Hope Flows in Asheville: Turning a Flooded Creek Into a Life-Giving Resource

/ By Kristina Goetz

The day before Hurricane Helene hit Asheville, North Carolina, Liz Schaefle remembers it rained – consistent and solid – all day long. She lost power in the middle of the night, and her sump pump quit working.

At 7:40 the next morning, Liz heard creek water hit the bottom of the bridge and then rush over the road. It spilled into her driveway and flooded her basement. She moved her car to higher ground. For a moment, she contemplated driving over the bridge but thought better of it; she knew she wouldn’t make it.

“I thought: How much higher does the water go before it takes my car?” she said.

The retiree moved it to even higher ground.

When Liz left her house to assess the damage, she and her neighbors were shell shocked. So many trees covered the road she could no longer see one. Nobody could cross the bridge. Cell phones didn’t work. People told her they didn’t realize houses stood on the mountain. Without the towering pines that had once concealed them, they were now laid bare.

Liz talked to neighbors she didn’t know she had. People pulled out chainsaws to clear the road. They offered to pick up what they could find from the few stores still open – food, gas, and bottled water from humanitarian groups.

But those small bottles weren’t enough after long. Liz couldn’t keep pouring them out. She needed more water to wash dishes and brush her teeth.

Then, on a trip to find more supplies, the retiree spotted a sign that said “Free Water” at the Reems Creek Fire Department. She lives just a couple blocks away.

“I decided I was just going to be brave and come in and find out what was going on,” she said.

What she saw was a row of metal fencing with tubing snaked through where people filled all manner of containers – 5-gallon buckets, plastic jugs, and smaller bottles – from taps. A yellow machine with a humming pump was pulling water from an unnamed spring-fed subsidiary of Beaverdam Creek – clear but not safe to drink – to big, blue bladder tanks that looked like water beds.

That was the water people were filling in their jugs. It was safe to drink.

The yellow machine was a WOWCart, or “Water on Wheels,” a powerful yet simple and easy-to-use mobile water treatment plant designed to turn unsafe water into clean, drinkable water. In just minutes, Liz saw this “miracle machine” turn a flooded creek into a life-giving resource for hundreds of families, fostering a sense of community and collaboration – bringing safe water to those who need it.

As people drove by, they were fascinated by the machine and wanted to help. Word spread, and people began asking how to be trained to operate it – graphic designers, a couple of schoolteachers, an attorney, food service workers, and some businessmen.

Keith Krebbs, a graphic designer, is one of them. He found the WOWCart by happenstance. He was headed to the creek like all his neighbors to collect flushing water, he said. He and his girlfriend were trying to build a step to make the creek more accessible to older folks when he heard about WaterStep.

Immediately, he jumped into a training session that had already started. He’d been looking for ways to help individual neighbors but was intrigued by the idea of helping the whole community and has been at the site every day since. The overall sentiment from residents, he said, has been gratitude.

“It’s an emotional rollercoaster going through something like this,” he said. “I’ve had people break down in tears when I tell them there’s going to be clean water to drink as long as you need it. …

“I liken it to the village well now. We all kind of gather here and exchange stories and information. I’m on a first-name basis with probably 100 people in my neighborhood now, which I never thought I would be. So, it’s been a pretty incredible experience for me, and I’m letting everyone know that if it weren’t for everyone using this system and spreading the word as a community it wouldn’t work either – if I was just standing here by myself with no one to give water to.”

Keith’s participation is the best example of how WaterStep works not just in Asheville but in 72 countries around the world.

“Our model is to train local people so they can serve themselves,” said Kurtis Daniels, WaterStep’s VP of training and field operations, who has responded to more than 30 disasters in his 23 years at WaterStep.

“We can’t be in every country around the world doing the work that we do from day to day. Our organization is not large enough to have employees on site in every disaster. But we can bring our equipment in. It’s simple, easy to use, and once people have the equipment in their hands and feel confident in how it works, they can be an extension of WaterStep and our mission to give people safe water.”

The impact of WaterStep’s efforts in Asheville has been tremendous. In the first month, WaterStep has provided more than 40,000 gallons of safe water.

Buncombe County officials have said municipal water won’t be safe to drink until at least mid-December. So, WaterStep will continue to provide safe water as long as it’s needed.

“I thank you so much for whoever came up with this and that you brought this to our community,” Liz said. “Because it’s a Godsend. It truly is – to be able to use our creek that destroyed so much but is able to now give back.”

Watch the video: WaterStep Lead Volunteer Keith Krebbs – Asheville, NC