Hurricane Helene update

We've been a little preoccupied here with the monumental events of the last week. Thanks a bushel to all who have checked in on us. We are fine here at the farm, just no water. I thought I would take a minute to give you a glimpse into what is going on here. In my part of the world.
Yesterday morning, we all went over to the Orebank Volunteer Fire Department to see if we could help with their water distribution. When we got there, the chief pointed at Marshall and I and said “you two come with me”. So we jumped in Engine 1 and off we went, down to the river to start on cleanup. Aliceson stayed at the fire hall to help with the drinking water.
To say I was unprepared for what I saw would be a colossal understatement. From the fire hall to the river is only a few miles away, and my house is just a couple of miles from the fire hall. But it looked as if we had entered a different universe. Even before we got to the river, I started noticing the water line in the trees along Little Chuckey Creek - the high water mark was probably 20-30 feet high. As we approached the river, it was if I was looking at an old photograph, one that had turned brown with age. The river, the mud, the sand, the grass, the few remaining trees - all brown. I have hunted and fished this stretch of the Nolichucky for a good portion of my life, but it has changed so drastically that I couldn’t get my bearings as to where I was exactly. The shady river banks were no more. Majestic trees many decades old and many feet in diameter were scrubbed from the ground and sent flying downriver, now lying in massive piles on somebody’s property - or house or barn, just as the ones we were now contemplating how to move were brought here from somewhere upriver. After assessing the situation, we left some of the guys to begin clean up operations and we proceeded on to start making the rounds of filling up livestock tanks for folks in the community. The water intake for Greene County was destroyed, so we are all without water until it is rebuilt. Could be a week. Could be 3 weeks. But animals have to have water now. Off we went, filling every tank and tote that folks asked us to, listening to stories of equipment being washed away or buried in mud, hay that had been ruined or swept away, electricity still out. A quick trip to the temporary pump station on the creek to refill the tanker, and then we were off again.
Which brings me to my main point in writing this. I SO wish that every single person in these United States - and MOST ESPECIALLY every person in Nashville and Washington, DC - could see what I saw yesterday. Not the destruction. Those images are starting to get out and forces are hopefully mobilizing to deal with that. But I wish you could see a real community in action. The men and women of the Orebank Volunteer Fire Department - read that again and linger for a moment on the word "volunteer" - spent the entire day yesterday giving themselves to their neighbors. Our caravan of tractors, skid steers and excavators that left the fire hall with the trucks, headed to the river for cleanup? All of it was the personal equipment of the members of the fire department. While we were out making rounds, other members were back at the fire hall distributing cases of drinking water to members of the community. Anybody that came by. And so far as I know, Orebank VFD has received nothing from the county, the city, EMA, TEMA or FEMA. Everything being distributed has come from private donations secured by members of the fire department. If the chief's cell phone rang once, it rang a million times. And each time, the call was met with "Yep, can do" or "just give me an address and we'll be there". Spread throughout the day were trips to town to get oil for this engine, two new batteries for that one. Lots of personal time, effort, and money was spent. And they'll do it all again today. And tomorrow. This is what our country is about. This is what happens when good people are faced with crisis. This is what it means to live in a true community, the kind that Wendell Berry writes about. This is why I choose to live here.
There are LOTS of great volunteer fire departments across this county and across this country. If you are served by one of them, I implore you to support them. If not with your time, then with your money...