocked the road.. it really looked like a war zone as i was trying to find a clear path to the hwy on my way out heading south to my family in GA .. which I am glad i had a full tank of gas .. the gas lines were at least 2 hrs long in wait. no line wait finally deep into SC . trees downed all on long the freeway.. in most places .. one lane.. the center most lane on each side.. 2 lanes blocked on each side from all the trees. all the way through SC into GA .. even Atlanta had flooding. I am thinking i need to journal this //
There was radio. Local station WWNC AM 570 was broadcasting the whole time from the start, and that’s the only way we knew about anything that was going on. They were outstanding in their coverage, literally living at that radio station for weeks on end. This was a disaster unlike anything this area has ever been through before, and the people at that radio station helped us to get information about what the hell was happening while we had no power for two weeks.
I know who did this. The y make money from you as they break the lands by destroying it. https://youtu.be/BlIBd4Al_vI?si=MLUv1a0P0b7DUmRp
Thank you for filming & posting. I haven’t been able to watch many of the Helene posts, it’s still raw. Glad you got out when you did because everything deteriorated afterwards … and still is so unbelievable.
So lame…your editing reflects how careless your video editing, and how lack of care your team is on such an important human event..
We😊
You are the only ones who did a documentary of such of the hurricane With out knowing it you’ve recorded a page in history. I am so glad you are both ok.
Today Jan 24, 2025 and still Asheville are all without help.
FEMA did nothing for those people. They are all alone and trying to help each other.
Many hiking over 5 miles to get to the main town.They are still without help.
President Trump told the residents he would come back to them and today he did.
He will expedite funding for them ASAP. They are in such need of help.
I believe God directed you to show the world what has happened.
Today he , President Trump did return with Rev Graham who has tried to help them with basics.
So many people saw what no eyes should see.
Hopefully your recording will send them much needed help.
God heard your words and your prayer. I believe he directed you to do this recording.
Thank you for sharing . I think he , President Trump ,should see your recording.
Be well and be safe. Angels sent by God.
And Thank you.
God keep your travels safe.💙🕊️🇺🇸