One month later: Upstate residents still cleaning up post-Helene, 'almost as bad as COVID'

When Christian Sailer moved to Greenville three years ago, he didn't anticipate experiencing "the worst natural disaster" he had ever faced — Tropical Storm Helene.

"I'm from Southern California. I was nine years old during the California Northridge earthquake in 1994. This was almost as bad as COVID for me," Sailer said. "COVID lasted two years. This lasted seven-and-a-half days where essentially our whole life was reduced to an ice chest."

For the past week, Sailer has been making trips to the Blackberry Valley Residential Waste and Recycling Center to drop off yard waste and storm debris from his front yard. In the days leading up to Helene, which devastated Greenville and the Upstate on Sept. 27, he decided to chop down one of his leaning trees as a precautionary measure.

"We noticed that if there was another hurricane, it could possibly fall on our cars or it could fall on our neighbor's home," Sailer said as he unloaded an abundance of tree branches and leaves from his truck Friday afternoon.

Four weeks post-storm, Greenville County has picked up around 195,000 cubic yards of debris, according to Greenville County spokesperson Bob Mihalic. The county started debris pick-up on Oct. 2 and plans to continue "well into November," he said.

There are three temporary sites where residents can drop off storm debris in Greenville County:

• 311 Anderson Ridge Road, Greer
• 517 Hipps Road, Simpsonville
• 409 Blackberry Road, Greenville

The debris does not go into the landfill after it is collected, Mihalic said.

"It is mulched and repurposed," he said. "Contractors are removing the mulch."

In Spartanburg County, crews have collected more than 120,000 cubic yards of debris, according to Spartanburg County spokesperson Scottie Kay Blackwell. Crews are currently averaging at least 5,000 cubic yards a day and additional debris is being brought to the landfill by citizens, he said.

Crews are working 12-hour-plus days, seven days a week, in every region of the county, Blackwell said. He anticipates that cleanup efforts will likely go into 2025.

Restocking after the storm

Due to the power outages caused by Helene, Sailer said he and his family could only cook food on a barbecue pit in their backyard for nearly eight days.

"I love barbecuing, but at the same time, I want to have scrambled eggs. I want to have a microwaveable meal," Sailer said. "Every day, it was like, 'We've got to go get some ice. We need to figure out what we're going to have for dinner because we have to start barbecuing before it gets dark.'"

On Sept. 30, officials said more than 6,650 distribution lines across the Upstate were damaged after the storm, and 425,000 homes and businesses were without power, according to a USA TODAY power outage tracker .

Although his family refrained from opening the refrigerator door when the power was out, Sailer said they eventually had to throw away all of their food. He applied for a $750 hurricane relief check from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but was denied because there was no damage to his home other than a small leak in the roof.

"We really just applied so we can get the $750 to refill our fridge and freezer," Sailer said. He plans to apply again because he believes there was an error in the application process.

Applying for federal disaster assistance

As of Oct. 19, the federal agency has approved more than $154 million in federal disaster assistance for more than 211,047 households in South Carolina recovering from Helene.

Federal disaster assistance includes serious needs assistance, which covers essential items such as food, water, baby formula, breastfeeding supplies, medication and other emergency supplies, and displacement assistance, which covers housing needs.

Those in need can visit disasterassistance.gov or call the FEMA helpline at 800-621-3362. Calls to the hotline are accepted 6 a.m. through 10 p.m., according to FEMA's website.

People can also download the FEMA app or apply in person at the FEMA Disaster Recovery Center at the Freetown Community Center located at 200 Alice Ave. in Greenville.

When applying for FEMA assistance, disasterassistance.gov recommends preparing the following:

• A social security number
• Insurance information (know what type of coverage you have)
• Damage information (include the type of disaster and property affected)
• Financial information (household gross income at the time of the disaster)
• Contact information

Preparing for the future

If there's any lesson Sailer has learned from Helene, it's that people have to be prepared to fend for themselves during natural disasters. He recommends stocking up on bottled water, cash, and non-perishable foods in case of an emergency.

"Law enforcement resources were all over the place. They had much more important things to do. Nobody had electricity. Nobody really had a cellphone to be able to defend themselves or to be able to report any type of situation to them," he said.

"With supplies being so limited, resources being so limited, and again, law enforcement being spread so thin throughout the region, it really did feel like there's nobody that's going to check in on us."

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: One month later: Upstate residents still cleaning up post-Helene, 'almost as bad as COVID'