ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — More than three weeks after Helene, progress is being made to reopen the Blue Ridge Parkway, remove dangerous storm debris, and test the water within Asheville’s system to ensure its safety.
In Wednesday’s daily Buncombe County briefing, the City’s Water and Sanitation Departments, the City Manager, and the National Park Service all provided updates on the recovery.
For the first time, a spokesperson for the National Park Service was included in the briefing and announced that the first section of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina has re-opened. That section is near Blowing Rock and Grandfather Mountain and stretches from exits 285-305.
The National Park Service also said there is no timeline yet for when other sections of the parkway will reopen. The storm caused 30 landslides, ten of which were major and caused serious damage to the roadway.
Asheville City Manager Debra Campbell said two of the food and water distribution sites are closing: Fairview Elementary and Reynolds High School. Instead, a new site will be opened at Ingles, located at 225 Charlotte Highway.
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Campbell also mentioned that the city has now given out 1.26 million bottles of water since Helene.
She said the city has identified $4 million to hopefully use to help in the recovery process.
There was also an update on storm debris removal.
An official with the Public Works Department says the amount of storm debris in Asheville is the equivalent of 140 football fields stacked 10 feet high.
Three locations temporarily store the debris to be sorted, compacted, and shipped to the permanent disposal site.
The city is now looking for privately owned sites to use for temporary storage.
“Our debris monitors follow the collection trucks in the field to make sure there’s compliance with FEMA regulations, our debris sites are marked by surveyors to identify the required boundaries and setbacks, the sites are monitored several times a week by city staff to ensure operations are remaining within our DEQ permit guidelines,” said Jess Foster, Asheville’s Sanitation Division Manager.
Foster said toxic, hazardous waste will not be stored at sites, and random soil and water samples will be collected.
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There was also new information from Clay Chandler, Water Resources Spokesperson, on the city’s water system.
According to Chandler, testing is happening every day at 35 of the 184 sampling stations throughout the system.
He says there are some positive signs from that testing, including no signs of Ecoli since the storm.
“We issue that boil water notice because of the sediment that’s in the water; if you’ve used the water or run it anywhere in your home or business, you’ve noticed that it’s cloudy, it’s brown in some places, that is why we are under the boil water notice not an Ecoli positive hit,” said Chandler.
Chandler says some of the tests are done in-house and have immediate results, but others must be sent to labs and have a 7-10 day wait period for results.
Read More: Asheville’s water system shows no signs of E.coli, daily testing continues