Jack Scalise, an App State student, describes Hurricane Helene's impact on Boone: three days of rain dumped 8-10 inches before the storm hit, flooding basements, downing trees, and knocking out power and cell service across the region. Roads washed out and Highway 40 closed, but the community is organizing recovery efforts.
Questions this episode answers
8 to 10 inches (after three days of rain)
Chapters
Everybody, Jeff Duden here. And welcome to on the Home Front, something I'm very passionate about. Today. I want to talk about the devastating impact of Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina and especially the Boone area, because Boone holds a special place in my heart as it's home to Appalachian State University, a place where I changed my life and really turned it around and made a difference. And I spent my formative years there building a business, playing college football, getting my degree. And it's also where many students and residents are now facing incredible challenges in the storms aftermath.
This is my friend Lenny's home. Lenny's still missing this home, the house, the chimney.
I'm sorry to hear that.
The mud was about up to here. No one could get through here until about three days ago.
Recently I had a really cool, excitable young guy called Jack Scalise, who is also a student at Appalachian State, share his experience living through the hurricane. And here is what Jack had to say.
Well, I was there. I was in Boone experiencing it. Yeah, we live, we're kind of parked on the side of a mountain. So we have a very steep driveway and steep road that goes up. So, you know, we're, we're sitting there. Power goes out around nine. Like, okay, power goes out. And then my roommate walks downstairs, he goes, man, there's water coming through the, through the doors, both doors. We kind of live on a, we live at a two story house. We have a basement where I live. And then above on the top floor is where the kitchen is, living room is.
How long had it been raining?
So it actually rained for three days before that. So we got.
Whoa.
Yeah, we got 8 to 10 inches of rain before the storm even hit. And the roads are starting to flood before the storm even hit.
Oh my God.
Problem number one.
Yeah.
And then so that day, my roommate's like, hey, man, water's coming in. I'm going to try to block it off with towels. I'm like, okay, cool. Yeah. And I wasn't really bothered. And he goes into the laundry room, takes a step in the laundry room and almost just eats it because we already got water piling up in our laundry room.
Wow.
So the water ended up coming in through our floors and just absorbing everything. I mean, we had to move basically all my stuff out of, out of my room, move it upstairs, make sure that, you know, we got all the major stuff moved out. And we were mopping water out of our basement, out of the back door of the basement. We were just mopping water. I'll show you Videos of it later. It's insane.
Hearing Jack describe how those flood waters forced their way into his home and overwhelmed them despite of their best efforts was a harrowing tale. And the storm just didn't flood homes. It cut off power cell service in the area, which is untypical and most importantly, critical essential resources. Residents had no way to communicate with their family or check in on neighbors.
And I think the scariest part was, you know, all the trees and Boone. Everyone always posts about the leaves. The scariest part was when those big gusts of wind come in. Yeah, it would knock down like 10 trees within a hundred yard radius. Yeah. I mean, we were just like sitting there and we're just like, there goes another tree. Tree fell in our backyard, our neighbor's house. Trees below us, or there's. There's a house below us. I think eight trees fell on their house. I'm just like, it's. It was unreal. I couldn't even process it. And the hardest part was no cell service. So we had no idea what was going on. You know, we don't know if people are okay, what roads are shut down. No idea. I could call my dad briefly for two minutes before the call would cut out. And he was worried sick.
Oh, my gosh.
But, you know, then we were. We were driving a little bit later that day when it cleared up and just seeing all the destruction and Boone, small businesses are gone. It's just like, it was just so sad. And I really just looked at my best friend that was in the car. I'm like, boone's never going to be the same. It's really sad. Yeah.
Yeah, that's horrible. Well, prayers to lift him up. Hopefully people are okay and it's gonna be long recovery.
That's right. And we just got to do our part and continue to spread the awareness of it.
Right now, a couple weeks after the storm, the focus in Boone is on survival. Still getting people access to food, clean water, power, and sometimes most importantly for many people, their medications. These basics, which we take for granted are hard to come by in situations like this. Refrigeration is a challenge. And for those who need daily prescriptions for delays in access to these things like insulin, can be life threatening in moments like these. It's communities, not governments, that rise to the challenge. Historically, local citizens, businesses and volunteers are the ones who first would step up to help their neighbors. What's interesting in disasters is, and I learned this, we would wait, you know, and we would. We had clients, government contracts that we were obligated to respond to. So when a hurricane was coming, we would get ready, and then as soon as the hurricane would leave, we would go into the buildings that we were responsible to survey and dry out or do whatever it is we were supposed to do. And until you get on the ground in a hurricane situation or a flood situation, the news, it'll be two months or three months before people get a clear picture through the media as to what happened, because they'll just shoot something and they'll go with that, but they're shooting just this little myopic piece of it. And the global picture, it doesn't take shape unless your boots are on the ground and you're working with the crews and you're traveling around. So my suspicion is that it's going to be worse than anybody can possibly imagine, because I don't even think there's people that have power, water, or food, and they can't get out right now. Franchises, in particular, play a crucial role, Combining the flexibility of that local business ownership and local knowledge with the strength of a larger network that can bring resources to bear, raise funds and support the local franchisees. After Hurricane Andrew, I witnessed firsthand how businesses could restore essential services and hope, bringing communities back from the brink.
What I wanted to talk about was your, you know, you started your restoration company after hurricane Andrew, correct?
That's right. Yeah. So, you know, for 25 years of my life, this would be all of our focus. We would be for the next year, we would be helping the people of western North Carolina and surrounding areas recover. And it was very satisfying work. Now, you know, I'm making donations. I like Samaritan's Purse, which is Franklin Graham's organization up there. We've done things around the holidays of packing boxes and doing the box packing thing and all that kind of stuff. And they're really, I think, a good organization. Red Cross does a lot of good work here. So right now, I mean, and you're not allowed to get up there. The roads are washed out. 40 is washed out. So right now it's gonna be, you know, let's raise money to support. We here at the office, people took up a collection, went and got things. If you take them to the airport, they'll make sure they put them on trucks and they get them into the people that they need to get them into. So the staff here at Homefront Brands has been very active in collecting supplies and things like that. You know, I'm just gonna go ahead and, you know, quietly just, you know, support the organizations that I've been involved with for the years up there and reach out to anybody. One organization making an immediate impact is one that I have supported for years, which is Samaritan's Purse. It's run by Franklin Graham, which has been mobilizing relief efforts for those affected by Hurricane Helene. Many staff members from Homefront Brands have been going up there and working on the weekends and if you'd like to help, click the link below to learn how you can donate your time or your money to support their mission and help people right now, right away in Western North Carolina. This is a time when every action counts and if it's volunteering, donating or supporting the businesses working to reopen, we all can play a pivotal role. Thank you for tuning in. These people need help and it's just not what we say. It's more what we do and the actions that we take that matter. And together we can ensure that the people of Boone and Western North Carolina get the support they need to weather this storm and begin the path to recovery. Thank you for listening to on the Home Front of Like and subscribe. Give us Give us a comment in the comments section. We'd love to respond to you. Tell us what you'd like to hear about. And most of all, give consideration to Samaritan's Purse. They're doing good work with good people for the people that really need it. I'll check you next time on the Home Front. This is Jeff Duden. Thanks for listening.
