Charles H. Sloan-Asheville, North Carolina, officials warn water system could take weeks to repair

ASHEVILLE,Charles H. Sloan N.C. — Days after Helene swept through western North Carolina, Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer cautioned that those in the county waiting for the water system to return online must prepare for the long term.

"And I’m not talking about days," she told the Asheville Citizen-Times, part of the USA TODAY Network, in an interview at City Hall. "We want them to plan for longer than that.”

With the city's water system "severely damaged" — which feeds not only the city of Asheville, but also Buncombe County and the northern portion of Henderson County — officials said restoring service to the full system could take weeks.

"We’ve got to make sure we do every single thing we possibly can to restore the water system as fast as possible," Manheimer said. As aid and resources are mobilized, and water distribution sites announced, she said, the "critical" work of the city is to clear roads needed to access major line breaks, and repair the "main feeder" from the North Folk water treatment plant down into the city.

Assistant City Manager Ben Woody described the system's damage as "catastrophic," and said crews are still attempting to access infrastructure buried by debris or underwater.

As they progress, service will "slowly" return and "in some areas before others."

Water distribution began Sept. 30 with four county-run sites and one city site. As federal and state supply delivery lagged, though it eventually reached the county for its sites, the city spent "hundreds of thousands" of dollars to purchase water through a private provider, said City Manager Debra Campbell.

Woody, Campbell, Manheimer, Fire Chief Michael Cayse, all with the city, were at the briefing Monday.

'A warzone'

No power, no water, no Wi-Fi. Limited to no cell reception.

From her home in North Asheville, Manheimer said she's experiencing the same things as many others in the county. Neighborhoods with cars and homes crushed by fallen trees, littered with detritus, downed power lines and other destruction — but without the floodwater devastation of outlying areas, or those nearest to the banks of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers.

“We are so lucky. Our house did not get hit," she said. "Our neighborhood looks like a warzone.”

In the hours after Helene lashed Western North Carolina — leaving in its wake historic flooding, up to 22 inches of rainfall, blocked roads, and a climbing number of confirmed deaths, billed as "biblical devastation" — she and her youngest son, Asa, 17, donned backpacks and went looking for her dad, who lives a mile-and-a-half away.

The scene, she said, was "unbelievable." They picked through the wreckage of the neighborhood, navigating fallen trees and downed lines, shimmying through gaps where they could. Her family, once everyone was accounted for, was safe, she said. Missing friends have been located.

But that's not the case for many. The death toll in Buncombe County reached 40 confirmed fatalities Monday afternoon.

"It's very emotional," she said. "You literally can't believe what you're looking at."

At school at UNC Chapel Hill, Manheimer said she was out east for major hurricanes and was in Asheville during the catastrophic 2004 floods, but this was another level of devastation. "Some hurricanes are a lot of flooding, some hurricanes are a lot of wind damage and trees. This is both," she said, choking up.

In the days since, she has watched the community gather. People have arranged meetups for their neighborhoods, distributed buckets of water to flush toilets, shared resources, and cleared roads.

“The people are just amazing ... they are coming together and helping each other and checking on their neighbors, and helping to remove trees off of houses. It’s just incredible," she said.

A missed call from Biden

As soon as she could make her way from her house to downtown — after someone cut a route through fallen trees and out of her neighborhood — the work has been "nonstop." At her downtown law office, and later from City Hall, power stayed on.

Largely, she said, her work has focused on coordination: fielding calls from the governor — the first of which happened Thursday night, before the storm hit — hospital directors, the attorney general, and other mayors looking to share resources and staff.

Sunday night at home and without service, Manheimer had a missed call from President Joe Biden. Elected officials are not headquartered at the emergency command center, she said.

City Council members have received twice-daily briefings. Spokesperson Kim Miller said city "one-sheets," with updates and information, have been distributed to them to hand out around the city — along with staff and others — attempting to bridge the "communication void" that has persisted throughout the crisis.

Where has Asheville been during Helene response?

Emergency operations in North Carolina flow through the county, Manheimer said. Requests for aid and resources go through the state's emergency management system and are initiated by the county.

She described the county as the "conductor" for all things emergency response.

Buncombe County Manager Avril Pinder said aid and resources had been requested before the storm. The county made the ask with the state, which would then bring supplies in through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Pinder, along with other county officials, has been a fixture at twice-daily briefings, led by the county. City staff has participated in those calls — like Police Chief Mike Lamb, Cayse, Assistant Fire Chief Jeremy Knighton, who heads up the city's Emergency Operations Center, and Woody.

"Because the county is the lead on emergency operations response, they get to call the shots in terms of how communications work, when they work, who is doing the communicating," Manheimer said.

For people asking about Asheville, Manheimer said for those coming from places where it's a "strong-mayor system, and the mayor is running the whole show," it may be confusing.

"But that's just literally not how disaster response is done in North Carolina, but people need to know that I'm here, I'm working all the time, I'm talking to everybody I need to talk to and they're using me as the resource when they need to establish a connection between this person or that person, or they don't have this communication," Manheimer said.

During the 2022 holiday water outages, a crisis that resulted in thousands left without water for days, an independent committee's review of the city's response critiqued the mayor and other city council members' response. It said elected officials put direct pressure on staff and should not be involved in the operational response.

Instead, they should be updated regularly by the communications staff or through contact with an incident commander, and help communicate "agreed-upon" messaging to residents, the report said.

As a result of the report, the city updated its Emergency Operations Plan.

"Through that crisis, and the Emergency Operations Plan we have now in place, the anticipated role of electeds is to push out information and that obviously doesn't work really well if you have no way to (do that)," Manheimer said.

Lately, it's been "a lot of facilitating communication," she said. "When you've been mayor for over 10 years, you pretty much have everybody in your cellphone."

Manheimer was first elected to Asheville City Council in 2009. She has been mayor since 2013.

Of how the council is responding to the blowback in the water crisis report, Manheimer said, "We're staying in our lane."

As the city moves into the "recovery" phase, Manheimer said she began doing interviews with the Citizen-Times and other local media and national outlets. Her message? "I am going to emphasize that we still need assistance."

“We want to make sure that we’re still in the hearts and minds of folks and they know we are going to be struggling for a bit, but that we’re going to need their help," she said.

Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email [email protected] or message on Twitter at @slhonosky. Please support local, daily journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.