Asheville builds temporary plumbing system after Helene: NPR

Jerry Cahill has been volunteering to flush toilets since his studio in Asheville's River Arts District was destroyed by flooding caused by Helene's remains.

Rolando Arrieta/NPR

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Rolando Arrieta/NPR

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — At a public housing complex, volunteers are knocking on apartment doors, offering help with an activity most of us take for granted.

They carry 5-gallon buckets of water to flush the toilets of grateful residents like John Brown.

“I appreciate the fantastic work you guys do,” said Brown, who is visually impaired and uses a wheelchair.

More than two weeks after Helene, some of the most basic things in Asheville are still difficult. Drinking water in plastic bottles is everywhere, but it is difficult to find water for showering, flushing toilets or even washing hands.

“It's important work, it needs to be done,” said Jerry Cahill, who has been a volunteer with the nonprofit group BeLoved Asheville flushing toilets since his River Arts District studio was destroyed by flooding caused by Helene's remains.

Asheville's water system was severely damaged by the storm, destroying key pipes connecting the water reservoirs to the rest of the distribution system. There's still no estimate as to when service will be restored – although it will likely be a matter of weeks, not days.

The lack of running water is preventing schools and most restaurants from reopening as public health concerns grow. That's why some citizens are taking matters into their own hands.

“There is an extreme health crisis looming if we don't flush these toilets,” said Elle DeBruhl, part of a volunteer group called Flush AVL, which was founded to distribute so-called gray water from ponds and wells to communities that need it. The water may not be clean enough to drink, but it is ideal for flushing toilets.

Elle DeBruhl is part of a volunteer group called Flush AVL, founded after Helene to distribute so-called gray water from ponds and wells to communities that need it.

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“I don't want to get sick. I don't want my neighbors to get sick. “I don’t want my community to see any more devastation than they’ve already seen,” DeBruhl said.

So far, Flush AVL has strategically placed dozens of giant plastic containers, each holding at least 250 gallons of water, around the city. They hope to expand in the coming days, DeBruhl said, to distribute hundreds of additional containers in Asheville.

“We are grateful for that. Water is worth a million here,” Teresa Thomas said as she and her son filled plastic containers with gray water at the northwest Asheville apartment complex where they live.

Teresa Thomas (left) and her son David Murray fill plastic containers with gray water at the Asheville apartment complex where she lives.

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They're not the only ones here happy to have flush toilets again.

“If we hadn't had this water when everything started, I would be busy opening the toilets and everything else,” said Ronnie Marler, the caretaker.

The city and county also provide gray water at nearly a dozen emergency distribution points. At Asheville Middle School, residents drive up in their cars to fill buckets and bags with gray water from a silver tanker.

A large plastic container that can hold at least 250 gallons of water for flushing toilets.

Rolando Arrieta

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Rolando Arrieta

“The hardest part is keeping the toilets flushing,” Loretta Smith said. “That’s the hardest part, I have family members. That's just not me, you know? So we can’t just let everything sit there.”

In the days following the storm, Asheville residents found all sorts of inventive ways to do their laundry. Smith says she got help from a neighbor who has a small pond. Akila Parks says he used flood water left over from the storm.

“We had a flooded garage and used the water from the garage to flush. “So seeing the blessing of the storm,” Parks said, “just surviving.”

A battered limousine stops in front of the sales office and Jesus Citalan-Angeles gets out. Citalan-Angeles normally teaches seventh-grade math at this school. Now he delivers dishwater to some of the students' families.

“It’s probably the biggest thing. I mean, that’s the problem,” Citalan-Angeles said. “Some people don’t have access. Some people have access to streams and swimming pools, but there are areas that are not close to those things.”

That's why these improvised water distribution systems will be crucial until the taps are turned back on.