By ALICIA FEYERHERM
Tiger Media Network
While Fort Hays State University’s physical campus is far from the path of Hurricane Helene, some FHSU Online students have felt the devastating impacts of the storm.
“You never think something like this will happen to you, until it does,” said Emily Harrison, a school psychology graduate student studying with FHSU Online.
Harrison is a special education teacher in Spruce Pine, North Carolina. In addition to teaching, Harrison works on a farm seven days a week in exchange for cheaper rent on the property.
Tucked away in the mountains of North Carolina, rural Spruce Pine is not used to hurricanes.
“When you live at the coast, you’re able to prepare, and your infrastructure is prepared for that kind of damage,” Harrison said. “Our community in the mountains definitely was not.”
As Hurricane Helene made landfall, Harrison’s world was upended in just a few days.
Wednesday, September 24
The day started like any other. Harrison completed her farm chores and went to work at an elementary school in Burnsville, North Carolina. While at school, it was announced that the school would be closed on Thursday and Friday due to the incoming storm. At first, Harrison welcomed the unexpected time off.
“I was jumping up and down excited to have a couple days off work, and now there was no way for anyone to anticipate that our lives would be completely changed,” Harrison said.
Wednesday night, the power went out, a precursor to what was to come.
“We were lucky enough to have a generator, but everyone else was without power. The whole area was just dark,” Harrison said.
Thursday, September 25
By Thursday night, the storm had intensified. Harrison struggled to sleep, listening to the howling wind and the sound of trees crashing to the ground.
“It was like every time you heard the wind pick up, you were just waiting for something to hit the house,” Harrison said.
Eventually, Harrison got out of bed and took down all the photographs on her walls.
“I was just trying to make sure nothing would crash down on us,” Harrison said.
Friday, September 26
In the morning, Harrison woke up and went out to do farm chores. Seeing the farm in daylight, she was able to really see the destruction of the hurricane for the first time.
“When I got outside, I could hardly recognize the property,” Harrison said. “There were trees down everywhere.”
Over 35 trees had fallen on the property and the road near her house was completely washed away, making it impossible to drive.
Phone service went down on Friday, leaving Harrison and her few other neighbors completely cut off from the outside world.
“We had no idea what was happening,” Harris said. “No news. No updates. Nothing.”
Fortunately, all the people and animals were accounted for.
“The barns were hit, and the animals were all shaken up, but we were safe inside,” Harrison said.
Saturday, September 27
Harrison and her neighbors spent the day chainsawing through a forest to reach an accessible road. Together, they chainsawed for 24 hours straight.
“It’s just really hard to sit and to wait for help to come, especially when you have no access, you don’t know that help is coming,” Harrison said. “Being in such a small community, we were out at the end of a long neck road in the middle of nowhere already, it’s really hard to just trust and have faith that other people are coming.”
Eventually, a Jeep was able to reach them, the first outside contact the group had since the storm began.
“We worked all day just trying to cut a way through,” Harrison said. “When the Jeep showed up, it was like we could finally see beyond our little world of destruction.”
They alerted the individuals in the Jeep that one of the neighbors had a feeding tube and was unable to use it without electricity. They sent for help, and the neighbor was evacuated by the fire department.
Later that day, Harrison’s parents were able to come and evacuate her. Without cell service, her parents were navigating using an Atlas.
“He (my father) would find places that he couldn’t get through, and he would have to turn around and have to try another road,” Harrison said.
Harrison and her neighbors cleared a mile and a half of the road to reach her parents and her father still had to chainsaw trees blocking the road for them to get out.
“I had to carry my things for what felt like forever, even though it was only a mile and a half,” Harrison said. “We were still cutting through fallen trees just to get to my parents’ car.”
As they made their way back to her parents’ house in eastern North Carolina, Harrison saw her community completely ravaged by the storm.
“It was almost apocalyptic when you were finally able to get out, and I was able to see the rest of my community, and the road I take to work every day,” Harrison said. “ I didn’t even recognize it. It was, it was wild.”
Aftermath and Moving Forward
While one of Harrison’s biggest reasons for evacuating was so that she could continue her online education, she has now been faced with the reality of what the future will hold.
Power likely won’t be restored for at least three months and the roads leading to her rural farm could take until February to repair.
“It was hard to process that reality,” Harrison said. “It wasn’t just about waiting for the power or the road. It was about waiting to feel safe going back at all.”
Her school is now shut down indefinitely and the communication she has received has been tragic.
“We were hearing stories of bodies being found in trees, whole families gone,” Harrison said. “It made me scared to even think about going back.
“Just knowing that that is what that area looks like, and knowing that I may go back and have students who don’t come back to my classes,” Harrison said through tears. “ I think it’s just a reminder to hug the people you love and to take time to appreciate what you do have, because so many people woke up and didn’t have anything the next day.”
Harrison encourages donations to relief organizations but also emphasizes the importance of gratitude.
“I think that’s an important thing to take away from this,” Harrison said. “Even if you’re going through hard times, you still have a life and you need to find some way to appreciate the things that you do have.”
One of those things Harrison is grateful for is the faculty and staff at Fort Hays.
“The staff in the school psych department have been so supportive, and I’m really thankful to be part of a program that is so attentive of my needs during this time,” Harrison said.
Krista Huss is a junior studying Agriculture Business through FHSU Online. Her town of Lincolnton, North Carolina was also impacted by the hurricane.
“I think that people need to take warnings more seriously and not overlook them and prepare more,” Huss said. “There were people that didn’t have water to drink, they didn’t have food. Our local fast food restaurants, the few that were open, were packed and just overwhelmed with people.”
Her area felt 60 mph winds and got over six inches of rain. She was without power for two days.
“Our main issue was flooding and tree damage,” Huss said. “We had an entire corn crop that we lost because of flooding. We had water that completely covered the corn.”
Huss recognized that the mountain areas 30 to 40 miles away were hit much, much harder.
“It’s total devastation in the mountains of North Carolina,” Huss said. “It’s been unreal to see all the damage and devastation. Unreal.”
Now that the Lincolnton community has mostly recovered from the impacts, they are working together to help others. The county airport is flying supplies to areas that are inaccessible by car.
“It’s just been beautiful to see the whole state just step up and support those that have been affected. It’s really been beautiful to watch,” Huss said.
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