ASHEVILLE – Brandi Hayes, 37, stood in a long, snaking line of people outside the Ingles Markets grocery store on Haywood Road in West Asheville Sept. 29 hoping to buy water, bread and other essential food items after Tropical Storm Helene delivered a natural disaster of “biblical” proportions to Western North Carolina.
Hayes, who lives in Emma, ran out of water on the morning of Sept. 28 in the wake of Tropical Storm Helene, she told the Citizen Times the next day. She said she’s gathering water from a nearby creek to flush the toilet.
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Just after 8 a.m., Hayes and four of her children ranging in age from 7 to 13, waited with more than 100 other Asheville residents and visitors trying to enter one of the only open grocery stores they could find.
Behind them stood Shannon Conway, 29, and Meg Worthington, 33, who had just moved to Asheville from Anchorage, Alaska, a month before Helene hit. They said they were hoping to buy water, but at the time, they were nearly the last people in line.