I am continuing with my experience surviving Helene in Asheville, NC. I didn't think there was anything I could have done to help the businesses in my town that were destroyed - some to the foundation - except try to minimize their financial losses in advance. I didn't have a concrete example. Then I got one...
It was a New York Times reel where they were accompanying business owners from the River Arts District, which lost almost all of their businesses when the French Broad River flooded, on their first impression back. The owners prepped by moving materials to higher ground within their buildings. They thought they prepared - willing to accept there would be some damage, but salvaging a lot of their inventory and valuables.
"They didn't tell us it would flood more than 10 feet!"
I thought two things: who didn't and why didn't you/they know it would?
The who: were they relying on local government officials to tell them? That was a mistake. I've pointed out multiple failures of the local government pre-disaster. They didn't order evacuations of the Biltmore Village area next to the Swannanoa River until after it was already flooded, making evacuation impossible. Who else was supposed to let them know? A business continuity expert.
The why not: business owners are generally too busy to handle everything, especially if they haven't been trained to know what to look for or where those resources are. I was shocked they didn't know because I knew it was going to flood to 1916 levels or worse (20 feet) versus the more recent-in-memory flood of 2004 (10 feet). I was paying very close attention to weather reports and what weather experts were saying specifically about Asheville due to the preceding and unrelated weather event that was occuring in the 36 hours before Helene came through the area. It was going to be "unprecedented." This information was being predicted at least a day in advance - when Helene strengthened to a Cat 4 (she was only supposed to be a Cat 3) and the inches of rain had already fallen in the mountains.
Why didn't the "they" who told them 10-feet-but-not-more know it would be more than 10 feet?
My "they" were right. We're not part of the same secret squirrel society; it's all publicly available information. You just need to know where to look.
As I stood viewing the river up to roofs of buildings from a high point at 2pm on the 27th, I said to someone, "The river hasn't even crested yet. It won't until tomorrow. This is going up at least 10 more feet." Did I use a crystal ball? No, I paid attention to what experts were saying.
I would have told those business owners to not waste time on the building - it will be gone. Focus 100% of efforts on getting inventory out to higher ground so they can continue their review stream or start over again with something instead of nothing. Also to make sure if they were going to store these things home, home wasn't going to flood, too.
I saw MANNA Food Bank - located in a low lying area next to the Swannanoa River - pre-positioned their trucks about a half mile away on much higher ground in my gym's parking lot by the early morning on the 26th. Their building has severe damage but the trucks were fine. Unfortunately, they didn't load non perishable food on those trucks.
There was time to do something - to put all of the business owners in a better position to avoid complete loss. They just didn't know who they should be listening to.

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