Have you ever lived through a natural disaster? I remember hearing the term “natural disaster” prior to Hurricane Helene, and to be totally truthful, I never imagined anything like what we went through on September 27, 2024. I woke up that morning to the sound of massive boulders and debris rolling down the small creek that runs in front of our house. The sound was literally deafening. I live about 5 miles from the riding stables, and I was anxious to see what kind of flooding and damage might be at the barn and in one of the pastures that has a large creek running through it. It was about 9am until I pulled out of the driveway. My children (both grown) live on the farm property, and the county was without any electricity or cell service, so I had no way to call them to find out if they were okay, and if we had lost any horses or property, so I NEEDED to get to them.
I wanted to check on some other friends and family members on the way, and within 30 minutes of leaving my home, I was speechless and in shock. Friends and families homes were severely flooded, damaged by floodwaters and mudslides, or just GONE. Nothing could have prepared me for those sights, and I will never forget how heartbroken I felt for all of them. My heart still hurts for them every day.
An hour later, and everything was getting worse. We thought the worst had already hit us. With no way to listen or watch the news, we had no idea that the worst was yet to come. By 11am, all hell broke loose. Literally. Trees and mountains were coming down around us. We made the wise decision to get back home before we couldn’t. We went home and hunkered down for the worst of it. It was beyond anything we could imagine. The sounds of trees crashing, rocks crushing, and mountains sliding all around us was simply terrifying because there was nothing we could do but wait it out. A few hours later, the winds let up, and we tried once again to get to the barn, but every road there was either washed away (taking some of our neighbors with them), or blocked by massive mudslides. I was prepared to hike the 5 miles to get to my children at that point, but I had to think about my safety (there was no way to contact 911 - not that they could get to us anyway), and pray that my children and horses were okay until I could get there.
Most mountain people here have atvs/utv’s, and I was sure thankful that I had one, because that was the only way I was making it to the farm. I FINALLY made it to them on day 2, and I literally thought my heart would burst when I finally laid eyes on everyone. They were all okay! The kids were out cutting trees up (many, many of them), and some of the horses had escaped out of the damaged fencing, but luckily, our amazing neighbors kept them out of harms way until we could get there and move them to a safer pasture.
As the cover photo says…yesterday is heavy - put it down. It’s just so hard to do when there are reminders all around us. Neighbors gone. Homes, farms, roads and bridges - gone. But we put down a few pieces every day. We can’t bring our neighbors back, but we can be here to help their families. We are making progress. We need you to keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We need you to come vacation in our beautiful (albeit a bit scarred) mountains. We need your business. We need to see your smiling faces. We need to be around people who don’t have PTSD from everything that has happened here in the past 5 months. We are going to get through this with your help.
~Your faithful friends at Elk Mountain Riding Company 🤠❤️