Even if you feel fully prepared
for an emergency like a wildfire, or a hurricane,
there may still be aspects you haven't considered.
In this episode, Judy Davis joins us
to share her experience navigating Hurricane Helene,
and its aftermath with vision loss.
I am Ricky Enger, and this is "Hadley Presents."
Welcome to the show, Judy.
Thank you. I'm glad to be back.
Yes. It is so good to have you.
We've had a great time together on this show.
We've talked about support groups,
we've talked about audio description,
and today we're going to talk
about something a little more serious,
but I'm really looking forward to it,
I think it's going to be very informative.
So, before we jump in,
why don't you just give us a brief little intro
for those who maybe haven't heard the other shows
that you've been on.
Sure. Of course.
I have retinitis pigmentosa.
I lost vision fairly quickly.
So, no useful vision, and I live alone.
So, that can be more challenging at times.
And I have no local family,
but I have a great group of friends
who really pitch in along with neighbors
to help me do things I might need help with.
And then I live with my retired guide dog, who is 11,
and then I have an active guide dog, who is five.
So, I do have family in my home.
They're just the four-footed kind.
Yes. (Judy laughing)
So, we did a podcast on disaster preparedness,
and just going through some general things
that you might think about with vision loss
that are in addition to those typical things
that we do to prepare for an emergency,
or a disaster, or whatever.
And it was such an odd thing,
because we recorded that episode,
and a week later, Hurricane Helene hit,
and then as we were about to release that episode,
another hurricane hit Florida.
So, it was really quite the summer.
But you were in Helene,
and thought we'd give you a little time
before we recorded sort of an aftermath kind of thing
you know, what kinds of things did you learn?
Because what we went through was very practical
and very general, and I think it's very useful information,
but it helps so much to hear
from someone who's been through it.
So I'm kind of curious,
before Helene hit,
how well would you say you were prepared
for a hurricane or really anything, I guess?
I feel like I was somewhat prepared
because I think Asheville,
which is in Western North Carolina,
which is where I live,
it's an older city.
So occasionally it has some water outages,
but we're just talking for like part of a day.
So I had on hand like two gallons of water
and then probably a flat of water besides that.
And I had low-maintenance food,
you know, I had nuts, I had dried fruits,
I had cereal, I had apples.
So I felt like I had a lot of food and water supplies.
And then a friend gave me a power bank a couple years ago.
So I had that.
So I had certain things
that made me feel like I was reasonably prepared for things.
But you never know what you're getting into
until the disaster actually arrives.
Yes.
And were you expecting a hurricane where you are?
'Cause a lot of things that we talk about is get to know
where you are and what sort of disasters might happen.
You know, if you're in the Texas panhandle,
you could be prepared for tornadoes and that kind of thing.
Yeah, that's a really good point.
So one thing I wanna mention is
this happened in Western North Carolina,
so we are probably 400 some miles from the ocean.
So it's not like they evacuate us on a regular basis
because we're not close to the ocean.
And where I live,
I'm like 50 miles from Tennessee.
So I just want people to understand
that it's not like we're at a high-risk area.
Yeah.
So you were in this area where it was not reasonable
to expect a hurricane,
but you had a little bit of warning,
like, they're telling you to get some food
and get some water.
And so from that perspective,
you probably went into this thinking,
"Oh, it'll be a day or two of power loss
"and then we'll be okay."
Is that about right?
Yes, and exactly that's what, you know, we were told,
you know, prepare for three days of chaos,
but it was gonna be minimal.
Yeah.
And so this was a surprise to everyone
and certainly for the people living there going through it.
And as it happened, you know, you get through
what you think is the worst of it,
where finally, the winds die down for the last time
and things are much quieter.
And one thing I always think about
with this sort of thing is now it's time to investigate,
but I don't wanna go running toward the danger,
you know, I wanna do that safely.
So for you, you mentioned you've got two dogs
and dogs gotta go outside at some point.
So when it was time to get out
and let them do what they needed to do,
how did you approach that,
making sure that you were gonna be able to do it safely?
Yeah, the night before the temperature was good.
So I had my windows open,
so, you know, all night I was listening to things falling
and that is scary.
And then my power went out like at 3:45
on that September 27th in the morning.
And you know, I got up like at seven
and it was still raining really, really heavily.
And I still had connections with my cell phone.
And so I FaceTimed my daughter who lives in Charleston,
and I tried to get her
to tell me what was happening outside,
just so I would have a feel what I was getting into,
not just that I knew it was pouring,
but it was just raining so hard.
She couldn't help.
So it's like, okay,
it's like you said, dogs have to go out.
So we went out in the pouring rain.
I do not have a fenced-in backyard.
And you know, I took them out with my cane one at a time
and I got drenched.
I stayed close to my front door
because I had no idea
what was happening further out in the parking lot.
So that was my first experience.
And then around, you know, midday,
the rain had slowed down and almost stopped.
You know, at this point I had no connection with anything.
It's like, I don't know if there's still an eye
to this hurricane storm
so that I need to take them out now or what.
So I took one of them out
and conveniently my neighbor who lives right next door,
it's a duplex, he came out at the same time.
And so I asked him, I was like, "What do you see?
"What's happening?"
He said, "Well, there's a lot of trees just down,
"not on any of the buildings
"that are part of my apartment complex."
And then we walked up to the street
and it really felt like that disaster movie thing
where people are coming out
and just aghast at what they saw and things.
And they wanted to check on each other.
And I asked my neighbor,
I said, "Look, can we walk up to the street
"to see, you know, what happened to our street?"
And he said, "Oh, there's, you know, two or three trees down
"across the street
"and everybody was just checking in with each other,"
which was just a beautiful thing.
Absolutely.
And if you didn't have the dogs,
so if it was just you
and you didn't have to venture out,
how long do you think it would've taken you
to decide to step out and have that chat with the neighbors
and kind of be among the community?
Would you have stayed inside
or would you have gone out still?
I probably would've waited a little longer.
'Cause like I said, I didn't know if we were on the lull
of, there was gonna be another ring coming through again.
But I probably would've gone out shortly.
'Cause I'm a huge get-out-and-go person
as far as walking in my neighborhood.
It's good for my mental health.
I love connecting with people
and just having that experience in your environment.
So I probably would've gone out maybe not quite that soon,
but fairly soon. Yeah, yeah.
And you know, you talk about going out
and walking in your neighborhood,
that was a routine that you had that you no doubt missed.
But really nothing was routine for a long, long time.
But you still had to figure out what was going on.
So figuring out where is a safe place to get water,
where are supplies available,
what's generally happening in the community,
what kinds of tools did you use
to kind of keep up with what was going on?
Because you know, cell connection is spotty,
all that stuff.
Oh my gosh.
Not just spotty, just basically not there.
Yeah, I mean, I think with my text
I had like a 95% failure rate.
I mean, you couldn't get a text out
because cell towers were down.
But luckily the neighbors were really communicative
about what they saw.
And then also, I remember that I had an emergency radio
that I'd never used.
So one of the times I crossed paths with a neighbor,
I said, "Look, I had this emergency radio
"if you all could figure out how to work it."
And it was the hand-crank ones.
And so we learned pretty quickly
that the county was doing community briefings twice a day.
And as a group, we got together
and listened to that for the first couple days
as people found out how they could connect on their own.
And it was just, again,
nice to check in with my neighbors
and have that community sharing of how everybody was doing,
what people needed, those kind of things.
So that emergency radio was just key.
Right, right.
But in that respect,
I guess getting the info was pretty accessible.
So it's not like sometimes now
where if you are figuring out things,
they're showing it on TV
and there's a call the number on the bottom of your screen,
or there's something scrolling past.
But this seems like because it was audible,
it was accessible for you.
So I know that I am a huge technology person
and you at least to some degree rely on it.
You use it as a tool in your daily life,
but in this instance it's so integral,
but suddenly it's missing
either because that connection is spotty
or you have to conserve power or whatever the reason
may be a tool that you are accustomed to using
wasn't there anymore.
So were there some things that you used
and were happy to have
that weren't your traditional tech stuff?
Yes, that's a really good point.
'Cause I did have all my devices charged,
but you just don't know
when you're gonna have that option to use them.
So you start rationing, you know,
you're talking book player,
you ration your computer,
you ration your phone.
So two things that were very valuable to me
is I still had a talking clock
that I keep on my bed with me.
And then braille.
Braille was just a lifesaver for me.
I'm one of those people that can't read a book in braille.
But for self communication, it was just wonderful
because I could no longer walk into my kitchen
and say, you know, "Alexa,
"put this on my to-do list" Right.
or, "put this on my shopping list."
You know, so I had to have some other way to do things.
It was really great.
You know, I had a couple of my neighbor's phone numbers,
but I didn't have everybody's.
So as things got connected,
I wrote down people's cell phone numbers in braille
so that I could not slow them down
while I've added them to my contacts and stuff.
Right. Yeah.
And then, you know, a list of things to do
and phone numbers for resources and things like that.
Because as I mentioned, I lost power on September 27th
and I did not get it back until the night of October 9th.
So I did have friends or neighbors
that would take my book player to get charged
to somebody's home that had a generator.
And you know, it was just that loss.
But braille and my talking clock really got me through this.
And was there any tool that now that you're looking back,
you're like, "Oh, I wish I had had that
"and I will have it from now on."
One thing I wish I had,
I think I would like some kind of solar power generator
so I could have charged my talking book player.
You know, you don't realize,
my days are walking with my dogs, listening to my books,
doing things on my computer, talking with friends.
And none of that was easily done.
Yeah.
All of that was affected.
So one of the biggest,
I suppose a silver lining to any cloud is
community tends to come together at times like this.
It's a shared experience
and you have all gone through the same thing
and there's this sense of comradery, I guess.
You've mentioned several things throughout this,
your neighbors would help you charge your book player,
you walked with them to the street right after the disaster
to see what had happened.
And you would all come together and listen to the briefings
and just so much of that togetherness.
So it does feel like you were all helping each other
in a way.
Was there something in particular
where, you know, your neighbors helped you
and then a way that you were able to give back as well?
Yeah, a couple ways
that I gave back is there was one person
that ended up having a family come stay with her
and they had small children.
And small children needs to be entertained.
And when you don't have electricity,
that makes it difficult.
So I had some old large-print calendars
that I kept for my grandchildren to use for coloring on.
So I gave them that.
And then I'd also found some chalk
when I'd done some tidying up before Helene.
And then I also offered them some toys.
And then that first day
when I could kind of get connected with my daughter,
I let one of the neighbors try to use my phone
to try to call some of her family,
'cause that's, you know, what we all needed to do.
We wanna tell people we were okay.
Yeah.
One thing that happened is
there was a big pile of debris on the street
where a tree had come down and taken down power lines
and taken down a transformer.
And because of that blockage on a main street,
everybody was driving on our quiet little street.
And so, you know, I am very confident walking with my dogs
on my quiet little street.
But once it got flooded with traffic,
it's like, "Okay, Judy, you hear one car,
"there's probably gonna be three or four more behind it."
So I knew I couldn't count on drivers being attentive.
So I actually asked one of my neighbors, "Hey,
"can you use this?"
And I gave them one of my big, thick markers
that I used to be able to see with.
I said, "Can you please create signs
"that say 'blind pedestrian, drive slowly.'"
And so the neighborhood really took that to heart.
So not only were those signs created,
but another neighbor had tape that said, "Attention please."
So that was taped above these signs.
And so that made me feel safer when I was out walking.
You know, like I said, they just care, you know?
And I care, you know.
So that really did help.
And another thing that was really great,
my daughter in Charleston was very willing
to come up and get me.
And it's like, oh, but we all know
as people with vision loss,
we are so much more independent in our home.
And I didn't wanna leave because I could manage things here.
So it's like, okay, if I go to Charleston,
I'm gonna be in a place where I'm not very comfortable,
cannot be very independent.
It has an open floor plan,
it's a four-story town home, no sidewalks.
And just a lot of difficulties of what to do.
But as the lack of water continued
it's like, "Okay,
"I just need to think about gonna Charleston
"for a couple weeks."
My daughter had been getting donations
from friends and family members
'cause they knew she would eventually be coming
to the Asheville area.
And two people in that support group
that I helped run do not live in the Asheville area.
So they had been trying to reach out
to the support group people to say, "How are you doing?
"Are you okay?
"What do you need and what do you want?"
And so the plan was my daughter was gonna bring supplies
from Charleston through those donations
of money that she'd gotten.
And so when she came to Asheville, she brought supplies
and she and I delivered the supplies
to the people that we've been able to reach.
And it was so sweet
because those two people, Tara and Mark,
that do not live in North Carolina,
they checked in with people
and they would get things that the people would like
because they needed them.
But it's like, "Okay, but what do you want?"
And one person in our support group has said,
"If I could just have some yarn so I could crochet
"while I'm stuck in this challenging world."
And another person said,
"Oh, if I could just have some Reese's Peanut butter cups,
"my world would be brighter."
And so what was happening in the community,
like somebody brought me a box of canned items,
which was really sweet.
But as people with vision loss,
it's like, "Okay, what's this can of?
"What's this a can of?"
And you know, they said, "Okay,
"there's a bag of beans in here."
It's like, "Well, I already have beans."
"Well, just take it."
But you're just adding more chaos to my chaotic life.
And it happened to a couple other people in the group
where they kept getting all these supplies.
You know, one person's table was full of stuff
that she couldn't identify.
And so the fact that my daughter was able to bring things
that people specifically asked for made a difference.
And this is actually such a good point though,
because when a disaster like this happens
to some degree, maybe feel like you are at the mercy
of what other people choose to do.
So some of the ways that you generally get things done,
maybe that's Instacart
or you know, getting things delivered as you shop online
or going to the grocery store
and knowing that there will be someone there
to walk with you and help you pick out things.
Those things maybe go out the window.
So just having that moment where people are willing
to say, "What do you need?
"What do you want?
"What's gonna help in a way that doesn't add
"to what you're already dealing with?"
That had to help so much.
Yeah. Yeah.
You know, and that was the neat thing about the community.
And I think other places that have disasters find that too.
You know, that Flush Brigade was great.
And there was another way that volunteers would go
to a certain place in downtown Asheville
and get like assignments of places to go and everything.
And it was just really, really sweet
about how many people jumped in to help,
you know, and other people just chose to leave
because, you know, no water, no electricity,
you know, if people can easily leave, then they go,
That probably makes the most sense, right?
If they can, why not?
So I do think that you can make something like this,
a learning opportunity.
You're bound to discover some things
just by facing that challenge
that you didn't know about yourself
or you didn't know about the people around you.
Were there things that you found out from going through this
that you were really surprised by or didn't expect?
You know, I am naturally an organized and detailed person,
and usually, I kind of go with the flow,
you know, it's like, "Okay, I can get through this.
"It's gonna be okay."
You know, I don't panic, things like that.
But when you lose your comfort places,
you know, the ability to go out for walks,
the ability to listen to books,
it's just a hard hit on your mental health.
And trying to find substitutes was tricky.
Yeah. Yeah.
And you know, like I said,
what can you replace them with?
You know, because I enjoy cleaning,
you know, 'cause I'm listing my books
and so it's not a big deal.
But when I can't listen to my books
and I can't really clean,
then that's a challenge.
Yes.
And you know, just that disruption of scheduling.
Yeah. And those are things you don't really think about.
Because what we always hear is,
"Make sure you have supplies,
"make sure you have food and water and contact info
"and your meds are okay,"
but you don't often hear someone say,
"Plan for some disruptions to your routine,
"and are there alternatives
"that you can occupy yourself if this goes on for a while?"
So it's a really good point.
And the other thing that surprised me,
'cause again, I feel like one of those people
that usually let things go,
it's like, "Okay, I got through that.
"I'm okay."
But myself and other people
in our support group have talked
about how now we are more nervous.
Once we hear that the wind speed is going up
and we know there's a lot of trees that are down
and trees that should be coming down,
you know, the storm has made them vulnerable
to any kind of wind that might come.
And so it's like, okay, that.
And then like recently, we were supposed to have some snow
and they said, "Make sure your devices are charged.
"Make sure you have water for three days.
"Make sure you have food for three days."
It's like, "Oh my gosh."
And I didn't realize how I would have these flashbacks
of, okay, there's this.
So I didn't expect that to happen.
And another thing,
I feel like I'm usually a pretty good advocate for myself,
but it's just hard in,
you know, and I know that that's something you talked about
in the previous episodes.
You know, you have to be prepared for that.
But it's hard, especially when you don't know.
And so just learning that,
and I think FEMA tries hard,
but again, with people with disabilities,
I don't think they actually get it
because I talked to them initially
because they said, even if you didn't have any damage,
you should contact them.
So I contacted them and then I got a denial.
It's like, okay.
Well, then I contacted them again
to see if they would help
with, you know, where I was staying and things.
And even though I explained to them, "Look,
"I have a vision loss.
"I can't go stay at a hotel
"unless you're gonna send somebody with me
"to show me, you know, how to navigate
"and get food and things like that."
I got a prerecorded message saying,
"You've been approved for, you know, staying at a hotel."
Like, okay,
well, 'cause they made it sound
like they were gonna make some kind of accommodation.
You know, I didn't know
if they were gonna pay for travel to Charleston,
you know, just for gas or something.
But anyway, I think they need to be made more aware.
And so that's something I need to do as well.
Yeah, and they are assuming
that it's a cookie cutter situation
where everyone needs the same thing,
but you have to figure out how to ask for what you need.
Yeah, exactly.
And then there was another situation
that I tried not to advocate for myself
for the longest time,
because just again, to have a feel
for what happened in my community
is that there was 10.5 million cubic yards of debris
from Helene in my county.
And to visualize that,
one of the things we heard at the community briefing was
to picture a football field without the end zones
and debris would go about a mile up into the air,
up into the sky. Yikes.
There was three piles of debris.
There was a pile of like wires,
and then there was two piles of trees and things like that.
So they finally moved that first debris pile,
so I could walk to the first sidewalk and 20 more steps,
and then I'd have to turn around turn
because the debris was taller than I was.
And walking on the yard side,
you know, I couldn't get around it that way.
And walking in the street would've meant
that traffic would've not been able to see me
until I stepped into the street.
So I was told by several friends,
like, "No, don't even try that."
So I had to do these endless loops in my neighborhood,
which got tedious. No doubt.
And I kept thinking,
it's like I could call the pedestrian safety people
and say, Hey, "could you get this debris piled?"
But they kept saying, "Be patient, be patient."
'Cause again, 10.5 million cubic yards of debris.
And so it was actually kind of sweet.
I went to Guiding Eyes for the Blind,
and they call it Dog Day,
the first day you meet your new guide dog.
So on January 18th, 2025,
I always think, "Oh, I wanna email his puppy raisers"
and just say, "Hey, this is what's been happening,
"you know, we're doing okay."
That kind of thing.
And so we walked to that first driveway on that sidewalk,
and then we walked her 20 steps
and my dog did not turn around.
It's like, "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh,
"we can keep going." Hey.
And we walked on the side street that has a cul-de-sac.
And then I kept walking and texting people
and I was just so excited and so thrilled.
And then I turned around and came back
and I got back to that block where the debris pile was.
And we were walking along
and all of a sudden we brushed up against something.
It's like, "Oh,
"did they put up like a temporary retaining wall
"or something?"
And it's like, I reached out
and they had just cut the trees off the sidewalk.
So what I was touching were trees that had come down.
Oh, wow.
And it just broke my heart
because for people who haven't had vision for a while,
we can't visualize these kind of disasters.
So for me, encountering these trees,
it just reminded me of how many trees we lost.
I mean, it's just,
you know, Western North Carolina,
we're known for our mountains,
we're known for our nature.
I mean, it's just such a lovely area
and trees are just so important to me.
And just hearing about all these trees
and then finally touching these trees.
Yeah, that really brings it home.
Because you're right,
you can't watch what's happening on the news.
You don't get those visual images.
And so hearing about it is one thing
and then encountering that in your environment.
Yeah, and that was one thing I asked my daughter
when we were coming back from Charleston.
I said, "Would you please tell me what you see?"
And she said, "Okay, there's some trees down,
"you know, on the side of the road."
And then she said, "There's trees down now
"that have crushed the metal railings alongside the road."
And then she said, "Oh, you know, there's trees
"that have been cut so that the road is open again.
"You know, this is highway."
And so trying to find that reality,
you know, and then the loss of lives,
you know, they know that a hundred some people died
in Western North Carolina.
And I am so afraid that as the year progresses,
that more bodies are gonna be found
because there was just so much flooding and wind
and, you know, just who knows?
I mean, it's just a hard picture to visualize.
Yeah, for sure.
So as we are bringing this to a close,
we've talked about a lot of stuff,
and in that first episode we had some steps
for disaster preparedness with vision loss.
And now that you've gone through it,
I know you've learned a lot,
are there points that were covered in that,
that maybe you would reiterate
or things that you would definitely add
or anything really that you would leave people with
who are listening that we haven't covered already?
Yeah, there's some things
that I think were just right on with that podcast.
And then other things I would suggest.
You know, that emergency management person,
you know, reaching out to them before the disaster happens,
just because it needs to be a two-way street.
They need to know how some of us didn't get what we needed.
Yeah.
And we need to know what we could have done differently
to get the things we needed.
Again, I had that emergency weather radio
and it was very blind-friendly.
Just be prepared that your smartphone may not work.
I mean, that was one of the things,
you know, it's like we all depend on our smartphone now,
but you know, if the cell towers come down,
they're not gonna be there for us.
Yeah.
Another thing that I think is key,
you know, you always hear about the go bag,
but I think you also need to have,
I call it now a stay shelf or a stay box or something.
And you know, it would be the water and the food
and the batteries that you all talked about,
having in the go bag.
But then it might also be, you know, the paper products.
Because again, we didn't have water, you know,
we were stacking up dishes and things like that.
So having paper products made a difference.
And to add to that,
you know, you all mentioned having a contact list,
and that is great.
Two things that kind of was a challenge for me is
I tend to give people my landline number.
I still use my landline number more than I use my cell phone
for personal calls.
So not everybody had my cell phone number.
And that was the case for other people in the support group.
And like, oh, this was really sweet.
The Talking Books library director found a person
who had my cell number.
So the Talking Books library director in Raleigh called
to say, "What's going on?
"What can the library do?" Wow.
So making sure
that people have your cell phone number is key
if you are like me and still have both.
The other thing that was challenging is that,
of course, my family members knew how to reach me
if they could, because of the cell towers being down.
But also I wanted people to know,
like, I have friends like you and Marc Arneson at Hadley.
And so one of the times I was out
and I was able to get ahold of my daughter.
It's like, "Would you please let Marc know
Let them know. that I'm okay.
And again, it's just,
I was regularly brailling out people's phone numbers
or brailling out people's email addresses
so that I could ask my daughter to reach out to these people
that were, I'm sure, concerned about me,
including like the puppy raisers for my dogs.
Another thing, leave a message
on your voicemail on your cell phone,
so that if people do try to reach you,
put a message that says, "I'm okay."
So that if they cannot get through to you,
if they can get through to your voicemail,
they know that you're okay.
Yeah, 'cause you've had that opportunity
to record it after things happened.
And that's a really good point.
So again, there's small things,
but being ahead of the game
before the storm hits is a good thing.
Absolutely. Yeah.
And that way when something does happen,
at least you've done all the things within your control
while you had that opportunity.
Yeah, and one more thing I wanna add.
I still remember the first phone call on my phone,
on my cell phone that I got when I was in my home.
It was just like a miracle, you know,
because again, I'd been, you know, struggling
trying to connect with people.
And finally my cell phone rang within my home,
and it was my daughter and my grandson.
And I just stood very still
and talked to them in my home.
Like, don't move Yeah, exactly.
so that you don't push the signal.
But yes, I mean, it was a life-changing experience
and yeah, it's scary.
Yeah, no doubt.
But you did come through it for which we are all so grateful
and I'm so glad that you could share this with us
because if someone else is in a similar situation,
that wisdom can really be helpful.
And much as we would like to say,
"Yeah, I wish that had not happened."
It has and you learned a lot.
And now thanks to that, so have we.
Thank you so much, Judy,
for sharing this with us
and just spending a little time
kind of going through those little details
that we don't really think about.
Yeah, and there are so many little details.
I mean, you just never know what all is gonna be involved.
Absolutely.
Well, thanks so much, Judy.
We so appreciate it.
And thank you all for listening.
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