Residents of the North Carolina county with the most fatalities from Hurricane Helene can still get clean water from distribution sites seven weeks after Hurricane Helene significantly damaged the region’s infrastructure.
The city of Asheville in Buncombe County remains under a boil water notice after the storm six weeks ago destroyed a 36-inch bypass line at the North Fork reservoir, which supplies 80% of the city’s water.
Now in the seventh week of recovery, water distribution sites around the county have distributed almost 2.5 million 1-liter cartons, over 22,000 gallon jugs of potable water, and almost 240,000 gallons of nonpotable water, Asheville City Manager Deborah Campbell said.
City officials say they continue to make progress in reducing turbidity at the North Fork reservoir, and a third in-reservoir treatment will be conducted this week.
According to Clay Chandler, spokesman for the city’s Water Resources Department, the reservoir’s capacity is now up to 19 million gallons daily, up from 10-15 million gallons.
At the Bee Tree reservoir, another key water source for the county near Swannanoa, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, FEMA, and U.S. Geological Survey are working on removing extensive debris in and around the reservoir.
“There was a huge landslide there during the storm and it dumped boulders, some of which are bigger than bulldozers, into that reservoir and a countless number of trees, tremendous amount of sand, silt, clay particles,” Chandler said, noting turbidity at the reservoir is around 200.
“So you can imagine how dirty and murky that water is,” he said. “Before anything can be done at Bee Tree, there is a lot of debris that’s got to be pulled from that reservoir.”
Humanitarian aid groups like Samaritan’s Purse also continue to offer clean drinking water to the community. The organization is operating a water filtration system in Swannanoa that can produce 4,000 gallons of drinkable water a day.
The system has been up and running since Oct. 7, according to Bruce Clounie, an international relief worker with Samaritan’s Purse.
“It allows us to provide water around the clock,” he told The Center Square. “We provide collapsible containers for them and they can fill up on their own.”
