By Jennifer Heebner, Editor in Chief
Tim Roark, Inc.’s Malinda Daniel is grateful that she and her husband only got rain dumped on their home and office in the Atlanta area by last week’s Hurricane Helene. Others had it much worse.
“The news was saying that the storm would go right up the middle of the state,” she explained in a phone interview this weekend. “If we had gotten the winds that they said, we would have been really bad. We just got rain—an amazing amount of rain.”
Hurricane Helene, a category 1 hurricane, rumbled up the Gulf Coast of Florida last week and touched down near Perry, Fla., as a category 4 storm. The powerful storm and its surge continued onward through Georgia, Tennessee, and North and South Carolina, decimating communities with wind and water and leaving post-apocalyptic scenes in her wake. Some jewelers in her path were hit hard while others sustained minimal damage. Many communities remain without power and water, with uprooted trees and mudslides preventing municipalities from assisting residents more quickly.
Kirsten Geary of the Ray Griffiths, Inc., jewelry brand is based in Spartanburg, S.C., which is an hour away from hard-hit Asheville, N.C. She and her boyfriend have been without power since last Thursday and know they won’t see it back until at least this Friday. They are safe in their second-floor apartment, but around them downed trees and power lines, nonworking traffic lights, and sparse amounts of gasoline and food in supermarkets are making life difficult for residents.
“I’m just grateful we’re not on our rooftop waiting for rescue like so many others,” she says.
Rain, Wind & Gunfire
The beautiful waters surrounding coastal Gulf areas of Florida and inland waterways throughout the South turned deadly and destructive under Helene’s influence and were worsened by the high winds she brought with her.
Brunk Auctions in Asheville, N.C., were understandably not answering their office lines last Friday, but an employee responded to a direct message to its Instagram account; company principals Andrew and Lauren Brunk weren’t reachable due to storm damage.
“Much of Asheville and WNC does not have access to cellular service or Wi-Fi (or water or power) at this time,” explained the Brunk staffer. “Please check back with us and we will do our best to post updates as conditions improve.”
After 79-mile-per-hour winds and lots of rain in Spartanburg subsided, Geary ventured out of her apartment but didn’t go too far. She heard that individuals desperate for fuel were pulling guns on each other at gas stations, everyone in a state of distress and panic.
“This storm made me realize that we need to be better prepared,” she says. “We’re just an hour from Asheville, which was decimated. We’re looking for an Airbnb to rent for a few days because I need to work, but the power is out everywhere.”
Daniel was most concerned about wind damage, given they had just endured a tornado a year and a half prior. Her greenhouse and a neighbor’s playhouse sustained some damage from Helene, but it was nothing like the tornado that ripped part of her roof off. Her yard developed a temporary lake from the rain, but she was more concerned about friends with nearby waterfront properties.
“With all the rivers and lakes around us, I worry about them cresting and causing flooding,” she says.
Even the Buckhead section of Atlanta flooded.
“People had to be rescued out of their apartments by boat because there was just so much water,” she explains. “Peachtree Creek crested and flooded and caused all that.”
James Jackson of Aesthetics in Jewelry in Louisville, Ky., was one of the lucky ones. His sixth-floor office was fine when remnants of Helene blew through town.
“We had some strong winds and trees knocked over that disturbed traffic paths, but we were otherwise fine,” he noted.
Extreme Damage
Hardest hit among jewelers is likely Tyler Hartman of Hartman Bros. (dba Ridgley’s) in Saint Petersburg, Fla. He and his partner disregarded the town’s storm warnings, staying home last Thursday night. By 9:30 p.m., water started seeping into their home—10 doors down from the intercoastal waterway—through window seals.
“It happened so fast,” he recollects. “It was in the road, then the yard; the storm wasn’t bad, but the surge was. We’ve had storm warnings, but this was the most downplayed of them all. High tide hit around 12:30 a.m., and we were preparing to get on the roof with our 70-pound dog if it were to keep rising. We messaged family that we loved them. By 3 a.m., the water started receding and by 6 a.m. it was practically gone. Our house is completely flooded, there are random boats in people’s yards, but we’re okay and so is our merchandise. I haven’t been able to reach our office yet, but my landlord said there’s not too much damage.”
One of the most terrifying moments of all? When the car alarms started going off.
“That’s when we knew all the cars were being submerged,” adds Hartman. “The alarms stopped once the cars were completely underwater. When you get alerts about storm warnings, just evacuate. It’s an inconvenience, but we don’t know what Mother Nature will do. Weather is unpredictable.”
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