Thousands in the Asheville, North Carolina, are still without running water in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. A team of specialists from D.C. Water headed to the area Monday morning to help crews restore water and sewage service.
Sarah Franzheim, an emergency planning coordinator with DC Water, is originally from the Asheville area.
“This is not like the hurricanes we really see on TV, where there’s some flooding and debris,” Franzheim said, describing the area where her friends and family are located. “This is like towns are gone, and some people have lost everything.”
She is part of a four-person team from the D.C. utility that will be deployed for 15 days. They were requested to help with getting the water system there back online. The team packed up their cars with supplies and equipment early Monday morning outside the Blue Plains Facility.
“We haven’t experienced a system outage to this degree, but we do have experience and preparation that we’re hoping to be able to lend to help either potentially shorten the timeline of customers getting back their water,” said Christopher Coit, the manager of distribution maintenance for DC Water’s operations department.
The damage to their system is believed to be substantial — specifically to a reservoir that supplies roughly 70% of the water to the area. Debris, mud and silt have disrupted that supply and “they’re not able to take into the treatment plant as normal,” Coit said.
“Beyond that, it’s the system integrity, making sure that all the major parts of the system are connected and such that it can be repressurized, disinfected and put back in service for the customers.”
Franzheim said it’s going to take “a lot of manpower, a lot of hours. It takes really all kinds of people, all kinds of brains and thinking and figuring out solutions.”
This is not the first time DC Water has helped restore utilities after hurricane damage. A similar team went to Florida after Hurricane Irma in 2017.
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