The town and residents are now entering an assessment period to Hurricane Helene response. What did we do well and what can we do better? I will focus this article on how each one of us should prepare for the next storm.
Preparation for the approaching Helene was made by the town and by many residents, but honestly no one in Western North Carolina anticipated the severe impact and loss of all utilities and communications services. Such disturbances could happen again, or another Blizzard of 1993, or a Carrington solar event as in 1859.
Preparation in this case translated into having the resources to respond to difficult situations after the storm had passed. A surprise to the entire region was how internet and cell phone communication were completely lost.
The communication failure initially crippled the town and region and hampered emergency response efforts. I believe the town should have an emergency Starlink system ready for immediate deployment for the next severe storm.
What I learned was that our private vehicles can serve as a personal emergency center. That may have not been the case for many folks in flooded areas north of us where homes and property including vehicles were lost, but for Highlanders the vehicles remained operational.
Like as with Helene, before the next impending storm approaches, I will make sure my car is fully fueled. In Highlands we discovered our service stations had no internet, which is needed now to pump gas. To solve this problem, I hope the owners of the gas stations, as well as other critical providers such as hardware and food services, will have generators and internet – Starlink or Hotwire, which never went down, to at least provide marginal services.
A fully fueled vehicle can charge cellphones and other devices. Also, one can listen to local radio stations from a vehicle. I recommend also having an emergency radio that runs on batteries and or has a hand cranked generator.
As mayor, my only way of communicating for a while was sending out updates by way of WHLC. On the Saturday a week after the storm a resident saw me in the downtown areas and began asking me about road closures and other questions about the storm. I was puzzled in that the person did not seem to know anything about the updates I had sent out by way of radio. One update had just been on WHLC just before I talked with the person. I asked him if he had been listening to WHLC? His response was what was that? I told him it was our local radio station. He told me did not know about it since he only listened to Sirius. So, being able to access our local station is critical. WHLC with their old FM technology was a reliable source for information.
My other recommendation is to have a stash of cash prior to a storm. We all found that the credit card systems were down just after Helene and remained down at many facilities some time. Cash too is old school stuff, but still viable and the only option in an emergency.
Another suggestion would be to draw water into several containers prior to a storm. Thank goodness Highlands was able to keep water services during and after the storm but having a supply of potable water is always advisable.
The Highlands Town Board of Commissioners began meeting last week about emergency response efforts. Meetings can be remotely accessed by using a link on the town website.