Asheville Residents Describe Escape From Flooded Apartments

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Lemuel Robinson, 32, was sleeping soundly Thursday night when he had a dream.

“It was a lady’s voice,” he recalled, “and she said, ‘Wake up and move your car up by Target, which is higher ground.’ And I didn’t.”

Instead, Robinson and the other residents of his apartment complex along the Swannanoa River near Target in Asheville watched the water rise on Friday, moving their cars to higher ground within the premises until there was nowhere else to move them. Then, they watched them all wash away.

The water flooded the first floor of the two-story building, which sits on stilts rising about 15 feet above the ground to guard against impacts from the nearby river. It’s located between two river gauges, one that crested at 46.8 feet and another that hit 22.8 feet. Normally, these gauges stay between 32.5 and 9 feet, respectively. Robinson said the water was about 20 feet high when he evacuated.

“There was a big propane tank to the left of us that burst and was spewing gas for an hour,” Robinson said. “We saw U-Haul trucks floating down, buildings tear apart, trees—old trees—everybody’s cars that were parked, gone, floated away.”

Across Western North Carolina, homes, roads, and downtowns were destroyed after many areas received more than two dozen inches of rain in a three-day period. The region continues to face widespread cell, power, and water outages, and the death toll keeps rising.

Lemuel Robinson, his puppy Lulu, and Jordan Davis sit outside the evacuation shelter at the WNC Agricultural Center in Fletcher. (Photo by Holly Kays)

“We called the fire department, multiple people,” said Jordan Davis, 31, who lives in the same Asheville apartment complex as Robinson. “They just told us that the fire department was really tied up and they could get to us as quick as they could.”

The building’s residents, some of them people who had barely spoken to each other before the storm, faced the crisis together. Both Davis and Robinson expressed gratitude to a man named Evan Haag, who lives on the top floor and allowed all the first-floor residents to bring their personal belongings into his apartment. By Friday afternoon, the neighbors were wondering whether they would be forced to climb on the roof, or worse, swim in the dirty water.

Finally, at 2 p.m., rescuers arrived by boat to evacuate residents.

Robinson, who is originally from Jamaica by way of New York, had only moved into the building two months ago. Georgia native Davis had been there for five years. Both were living on the first floor. When the flood hit, Robinson was just starting to get on his feet after his move down from New York. His church had gifted him a car, and his job at a car wash allowed him to support himself and his three-month-old dog, Lulu.

“The only thing I have is Lulu, Jordan, Evan, and anybody else that I met that’s now kind of family here,” said Robinson. “No clothes, no shoes, only these shoes on my feet, the underwear under my shorts, this shirt, two bags up there with whatever other little things I could grab.”

“Everybody’s cars that were parked, gone, floated away.”
Lemuel Robinson

Even for Robinson, who has weathered many storms in his life, the situation is dire.

“I’m from a tropical country where hurricanes happen all the time,” he said. “This is new for other people. This is not new for me. But what is new for me is I’ve never had heightened fear like that, watching the water rising, and having people tell you to climb to the roof, or swim in the water, where the propane is and the trees and electrical cords and buildings and cars. That was next level for me.”

Neither Robinson nor Davis is quite sure what’s next. They both said they’re grateful to be still employed, Robinson at the car wash and Davis at French Broad Food Co-Op and Amazon. Those jobs, and an abiding love for Asheville, are the reason they declined Haag’s offer of a ride to West Virginia, where he evacuated to be with his family. But as the floodwaters recede, Robinson and Davis are left without cars or a home. For now, they’re staying at an emergency shelter set up at the WNC Agricultural Center in Fletcher.

“Really, I’m just still trying to process all this,” said Davis.

It’s been a traumatic experience, but still, Robinson said, he’s grateful—to have escaped with his life, and to have found what he believes will be lifelong friends in the neighbors who weathered the storm with him.

“I lived to tell the tale, and I know that my comeback will be bigger than my setback,” he said, “so I’m not worried.”

Holly Kays was previously a reporter for The Smoky Mountain News. She is the author of two books, most recently Trailblazers and Traditionalists: Modern-day Smoky Mountain People, a collection of 33 pieces profiling the diverse people who call the Smoky Mountain region home.

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