Written by John Boyle, Asheville Watchdog.
Since Friday, Buncombe County has provided twice-daily updates on Hurricane Helene’s devastation. At the briefings, county officials clearly have taken the lead in disseminating information.
City of Asheville representatives have appeared sporadically.
On Saturday and Sunday, the first two days after the storm passed, no representative from the city of Asheville was present in three out of the four media briefings. Assistant City Manager Ben Woody and Police Chief Mike Lamb attended the Saturday afternoon briefing, with Woody describing the damage to the water system as severe and saying it would require extensive repairs. At that time, Woody had no details on the damage or how many customers were without water.
At that briefing, Buncombe County Manager Avril Pinder said, “As we assess the damage, this is looking to be Buncombe County’s own Katrina,” a reference to the devastating 2005 hurricane that caused extensive flooding, property damage and loss of life in New Orleans.
But city officials maintain that the cadence of their appearances is by design, and stated that the city will appear at the briefings held Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
The city took criticism during and after the 2022-2023 freeze-induced holiday season water outage that left some customers without tap water for 11 days. That event spawned an independent review committee and extensive report detailing shortcomings in communications and chastising some city figures for stepping out of their lanes too much for public updates and commentary.
Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer was one of those who took heat then, but she pushed back this week about the city being missing in action this time. Asheville is the region’s largest municipality, with a population pushing 100,000.
“I will say the water outage of 2022 was a terrible event for our community, but it was a wakeup call in the sense that we redid all of our emergency operation plans,” Manheimer said. “We since then have built and activated our emergency operation center on Broadway (Street) at the new fire station location, and we had already all received our training, so we understood what our roles are and what we’re supposed to do in the event of an emergency, whether you’re an elected official or city employee. And we’re all doing it.”
Manheimer said that the system now is set up with Buncombe County as the lead agency, and city officials all have designated roles. She and other officials, Manheimer said, “are being good soldiers, and we’re doing exactly what we’re supposed to do and what our assigned task is.
Whenever a natural disaster strikes, local governmental leaders are going to catch heat for the messages and updates they deliver publicly.
Five days into the response, some Asheville Watchdog readers have criticized the city’s sporadic presence.
“Why are the county and city not jointly hosting these calls?” one reader asked The Watchdog via email, referring to the Zoom meetings held daily at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. “There are 100,000 city residents who ALSO pay county taxes and need info.”
Another Watchdog reader, a West Asheville resident, messaged to say of city officials, “The city’s absence is deafening! It’s infuriating!”
At the Oct. 2 morning briefing, the county death toll stood at 57. The city’s water plant may be out of service for weeks, and property damage throughout the county is extensive.
“I will say this is a pretty major test,” Manheimer said, adding she’d be hard pressed to imagine an event worse than Helene. “So it’s a challenging moment, but everyone knows what they’re supposed to be doing, and they’re doing it, and that part of it is working very well.”
Manheimer said on the city side, Deputy Fire Chief Jeremy Knighton is the head of emergency operations, essentially the “commander in chief when it comes to our crisis response.” Everyone else “pulls in under him,” Manheimer said.
She added that City Manager Debra Campbell, who was criticized during the 2022 water outage for not being public-facing but praised in the after-action report for doing her job behind the scenes, has been at the Emergency Operations Center “the whole time.” Assistant City Managers Woody and Rachel Wood have been there as well, Manheimer said.
Campbell attended and spoke at the 4 p.m. Monday briefing. The Watchdog requested an interview with her but did not hear back before publication.
Asked at the 4 p.m. briefing Tuesday about the city’s structure for media briefings, Woody told The Watchdog he was there to answer questions about the water system, and didn’t answer the question about leadership. Later, after a Watchdog request for more information, the city responded via the “joint information center” regarding its communication strategy.
The city said local governments follow the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s framework for disaster response and recovery.
“Buncombe County government is responsible for leading and coordinating disaster response,” the city said, noting the city’s emergency operations center was activated Wednesday, Sept. 25, and that the city’s teams “have been working around the clock since that time to respond to the critical life safety needs of this community in coordination with Buncombe County Emergency Management, the State of North Carolina and FEMA.”
City Councilmember Maggie Ullman, asked where the city has been at the briefings, said, “The city has been doing search and rescue.
“The city has been clearing roads,” Ullman continued. “The city has been fixing water distribution. The city has been ordering water, coordinating water distribution, fixing our water lines. The city is everywhere.”
Asked about Campbell not being out front at press briefings, Ullman noted that’s not her role.
“We need the mayor on camera, and we need good information getting out to the public, and Debra’s doing her job backstage,” Ullman said.
The city said it is in constant communication with Buncombe County.
“The city is scheduled to provide briefings at those county conferences on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for the duration of the state of emergency,” the city said in a statement, adding that press conferences are important but not the only communication path.
“As I’m sure you’re aware, in the first 72 hours following the storm, many in our community were without access to communications of any kind,” the city said. “And while cell service is returning in some areas, we know that online methods of communication are still not the most effective or reliable.”
That’s why city employees have “been on the ground, going door to door offering printed flyers in English and Spanish where they can to bridge the gap in communications,” the city continued.
“We have been providing standing updates to 570 AM and Blue Ridge Public Radio, as well as WLOS, and have given dozens of interviews to news organizations across the globe in the hopes of sharing information and keeping the public informed.”
Manheimer said that as of Monday she stepped up her role doing interviews.
Simply put, Ullman said, it’s the county’s role to head these briefings and invite in partners to disseminate information.
“There are roles for cities and counties, and this is their functional role,” Ullman said. “Some of this is a matter, too, of how the chain of command goes from counties to state to federal, and so it would be duplicative and inappropriate for the city to host our own setup.”
The city had a presence at the Monday and Tuesday afternoon briefings.
At the 10 a.m. briefing on Tuesday, Buncombe County Manager Avril Pinder noted that Manheimer was at the briefing the day before, and the city’s water resources team “fully addressed the extent of the damage” at the North Fork Reservoir, the city’s primary drinking water resource.
The city has been clear in its communications about the water system, Pinder said, “and we have been working together.
“So I want to dispel any rumors that there’s any gaps in communication here,” Pinder said.
Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and surrounding communities. John Boyle has been covering western North Carolina since the 20th century. You can reach him at (828) 337-0941, or via email at [email protected]. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.