Hurricane Helene

Hey y'all ! We just got internet back today. We're good here at our place. The only damage we had was a top of a Wild Cherry tree broke out and busted our split rail fence by the end of our driveway. Fence was kinda rotten and needed replaced anyway, so I'll not even count that as a loss! We had hard rain for 2 days before the storm, which is what caused all the problems you're seeing on the news about the Asheville, NC area. The worst of the storm hit us Friday morning. We lost power for 5 hours, but it was back on pretty quickly since the substation that feeds us is a half mile down the road. We're on city water, but it is out and no telling when it will be fixed. A lot of the big pipes that distribute water from the reservoir to the many communities were washed out and busted. That contributed to the flooding of the Swannanoa River, which feeds into the French Broad river. We have plenty of bottled water and have been getting water from the creek behind our house to flush toilets. I rigged up a pipe in the creek to make it easier to catch in milk jugs or 5 gallon buckets. We invited the neighbors in the apartments near us to come get water to flush with. Most of them are younger folks who have never experienced anything like this. I got a lot of deer in the headlights looks when I explained how to pour it in the tank and the toilet would flush like normal....lol.

I'll be around here as time allows. My buddy Ben, who is 82 years old, lost everything he had at his race engine shop. It was right by the old Asheville Speedway, which is now Carrier Park, and sits right on the bank of the French Broad River. We've been getting stuff out as fast as we can before they condemn the building. We got all the complete engines out, including a 354 Hemi with aluminum Hot Heads brand heads. That motor alone was worth around $20K and will now need to be took apart, cleaned up and reassembled. Sad deal. He's been in that building for 42 years. In 2004, the remnants of Ivan left a foot of water in his floor. This time, it went almost to the 14' ceiling!

Thanks for thinking of us. We're safe, healthy, and making it fine.....very blessed to be in the shape we're in after something like this.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: