When a friend showed up at my door with 3 gallons of water, I almost cried with relief. Three days earlier, Hurricane Helene had slammed into western North Carolina, upending life with floods and mudslides that flattened entire neighborhoods, swept away homes and businesses and killed at least 96 people.

The storm also caused catastrophic damage has the water system in Asheville. He washed away thousands of feet of water pipesdestroyed roads leading to sewage treatment plants and dumped sediment into reservoirs. Like most residents, I had no running water since the day after the storm. I had a few bottles of water to drink, but none in reserve for other household uses. I hadn’t been able to flush the toilet in two days and the smell of raw sewage was getting worse by the hour. But my friend had managed to collect a few gallons of non-potable water at work. “This should be enough for two flushes,” he said, handing me a few white plastic buckets. The sound of toilets flushing had never sounded so beautiful.

In total, Asheville was without running water for nearly three weeks. For 19 days, we transported drinking water from distribution sites, collected gray water and stream water for flushing, and carefully rationed every drop. Today, the water has finally started flowing from our taps again, but it is still not drinkable. Since November 1, civil servants best estimate for drinking water restoration It’s mid-December. By then, we will have lived without drinking water for two and a half months – conditions most of us could not have imagined before the storm. Helen and its aftermath highlighted a truth about climate change that we all must reckon with: the effects of a weather disaster are felt long after the rains have stopped, and these effects are complex and difficult to prepare for.

Obtaining water for domestic use “takes a considerable amount of time,” said Ricardo Seijo, an Asheville resident. “Much more than you might think.” Seijo, who grew up in Puerto Rico, is no stranger to hurricanes. Before the storm, he filled his bathtub with water to flush the toilet and wash his hands. But he was in the minority; Asheville is 300 miles from the coast, so most residents didn’t know the protocol and many didn’t have extra water on hand. After the storm, the city sent out alerts that water access would likely be lost, but those alerts were sent after electricity, Wi-Fi and cellular networks were already down, so that many people never received them. With area roads severely affected by the storm, deliveries could not make it to grocery stores, making it almost impossible to purchase bottled water. Within days, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, National Guard and local government installed the first water station downtown. Here, residents could fill containers (if they had them – none were provided on site) with drinking water, but we were initially limited to one gallon per person, or 5 gallons per family. It wasn’t enough to drink And flush the toilet, take a bath and do the dishes. Many residents carried water from streams and swimming pools to use for flushing toilets. Brooke Stanich-Holdren tapped into a stream at the golf course near her home every few days. Each time, “it only took about 30 minutes,” she says. “But it wouldn’t be accessible to someone who isn’t able-bodied. The buckets were super heavy! » Local Facebook groups have been filled with posts explaining how to MacGyver a shower with a pump sprayer, how to wash dishes efficiently using as little water as possible and even how to use cat litter in the toilet to alleviate litter. The smell of sewage that was now emanating from our bathrooms.

The challenge of hot flashes poses not only a quality of life problem, but also a public health problem. Without a clear way for people to flush toilets after using the toilet, clean their bathrooms and wash their hands, “we were worried about infections, germs and diarrheal illnesses,” said Jennifer Mullendore, Buncombe County Health and Human Services medical director. . According to Mullendore, state epidemiologists have seen a recent increase in cases of a bacteria called campylobacter in the region, leading to an increase in gastrointestinal illnesses characterized by vomiting and diarrhea. “The increase appears to be related to storms,” says Mullendore. She believes this is mainly due to inadequate hand washing and unsafe food preparation practices due to lack of clean water. This, combined with increased contact with fecal matter due to the inability to flush the toilet regularly, is a recipe for illness.

Public health problems were particularly serious in social and elderly housing, particularly in multi-storey buildings. With power outages for weeks in some areas, elevators did not work, stranding elderly and disabled residents who were unable to carry gallons of water up several floors. Social housing complexes reported overflowing toilets, soiled sheets and dumpsters full of human feces that had accumulated in the weeks before regular trash collection resumed within city limits. Eventually, volunteers came to the rescue with unsafe flushing water. Groups like Flush AVL and the Flush Brigade provided large plastic bins filled with clearly labeled non-potable flush water to neighborhoods across the city. Volunteers carried water to high-risk areas, flushing the toilets of people who were unable to provide flushing water themselves. But such a piecemeal approach risked letting some of the most vulnerable people fall through the cracks.

This is why the city decided to put non-potable water back into residents’ homes rather than waiting until the water is drinkable. Clay Chandler, public information officer for the City of Asheville Water Resources Department, explained the math to me in an email: “Public health (basic sanitation as the ability to draw toilet flush) and essential public safety (like the ability of firefighters to hook up to a hydrant and fight fires) are why we decided to pressurize the system as soon as possible » and return water to residents before it is drinkable.

Two and a half weeks after Hélène, unsafe water began flowing into residents’ homes, one neighborhood at a time. With the water returning, we were able to flush the toilet as often as needed, which greatly improved our quality of life. But water challenges persist. The city issues daily boil water advisories in English and Spanish, via phone, text and email. These notices indicate that “there is contamination due to the impacts of Hurricane Helene. … Your water may appear cloudy and/or smell like chlorine. It is Required For customers to boil tap water vigorously for 1 minute before consuming it. I asked Chandler for details about the risks of widespread use of unsafe water. He did not specify. “Bottled water or water from another source is obviously ideal and is recommended if available,” he wrote.

Providing drinking water is now a regular and time-consuming activity of daily life in Asheville. There are five government-run water distribution sites across the county, as well as dozens of unofficial relief centers at churches, community centers and self-help centers. Matthew Romanowski makes two to three trips to collect water each week. I met him in downtown Asheville, where he was stocking up on drinking water at a distribution site. Like most residents, he has running water, but it is not drinkable. “Just getting water,” he said, “takes a lot of time.” Other residents rely on acquaintances who have well water. Stanich-Holdren gets his drinking water “from a friend who has a well, about 30 minutes from town.” Likewise, I drive half an hour to my parents’ house, which is also next to a well, to shower, do laundry, and stock up on drinking water every few days. With the return of clean water more than a month away, we are committed to the long term, accepting the time spent queuing or driving to get clean water and the hassle of having to do so. boil water for domestic use for the foreseeable future.

Compared to the conditions immediately following Helene’s accident, life in Asheville became much easier. But the experience of the last few weeks has destabilized many of us. Asheville has been touted as a refuge from climate disasters. I moved here partly due to climate changeto escape the catastrophic fires in California. But Hélène stressed that nowhere is safe from climate change. And it highlighted the challenges of preparing for unprecedented weather events, like a hurricane in the mountains. The resulting damage illustrates the fragility of infrastructure around the world and the extent of our dependence on systems that are not equipped to cope with a future of increasingly intense disasters. But the ongoing climate crisis will not fail to bring more. We have no choice but to get ready.