When Jennifer Roth moved from California to the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, she thought she was leaving behind the ever-present threat of natural disasters like wildfires and earthquakes. But in the almost-decade that she’s lived in Rutherfordton, North Carolina, she’s now experienced two major hurricanes: Florence, which nearly washed out the 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games at the then-fledgling Tryon International Equestrian Center, and last week’s Hurricane Helene.
Roth, whose farm is roughly a half-hour from Tryon International, said Florence paled in comparison to the devastation Helene caused in the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee. She came out of the hurricane better than many people, and counts herself lucky that her house and barn are on high ground, she has a pond for emergency water, and—despite a travel-heavy career as a dressage judge—she was home when the storm hit. She and a young couple who live on her property have been hauling water from an apple orchard next door that has a generator and running water.
“It’s been a good lesson about having lots of supplies ready,” said Roth, whose property still is without power. “We have plenty of hay and grain, and we have big plastic barrels that we use for working equitation, and we can fill them with water. I’m exhausted, but the neighbors have been great.”
With power and cellular service down across much of Western North Carolina, she had no idea just how devastating the storm had been to the wider area. Already saturated from a storm the previous week, the ground couldn’t absorb more water, and the infrastructure was no match for the high winds and record-breaking rainfall Helene brought. The storm washed out roads and bridges and crested over the Nolichucky (Tennessee) and Lake Lure (North Carolina) dams. Entire communities were submerged, and the flood waters washed away towns, people and animals.
“Last night I made it to a friend’s house to charge my phone, but for days I couldn’t reach anyone and had no idea what was going on,” she said. “Chimney Rock and Lake Lure are just 25 minutes from here, and I had no idea how much devastation had occurred up there. My ‘kids’ who live here went to the gas station at 2 a.m. to get fuel for their generator, because the lines had been so long during the day. I’ve managed to longe and ride a couple of horses and even taught a lesson to a boarder, but when you’re trying to get food and water, and you’re using the bathroom in the woods because there’s no running water, it becomes all about essentials.”
Stranded With Supplies Dwindling
One of the people Roth connected with once her phone charged was dressage rider and breeder Emily Wright, who owns the nonprofit Tempus Renatus School of Classical Riding in Black Mountain, North Carolina. Three of Wright’s mares were swept away by rapidly rising flood waters as she and her septuagenarian mother were trying to save them.
“It was terrifying,” Wright said of Friday’s events. “I was watching the Ring camera all night to watch the water, and then there was a little stream next to the creek. We went to get horses out of the low-lying areas, where we had a couple of pens, but within minutes it was up to their knees. We got a stallion out and chucked him in the feed room—I was like, ‘sit, stay.’ Within minutes the fields were already knee-deep, and I was breaking fences, tearing down electric tape, and then one mare ran into the rapids, and her pasturemates followed her.”
Miraculously, one of the mares, Rubia, was later found alive; another was found dead, and the third is still missing.
“At least we were able to get most of the animals out; it was a matter of seconds from, ‘it will be fine’ to, ‘it’s not fine,’ ” she said. “It was really, really terrifying. It looks like an apocalyptic wasteland. There’s so much debris; there’s so much destruction that it’s hard to even know where to begin.”
The creek that runs through Emily Wright’s 20-acre property, shown here before the storm, went from idyllic to dangerous in a matter of minutes.
Wright described pastures buried under a foot of silt, rock and debris, all fencing—including the supplies for an upgraded vinyl fence they were partway through installing—gone, and the way the studs in her breeding operation have demonstrated their instincts to protect their small harems of mares by keeping them away from the most dangerous spots in the debris-strewn pastures. All access to and from the property is gone, as bridges were swept away by the floodwaters.
“Luckily we were just starting our building process,” Wright said. “We’ve been here two years and gradually building. We’re a non-profit riding school, and we have a small staff. We were starting with some agritourism, doing demonstrations and farm tours and planning to really launch some stuff this fall.”
But priorities have shifted overnight. Now, faced with dwindling supplies and the knowledge that re-establishing access to the property could be months away, Wright is working to get her animals evacuated.
“That’s our priority, so that they’re safe, and so that we have access to resources,” she said. “While we could probably put up some temporary fencing, I don’t know how easily we can get feed and hay for weeks. And also for us, it looks like it will be weeks before anything comes together. We are planning to evacuate sometime this week, and we’re working on how to get the horses across the river, to walk them to the nearest accessible road. It will be very interesting leading 20-some odd horses.
ADVERTISEMENT
“The Army Corps of Engineers is gradually working its way up, and while we’re not that concerned about the creek rising at this point, we’re concerned about landslides,” she added. “We’re running low on hay and feed, and they’re planning an air drop of hay. … Normally we don’t even feed much hay, but the pasture is under a foot of silt and debris. It picked up huge rocks, too. It is daunting, looking at what do we do from here to reclaim this land and rebuild.”
They are able to stay in contact with the outside world thanks to a Starlink satellite connection and solar power, and have been providing updates via social media. She has spent hours on the phone trying to work out the details of their evacuation and remains hopeful.
“Our nonprofit’s name is Latin for ‘time reborn,’ ” she said. “We kept rescuing our foundation stock, including the mare that was swept downstream. We keep rescuing people. And the art of classical riding is kind of a rebirth for horses and people. So here we are.”
Riders Digging Out Around Tryon
Just down the road from Tryon International, Ecuadorian Olympic dressage rider Julio Mendoza Loor and his wife Jessica Mendoza are working to remove fallen trees from their farm in Columbus, North Carolina, which is home to horses including Mendoza Loor’s Paris Olympics partner Jewel’s Goldstrike. They have a generator for power, and their water troughs were still full of rain water from the storm that preceded Helene.
Much of the local area is still without power, and resources are limited, so on Sunday, Mendoza drove an hour and a half to Charlotte, North Carolina, and bought a couple of generators as well as 20 gas cans that she filled to fuel generators and share with neighbors. She also stocked up on shelf stable food items like crackers, peanut butter and toaster pastries.
“We were lucky that our horses were OK and buildings were not affected,” she said. “People are helping each other out, and we have great neighbors. There are power lines down everywhere. I don’t think we’re going to have power any time soon, so we need gas to run the generators. We have 20 horses here; it’s a lot of work, but we’re grateful that they are all safe. All of the community has really come together and been so supportive.”
In nearby Landrum, South Carolina, just south of Tryon, Michelle Drum was able to turn her horses out into intact pastures even after trees fell onto her barn, penetrating the roof and leaving the structure unsafe to house her animals. The amateur hunter/jumper rider said she was relieved to find her pasture fencing still standing.
“It looks like a tornado rolled through here, to be honest,” she said. “It’s going to be a while before we get power back.”
Despite the damage to her barn, her home and vehicles are safe. That’s more than a lot of her neighbors can say, as trees and washed-out asphalt has made roads impassable for most of the Western North Carolina and East Tennessee region.
But still, seeing the neighborhood’s kids get outside in recent days reminded her that her community will rebuild.
“It’s crazy refreshing to see kids playing outside,” she said. “Random, I know, but I never realized I didn’t hear kids outside laughing and playing until yesterday [Saturday] when the neighbors sent her kids outside.”
Tryon International Equestrian Center Becomes Disaster Staging Center
In the wake of the hurricane, Tryon International has temporarily shifted gears from operating horse shows—the facility was in the midst of hosting the Tryon Fall 2 hunter/jumper show last week until canceling the event Friday because of the weather—to an emergency command center for teams responding to damage in the area.
A North Carolina Emergency Management Field Hospital is being set up at the equestrian center today and is expected to be operational by Wednesday.
“Since last Thursday, the day before the storm, we have housed and fed FEMA’s Search and Rescue Team out of NYC, the National Forest Service, the U.S. Border Service, Rutherford Electric and Co-Op Groups from the Southeast,” Tryon Equestrian Partners President Sharon Decker said in a press release posted to Tryon International’s website.
The center is also working to create a supply donation drop-off and distribution center.
For neighbors and first responders alike, the resort’s restaurants offered buffet-style meals at several of its restaurants for the several days that power was out, and with power restored as of Monday evening now hope to expand food service operations. They also are now offering charging and access to its guest WiFi to neighbors without power or cell service, and hope to have a clean water-jug filling station available by Wednesday, according to the most recent update.
Approximately 200 horses are currently stabled at Tryon after the cancellation of last week’s show, and the facility has announced its plans to forge ahead with the Tryon Fall 3 show, now shortened to four days (Oct. 3-6).
“The plan is for that to happen this week,” Decker stated. “So many small businesses, many in our region, are dependent on horse shows for their livelihood. We are committed to keeping this commitment to the competitors, the trainers, the farriers, the grooms, local hosts, all of those who depend on this industry for their wellbeing. That doesn’t mean that we will stop supporting recovery efforts. We can do both and will.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Devastation In The Mountains
About 45 minutes north of Tryon, the artsy mountain city of Asheville, North Carolina, made headlines as its shops, galleries and restaurants were underwater, with residents unable to leave home due to downed trees and power lines. But the devastation reached far into rural communities, where people have had to be airlifted out because roads are impassable or destroyed. With phones out of service, people from outside areas can’t reach family members, and—like Roth—those stuck in the middle of the affected area often have no way of knowing what is going on around them.
At the Biltmore Equestrian Center in Asheville, located on the grounds of the historic Biltmore Estate along the French Broad River, the flood waters rose rapidly. With communications limited, Elizabeth McLean, who works at the equestrian center, sheltered in place at the facilities with other members of their staff to care for the horses that live there. She published a message to the Biltmore Equestrian Center Facebook page to reassure the owners of horses boarded at the stables: “All horses are perfectly fine after Hurricane Helene rolled through. We have significant flooding and like everywhere in Asheville, have no power or water. Horses are being watered from the nearby creek.”
They were fortunate.
One particular horse on social media, in Erwin, Tennessee, about an hour from Asheville, captured the attention of many: A mare named Bianca was separated from her owner, Halie Higgins, by flood waters when the Nolichucky River overflowed its banks and the water levels rose rapidly. The mare was stranded in rising water and last seen Friday seen on a widely shared video taking shelter against a building—the radio building for the ill-fated Unicoi Hospital—surrounded by fast-flowing water filled with debris. News outlets reported that more than 50 people had to be airlifted off the roof of the hospital because the waters were too dangerous for rescue boats to reach them.
The mare has not been seen since then, though Higgins said via her social media account that offers to help her have translated to an influx of hay, grain and other supplies to the town of Erwin—so many that the problem now is distributing them, especially given the lack of power and cell service.
In Buncombe County alone, home to Asheville, more than 1,000 people had been reported missing through the county’s online portal as of Monday morning, according to media reports. Gov. Roy Cooper has activated hundreds of North Carolina National Guard personnel, who are being assisted by search and rescue teams from as far away as Colorado and New Hampshire. As of Monday afternoon, crews had rescued more than 500 people and 64 animals, according to a press release from the governor’s office.
Officials: Donate Money, But Please Stay Out
While multiple efforts are afoot within the horse community to send feed and supplies to horse owners affected by the storm, distributing those supplies is challenging given the lack of communication services and impassable road conditions.
For people like Wright, airdrops are the only way to deliver hay to her stranded herd.
Officials in Tennessee and North Carolina have asked people to avoid traveling to the disaster-hit parts of their states and instead consider financial donations.
“In this moment, people showing up is not helpful unless they’re being asked for, or they’re affiliated with a volunteer organization that is part of this fight to get services restored.”
Patrick Sheehan, Tennessee Emergency Management Agency director
“Travel remains dangerous, more than 400 roads remain closed” in North Carolina, according to Cooper’s Monday statement. “[The North Carolina Department of Transportation] is asking people to refrain from unnecessary travel to or in Western North Carolina. The focus is on restoring primary roads and access to communities that have been isolated by damage. First responders also want to keep the roads as clear as possible to help ensure they may carry out all response missions.”
“In this moment, people showing up is not helpful unless they’re being asked for, or they’re affiliated with a volunteer organization that is part of this fight to get services restored,” Tennessee Emergency Management Agency Director Patrick Sheehan told the Knoxville News Sentinel.
In lieu of delivering physical supplies to the state, officials are encouraging those who want to help people affected by the disaster to donate financially. Among the reputable places to donate are:
• North Carolina Hurricane Disaster Relief Fund
• Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina
• Fleet of Angels, which provides emergency grants for hay, veterinary care and other critical needs for individual horse owners and small rescue organizations.
Justine Griffin and Melissa Wright contributed to this report.
