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    • Biltmore Estate staff stayed with horses for 4 days after Helene
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    Biltmore Estate staff stayed with horses for 4 days after Helene

    Harry Posted on

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    ASHEVILLE – For two days after Tropical Storm Helene hit Asheville on Sept. 27, Elizabeth McLean walked three miles through downed trees and brush to reach the nearest road.

    McLean was sheltered at the Biltmore Estate and had one goal: to reach the Biltmore Equestrian Center. Four of the crew members and 54 horses were stranded there, beyond the fallen trees after the French Broad River rose within a few feet of the barns.

    “It was one thing after another,” McLean, Biltmore’s equestrian activities director, told the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. He estimated 60 trees had fallen on the gravel road leading to the barn.

    Before the storm hit, four volunteers from the equestrian team made beds in the main barn’s offices and break room to ensure the horses had enough food and water to get through Helene. They had planned one night, but that quickly turned into three nights.

    Heroes and heartbreak: 36 hours of hell during historic floods in Helene

    McLean said that on the morning of Sept. 26, before the team’s overnight camp began, two paddocks near the river were already flooded. Horses that were not taken to pastures on higher ground were housed in stable stalls, with windows tightly closed to block out high winds and rain.

    Crew leader Caroline Wright kept checking flood forecasts on an online river gauge while distributing water and hay to the horses. The forecast that Thursday evening was as high as 29 feet.

    “We’re all wondering, ‘What does this look like?'” Wright told the Citizen Times. we thought.

    With the horses secured as much as possible throughout the night, the team woke up “with the sun” and arrived at a barn without electricity and the French Broad River in the parking lot, Wright said. According to Wright, the river continued to rise throughout the day and remained just a few feet from the barn.

    Biltmore Estate: What we know after the Helene devastation in Asheville

    “I was just watching the river level and trying to see if it was going to get into the barn and if we were going to have to take all the horses out,” Wright said.

    The moment that frightened Wright the most was the water shutoff that evening. Stranded by fallen trees and floodwaters, the crew had to somehow find enough clean water for 54 horses — each needing 5 to 10 gallons a day — or risk a colicky horse without access to a veterinarian.

    “The river road was under 30 feet of water and there were probably 50 trees on the back road,” Wright said.

    More: Biltmore Estate to reopen in November after Helene’s forced closure and furloughs

    “We were isolated here. We had enough water for Friday, but then we did a lot of brainstorming on Friday night.”

    The group brought a few troughs from outside; these were now filled with enough rainwater to last the first day. On Saturday, workers “miraculously” found a water container in one of their trucks, Wright said. With the water supply running low on Sunday, September 29, they began hauling buckets of water from a nearby stream that French Broad had left untouched.

    “In between missions, we would try to see if our friends and family were okay,” Wright said. “Maybe we would stand next to a Starlink where we could get some kind of signal.”

    Some did not hear from family members for at least 24 hours.

    “We were isolated from most things for a while, and slowly we started to learn about the rest of the area and realized how lucky we were,” he said.

    ‘Too much shouting’: Appalachia’s remote terrain slows recovery from Helene

    On the fourth day of their isolation, Wright suddenly heard screams from the barn. When he turned around, he saw McLean getting into a truck. While his crew worked to keep the horses fed and alive, McLean met a co-worker who helped him set out and clear the way to the stables.

    “I was so happy. We all hugged each other so hard. It was the best hug we’ve had in a long time,” Wright said.

    Wright, who got help carrying water buckets and clearing trees from Biltmore employees who live nearby, said he felt like being stuck among the horses for four days was “a miniature example of what’s going on in the whole area.”

    “There becomes community and you just look out for each other,” he said.

    Helene’s recovery continues in NC: ‘You can’t understand until you experience it’

    Ryley Ober is the Public Safety Reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @ryleyober

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