10/01/2024
Like so many throughout Western North Carolina, we have been absolutely devastated to witness the horror and destruction left in the wake of Hurricane Helene. We are happy to report that despite the wreckage of property destruction and ongoing basement flooding issues, our family is currently safe and trying to plan for the long recovery effort to come.
We are still without power, cell service, or running water; however, we made several critical preparations to weather the storm and have been doing incredibly well. We feel so fortunate and grateful to have not sustained more damage and are trying to do everything we can to help those in our community get through this disaster.
With the help of amazing friends, we’re in the process of getting our well hooked up to a generator so our farm can serve as a water distribution hub for people in the community to come fill up. My family just arrived in Charlotte for the night where we will get a good night of rest and then try to fill our truck to the brim with food and critical supplies for the community.
Depending on what we find (hopefully Costco has most everything we need), my husband will try to make another run later this week back to Charlotte. I will be posting updates about these resources on my personal page www.facebook.com/gkmcintire if you’re in the Cane Creek area and need supplies. I have posted other photo and video updates there as well.
I will only have reliable service to post updates and respond for the next 16 hrs, but then will try to get to a spot to check for updates at least once a day (until power and cell service is restored on the farm).
Everyone has been asking about our animals and how they’re doing. Thankfully all of our farm animals are doing great. We nearly lost our mini horse and mini donkey due to the fact that we experienced unexpected flash flooding on the BACK side of our farm from a tributary from the middle school that feeds into Cane Creek. They almost were swept up in that.
When I planned the farm layout, I knew about the potential flooding that could come from Cane Creek in our lower pasture, so I placed all of our animal structures on high ground so there would never be an issue during flooding disasters. I did situate the equine paddock to be closer to the lower pasture so that eventually when we built out their spaces, they could lead out to someday enjoy the pasture the 99.9% of the time there isn’t any flooding. While they were a bit lower than the rest of our livestock, they were still located well above the normal flooding areas.
One thing that Helene identified for us were the weak points on our farm. Never did we expect to get flooding on the back side of our farm from the school! It is on such high ground that it is just not something I had planned for.
As the water rose on the bottom of our farm, in a literal FLASH…the tributary from the school inundated our horse paddock. For those familiar with the area, the car rider line road started pouring water into our farm and within minutes the horse and donkey were under water.
We had been keeping a close eye on the farm throughout the ordeal and the moment the water started apilling over the road, Jason saw it immediately and alerted me. No exaggeration…from the time he told me about it to the maybe 6 minutes it took me to get out to move them, the water had almost reached their chest. They had huddled under their shelter absolutely terrified and as soon as they saw me were happy to follow me into the storm.
Unfortunately I didn’t have another shelter to move them to, but I did have two open paddocks on higher ground where they could safely weather the storm out in the open. They were in the worst of it for a couple hours terrified and shaken up, but OK overall. They are much happier now with clear skies and open access to grassy paddocks while I fix their shelter and fencing.
Sadly, I don’t think one of our cats is going to make it. Basher has not been doing well and been in and out of the emergency vet and getting ongoing treatment for health issues for a long now (well before this crisis). He was scheduled to go to the vet again this week, but sadly the stress and craziness from this disaster has been too much for his anxiety. Every day he has gotten progressively worse and the chaos of the situation has overtaken him. I have been giving him pain medication day and night, but he and lost his will to continue. Every day he has gotten progressively worse…and at this point we’re just doing everything to make him as comfortable as possible.
Overall we just feel so fortunate to be in the process of pulling through this without more damage. Many people have been asking how they can donate. While nothing is expected or needed, we have so many generous friends who want to help the community as a whole…so that’s why we’ve decided to pick up supplies and try to help as many as we can. If you’d like to donate to that cause my personal Venmo is - any funds donated will strictly be used for community resources.
Thank you again for all of the love, support, and people checking in! ♥️ Throigh this, we will come out stronger on the other side!
