Two Park City sisters, one who rode out the storm, the other who’s locally raising awareness about the need for disaster relief, are sharing their stories of survival.
Sisters Hannah and Mia Feinsilber were born and raised here in Summit Park before moving to Black Mountain, North Carolina, a small mountain town outside of Asheville.
Hannah is a grad student at Utah State University. She said she watched in horror as the scenes of destruction rolled out of western North Carolina.
“It's been really difficult seeing your family and everything you love and a lot that you grew up with that was very familiar, just kind of wiped away, and just seeing small mountain towns just be decimated and disappear,” she said.
Hannah said the hardest part was not being able to reach her family as she watched the news with fear and uncertainty.
“I've only had very limited communication with my family," she said. "Cell service is very spotty. They don't have power. They don't have water. They're not expected to have water for weeks.”
Hanah’s sister, Mia, is back in North Carolina. She weathered the storm inside her Black Mountain home. As the sun rose in the storm’s wake, Mia said she couldn’t believe the destruction.
“It was kind of horrifying. I mean, just in our neighborhood we had downed trees and power lines all over the road, and then we couldn't even get out if we wanted to. We were blocked in and that was scary,” Mia said. “There's a farm across the road from where we live and it just had turned into a ginormous river that just was flowing into the street. So it was quite shocking.”
The situation remains dire in and around Buncombe County where Mia and her family live. Hundreds of homes and scores of roads were damaged or destroyed.
Mia said the poor cell service and lack of reliable communication has compounded concerns.
“Oh, it's terrifying. When you talk to people around here, that's one of the big things that, like you don't know if other people are okay, and so my boyfriend and I, we hopped on bikes to go and make sure we could check on all of our people and make sure that they were okay,” she said.
Mia said she has power for now. But the storm surge has left much of the Black Mountain community without water. Those who do have it are under a boil order.
Federal relief and resources are starting to reach some of the hardest hit areas. Mia said this is the beginning of a long journey to rebuild and recover.
“We have lots of resources coming in, and it's been amazing to see that, but there's a lot of families that lost everything, and they will need help trying to recover,” she said.
Back here in Utah, Hannah is starting a donation drive through USU to collect supplies for communities needing long-term support.
Hannah said she and her sister are sharing their stories of survival to raise awareness about the need for disaster relief.
“Black Mountain is a mountain town like Park City and mountain towns got to help mountain towns, and if you can, please donate to local charities,” she said.
Information on how to contribute to disaster relief can be found on the following websites:
North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund
The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina Emergency and Disaster Response Fund
