‘Apocalyptic’: Crystal Lake student arrived in Asheville days before hurricane forced him to flee

Jackson Marwitz, a graduate student from Crystal Lake, landed in Asheville, North Carolina, for a three-month internship in late September. Five days later, he would find himself stranded, with more than 20 feet of water surrounding him from the devastating Hurricane Helene.

The hurricane blew ashore in northern Florida as a Category 4 and quickly moved north. The storm upended life throughout the Southeast, where deaths also were reported in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Total death toll from the hurricane surpasses 200 so far, according to The Associated Press.

One of the hardest-hit areas was Asheville, a small tourism hub home to the Biltmore Estates, where Marwitz was interning. The 8,000-acre property was built by George Vanderbilt and features a sprawling mansion, restaurants and a winery.

Marwitz, a Prairie Ridge High School graduate, was there in connection with his coursework at University of Cincinnati Online for instructional design and technology to help educators or companies create training courses. He noticed local residents had started preparing for the storm a few days before, but Marwitz thought that in the worse-case scenario, he would be stuck without power for a couple of days.

“My head was spinning in a million different directions because I just arrived to a new place that I knew nothing about,” he said.

On Sept. 27, Marwitz noticed the Swannanoa River was already overflowing at 7 a.m. A few hours later, he decided to pack up some essential items and walked uphill to a nearby apartment complex to stay in the lobby. The water got up to 26 feet later that day, he said.

“About 20 minutes after I walked out, the water had completely surrounded my apartment complex,” Marwitz said.

Power and cell service was out, and there was no safe running water because the area was under a boil advisory. He and dozens of other displaced people slept in the lobby. The next day, people were using outdoor grills to use up food before it went bad.

“People were handing them out like crazy because they know they can’t eat all of it, but they don’t want anybody to go hungry,” he said. “It was very much a community-like atmosphere.”

Officials said Asheville’s water system sustained “catastrophic” damage that could take weeks to fully repair, according to The AP. Several main routes into Asheville were washed away or blocked by mudslides. Gas stations were closed for miles, bringing another challenge to anyone trying to get out. The Biltmore Estate grounds and entrance also sustained damaged and remained closed to visitors as of Friday, but the main house and lodging were mostly unscathed, according to news reports.

Marwitz started to make friends with the people he was displaced with at the apartment lobby. He began to brainstorm how he could safely get to an airport and connected with someone with whom he could leave town.

“It was really a resource-management thing,” he said. “It was like apocalyptic stuff.”

It wasn’t until they reached Georgia to stay at his new friend’s aunt and uncle’s home for the night that Marwitz felt relief. Now, the two text all the time and are looking for ways to meet up again in the future.

“He’s a guy I met two days before he drove me, and now we’re definitely friends,” he said.

Throughout those days, Marwitz felt a range of emotions: the anxiousness of not knowing when he would be able to contact his family, and the feeling of being “filled with hope” as he collaborated with people on divvying up resources.

“To me, the main takeaway was in a time of disaster, people were willing to set aside their differences,” he said. “I know there’s no way I agreed with everything and everybody I came into contact with. That just doesn’t matter. We were all trying to help each other.”

McHenry County residents are rising to the occasion by collecting donations of supplies, food and personal hygiene products for people affected by the hurricane. McHenry County Emergency Management Agency Director David Christensen suggested going to “the heavy hitters” – Samaritan’s Purse, The Salvation Army and the American Red Cross – for cash donations.

The need for hurricane relief is even greater now with the impact of Hurricane Milton. Marwitz is following Milton a lot more closely than he otherwise would have because of his experience with Hurricane Helene.

“There was good that came of it,” he said, “and it restored my faith in people.”