<body><div><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=16rHOZ_0w5VO6Jh00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=16rHOZ_0w5VO6Jh00" width="1400" height="788" >AYESHA RASCOE, HOST: We turn now to Asheville, North Carolina, where most residents still have no running water in the wake of Hurricane Helene two weeks ago. And that has forced residents to come up with some creative ways to maintain their hygiene. NPR's Joel Rose has more.(SOUNDBITE OF KNOCKING)UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Flushing water.JOEL ROSE, BYLINE: At a public housing complex in Asheville, volunteers offer assistance with an activity most of us take for granted. John Brown, who is visually impaired and uses a wheelchair, is glad to have their help.JOHN BROWN: It's right there on the left. I appreciate the fantastic work you guys are doing.ROSE: These are volunteers with a local nonprofit called BeLoved Asheville. They carry water in 5 gallon buckets into residents' bathrooms, and you can probably figure out the rest.(SOUNDBITE OF WATER FLUSHING)ROSE: More than two weeks after Helene, some of the most basic things are still difficult in Asheville. Drinking water in plastic bottles is everywhere. What's not so easy to find - water to flush your toilet or shower or even wash your hands? That's where volunteers like Rebekah Todd come in.REBEKAH TODD: BeLoved team members, we're having a meeting.ROSE: Asheville's water system was badly damaged in Helene, which knocked out major pipes connecting the reservoirs to the city. There's still no estimate of when service will be restored, though it will likely take weeks. The lack of running water has many impacts, preventing schools and most restaurants from reopening, but the most urgent might be on public health, which is why some citizens are taking matters into their own hands.ELLE DEBRUHL: It is an extreme health crisis looming if we don't get these toilets flushed.ROSE: Elle DeBruhl is with Flush AVL. This volunteer group has built an operation to distribute so-called gray water from ponds and wells to communities that need it. The water may not be clean enough to drink, but it's great for flushing toilets. DeBruhl says they put dozens of giant plastic containers that hold 250 gallons of water each strategically around town.DEBRUHL: We all have to flush the toilet. I don't want to get sick. I don't want my neighbors to get sick. I don't want my community to see more devastation than what they have already seen.(SOUNDBITE OF WATER FLOWING)ROSE: Teresa Thomas and her son fill up plastic containers with gray water at an apartment complex in Northwest Asheville.TERESA THOMAS: It's been hard, that's for sure. Water's worth a million here.ROSE: They're not the only ones at this apartment complex who are happy to have flushing toilets again. Ronnie Marler is the maintenance man.RONNIE MARLER: I'm grateful for the water (laughter). If we hadn't had this water when everything started happening, I would be busy unstopping toilets and everything.ROSE: The city and county are providing gray water, too, at nearly a dozen emergency distribution sites.UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: All right. Just trying to make sure these lids are on tight for you.ROSE: At Asheville Middle School, residents pull up in their cars to fill buckets and bags with gray water from a silver tanker truck. Loretta Smith is here to fill up.LORETTA SMITH: The main hardest thing is keep my commode flushed. That's the roughest part, is I got family members. It's just not me, you know? So we can't have all that sitting around like that.ROSE: In the days after Helene, Asheville residents have found all kinds of resourceful ways to flush. Smith says she got help from a neighbor who has a small pond. Akila Parks says he had been using floodwater leftover from the storm.AKILA PARKS: Just surviving - we had a flooded garage, and we used the water from the garage to flush. So see the blessing from the storm (laughter)?ROSE: Next, a beat-up Sedan pulls up, and Jesus Citalan-Angeles gets out. Normally, he teaches seventh-grade math in Asheville. Now he's delivering gray water to some students' families.JESUS CITALAN-ANGELES: It's probably the biggest thing. I mean, that's the issue, so - some people have, like, no access. Some people have access to creeks, swimming pools, but there are areas that aren't near any of those things or don't know where to get them from. I mean...ROSE: That's why these improvised distribution systems may be crucial until the taps are turned back on. Joel Rose, NPR News, Asheville, North Carolina.Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.</div></body>

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With no running water, Asheville finds other ways to flush thousands of toilets

We turn now to Asheville, North Carolina, where most residents still have no running water in the wake of Hurricane Helene two weeks ago. And that has forced residents to come up with some creative ways to maintain their hygiene. NPR's Joel Rose has more. (SOUNDBITE OF KNOCKING) UNIDENTIFIED PERSON...

With no running water, Asheville finds other ways to flush thousands of toilets

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