ASHEVILLE, N.C. — At a public housing complex, volunteers knock on apartment doors offering assistance with an activity most of us take for granted.
They carry 5-gallon buckets of water to flush the toilets of grateful residents like John Brown.
“I appreciate the fantastic work you guys are doing,” said Brown, who is visually impaired and uses a wheelchair.
More than two weeks after Helene, some of the most basic things are still difficult in Asheville. Drinking water in plastic bottles is everywhere, but it’s hard to find water to shower, or flush your toilet, or even wash your hands.
“It’s important work, it's got to be done,” said Jerry Cahill, who has been flushing toilets as a volunteer with the nonprofit group BeLoved Asheville since his studio in the River Arts District was destroyed by flooding from the remnants of Helene.
Asheville’s water system was badly damaged in the storm, which knocked out major pipes connecting its reservoirs to the rest of the distribution system. There’s still no estimate of when service will be restored — though it is likely a matter of weeks, not days.
The lack of running water is preventing schools and most restaurants from reopening as concerns about public health mount. That’s why some citizens are taking matters into their own hands.
“It is an extreme health crisis looming if we don't get these toilets flushed,” said Elle DeBruhl, part of a volunteer group called Flush AVL that was formed to distribute so-called gray water from ponds and wells to communities that need it. The water may not be clean enough to drink, but it’s ideal for flushing toilets.
“I don't want to get sick. I don't want my neighbors to get sick. I don't want my community to see more devastation than what they've already seen,” DeBruhl said.
So far, Flush AVL has placed dozens of giant plastic containers that hold at least 250 gallons of water each strategically around town. They’re hoping to scale up in the coming days, DeBruhl said, to distribute hundreds of additional containers around Asheville.
“We’re grateful for it. Water’s worth a million here,” said Teresa Thomas, as she and her son filled up plastic containers with gray water at the apartment complex in northwest Asheville where they live.
They’re not the only ones here who are happy to have flushing toilets again.
“If we hadn't had this water when everything started happening, I would be busy unstopping toilets and everything,” said Ronnie Marler, the maintenance man.
The city and county are providing gray water too, at nearly a dozen emergency distribution sites. At Asheville Middle School, residents pull up in their cars to fill buckets and bags with gray water from a silver tanker truck.
“The hardest thing is keeping my commode flushed,” said Loretta Smith. “That's the roughest part, I got family members. It's just not me, you know? So we can't have all that sitting around like that.”
In the days after the storm, Asheville residents found all kinds of resourceful ways to flush. Smith says she got help from a neighbor who has a small pond. Akila Parks says he had been using floodwater left over from the storm.
“We had a flooded garage and we used the water from the garage to flush. So seeing the blessing from the storm,” Parks said, “just surviving.”
A beat-up sedan pulls up to the distribution site and Jesus Citalan-Angeles gets out. Normally, Citalan-Angeles teaches seventh grade math at this school. Now he’s delivering flushing water to some of the students’ families.
“It's probably the biggest thing. I mean, that's the issue,” Citalan-Angeles said. “Some people have no access. Some people have access to creeks, swimming pools, but there are areas that aren't near any of those things.”
That’s why these improvised water distribution systems are going to be crucial until the taps are turned back on.
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