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From Staff Reports
Three weeks after Tropical Storm Helene ripped through Western North Carolina with record flooding and wind damage, Buncombe County and Asheville city officials met on Oct. 18 to provide several updates on the recovery progress, focusing on the water crisis and power outages, as water and electricity are being restored throughout the area.
(In a separate report, as of Oct. 16, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services reported 95 verified storm-related deaths in the state from Helene, with 42 deaths in the Buncombe County, seven in Henderson County and five in Haywood County.)
At the Oct. 18 storm recovery update, Duke Energy reported that 469 of its customers in Buncombe remained without power, as of Oct. 18.
Further, Clay Chandler, a public information officer for the City of Asheville Water Resources Department, noted that a temporary waterline was connected in Swannanoa, as crews were able to clear debris from the Swannanoa River.
Chandler said the connection provided water to roughly 75 homes within the area, and crews aim to make a second waterline connection on Oct. 18.
Crews have also poured several water treatment chemicals into the North Fork Reservoir, he said, noting that they aspire to reduce the amount of sediment in the water, so that it can be treated and pumped into the system as drinkable water.
Further, water resources officials added that it is likely to be a lengthy process before drinkable water is available in the Asheville system — and have not yet released a timeline.
Also at the Oct. 18 briefing, officials noted the lifting of Buncombe County’s curfew, as of Oct. 21.
What’s more, residents in Asheville no longer will need to adhere to the11 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew, as it no longer applies.
Meanwhile, USA Today Network reported on Oct. 12 that, “earlier this week, the city received a hopeful sign: A 36-inch bypass water mainline was reconnected to the city’s water distribution system.
“State and federal officials are looking to speed up water restoration by treating the reservoir directly. For now, the reservoir − normally clean several feet below the surface − is a murky brown from sediment.”
USA Today Network then quoted — while on a recent tour of the reservoir — Michael Regan, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and formerly North Carolina’s environmental quality secretary, as saying the following:
“Priority No. 1 is to get clean, quality drinking water to everyone who doesn’t have that,. And so as we look at private wells and the water system, we want to be able to provide every single asset we have.”
The newspaper added, “In the meantime, water distribution sites, using bottled water, have been set up in the region. Water remains the biggest need for residents in Asheville, with an estimated 417,000 people in the metropolitan area, recovering after Helene. Thousands remain without power.
“Clear water could take weeks, or even months, without direct treatment, according to David Melton, Asheville’s water resources director.
The point of direct treatment is to get the reservoir to a place where it can be treated by the water plant, he explained Thursday (Oct. 10). The chemical treatment, aluminum sulfate, bonds clay particles together, causing them to sink to the bottom. It will be applied in 500-foot swathes radiating out from the intake.
“Heading into fall, officials are pressed for time. As temperatures cool in the mountain region, the natural process of settling out particulate matter slows, too,” USA Today Network noted. |
