Jerry Cahill has been flushing toilets as a volunteer since his studio in Asheville’s River Arts District was destroyed by flooding from Helene’s remains.

Rolando Arrieta/NPR

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Rolando Arrieta/NPR

ASHEVILLE, NC – In a public housing complex, volunteers are knocking on apartment doors to offer help with an activity most of us take for granted.

They carry five-gallon buckets of water to flush the toilets of grateful residents like John Brown.

“I appreciate the fantastic work you do,” said Brown, who is visually impaired and uses a wheelchair.

More than two weeks after Helene, some of the most basic things are still difficult in Asheville. Drinking water in plastic bottles is everywhere, but it is difficult to find water to shower, flush your toilet, or even wash your hands.

“It’s important work, it needs to be done,” said Jerry Cahill, who has been a volunteer flushing toilets at the nonprofit BeLoved Asheville since his studio in the River Arts District was destroyed by flooding by Helene’s remains.

Asheville’s water system was severely damaged during the storm, busting major pipes connecting the reservoirs to the rest of the distribution system. There’s still no estimate on when service will be restored, although it’s likely a matter of weeks, not days.

The lack of running water is preventing schools and most restaurants from reopening as public health concerns grow. That’s why some citizens are taking matters into their own hands.

“An extreme health crisis is looming if we don’t flush these toilets,” said Elle DeBruhl, part of a volunteer group called Flush AVL that was formed to distribute so-called gray water from ponds and wells to communities that need it. . The water may not be clean enough to drink, but it is ideal for flushing toilets.

Elle DeBruhl is part of a volunteer group called Flush AVL that was founded after Helene to distribute so-called gray water from ponds and wells to communities that need it.

Joel Rose/NPR

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Joel Rose/NPR

“I don’t want to get sick. I don’t want my neighbors to get sick. I don’t want my community to see more destruction than what they have already seen,” DeBruhl said.

So far, Flush AVL has placed dozens of giant plastic containers at strategic locations throughout the city, each containing at least 250 liters of water. They hope to scale up in the coming days, DeBruhl said, to distribute hundreds of additional containers around Asheville.

“We are grateful for it. Water is worth a million here,” said Teresa Thomas, as she and her son filled plastic containers with gray water at the northwest Asheville apartment complex where they live.

Teresa Thomas (left) and her son David Murray fill plastic containers with gray water at the Asheville apartment complex where she lives.

Joel Rose/NPR

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Joel Rose/NPR

They are not the only ones here who are happy that there are flushing toilets again.

“If we hadn’t had this water when everything started happening, I would be busy unclogging toilets and stuff,” said Ronnie Marler, the maintenance man.

The city and county also provide gray water, at nearly a dozen emergency distribution locations. At Asheville Middle School, residents stop in their cars to fill buckets and bags with gray water from a silver tanker truck.

A large plastic container that can hold at least 250 liters of water for flushing toilets.

Rolando Arrieta

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Rolando Arrieta

“The hardest part is keeping my toilet flushed,” Loretta Smith said. “That’s the hardest part, I have relatives. It’s just not me, you know? So it cannot be the case that we all sit there like this.”

In the days after the storm, Asheville residents found all kinds of inventive ways to flush. Smith says she got help from a neighbor who has a small pond. Akila Parks says he used flood water from the storm.

“We had a flooded garage and we used the water from the garage to flush. So I see the blessings of the storm,” Parks said, “just surviving.”

A beat-up sedan pulls up to the distribution location and Jesus Citalan-Angeles steps out. Citalan-Angeles normally teaches seventh grade math at this school. Now he supplies flushing water to the families of some students.

“It’s probably the biggest thing. I mean, that’s the problem,” Citalan-Angeles said. “Some people don’t have access. Some people have access to creeks and pools, but there are areas that are not close to those things.”

Therefore, these makeshift water distribution systems will be critical until the taps are turned back on.