Only the nearby pallets of bottled water and stacks of diapers let on this is an emergency setup.
Across the street is the West Asheville branch of the fire department.
In the days following the storm, water began to arrive from the outside world.
A free food truck set up by Amanda Krause and her husband Dave Anderson as part of their nonprofit group Grassroots Aid Partnership.Jessica Wakeman
The city established distribution centers at the main park downtown and Asheville Middle School.
But NO GAS signs are a common sight.
And not everyone owns a vehicle, anyway.
In the aftermath of Helene, some residents have decamped to Atlanta, Greenville, Raleigh, Winston-Salem.
Those whove stayed behind have stepped up to provide community-basedmutual aid.
Patterson is also a native of the area which can feel like a rarity in Asheville these days.
Its the same as somebody plowing your driveway or bringing you a casserole.
Now theyre serving the needs of their own community.Related ContentThe Environment Is Under Attack.
And they were like What can we do with this?
We got it for a really good deal!
Its got an onboard generator, A/C, heat.
Now, its powering the walk-in coolers with Mother Earth Foods rescued meat, dairy and produce.
This is a really good town to say Hey, theres a disaster lets deploy, Krause says.
So on Saturday, staff began to distribute water from their tank to anyone who brought empty containers.
By early Sunday, it had all been taken.
Its been packaged in bright cans meaning clean, empty beer cans at breweries in Charlotte and driven up.
New shipments of canned water are arriving daily to fan out through the city.
We generally run as a community hub that tries to help when we can, Gonzales says.
Oftentimes [thats] through donations but obviously in more physical ways when possible.
He anticipated that he would feel more acute grief once he has the bandwidth to grapple with the devastation.
The volunteers Patterson is working with are in it for the long-haul.
Neighbors who are helping neighbors are the first people in and the last people out, he says.
Sarah Brown and Sophie Mullinax are neighbors on Riverside Drive, a road at high elevation in West Asheville.
It has become a street where people congregate in hopes of cell service or 5G.
On Friday, the neighbors saw the bustle on their street and decided to revive the practice.
Each day, the neighbors set up two tents on the side of the road.
Some neighbors who decided to leave Asheville until the power and/or water were resurrected emptied their pantries before departure.
Asheville talks a lot about community, Brown continues.
Were meeting neighbors weve never met.
Were meeting folks that never would have stopped by and said hello otherwise.
Right now is not the time to process [whats happening], explains Gonzalez.
Now is the time for action.
Put your head down, do what you’re free to, help each other out.
And worry about everything else some other time.
