Together We Are Asheville
by María Edna Campos
On September 27, 2024, Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina hard. Torrential rains flooded rivers and streams as never before - including the famed Great Flood of 1916 - and devastated forests throughout the region. The hurricane laid waste to all living things, including human beings. Almost fifty people died in Buncombe County alone. In Asheville, Helene destroyed Biltmore Village and the River Arts District, cut power and cell phone service, closed off interstate access, and even shut down the National Climatic Data Center.
Although Asheville and western North Carolina were hurting, the region was also in the thoughts and prayers of many people across the country. Long-time community leader María Campos was one of the empathetic. She and her husband had left Asheville on a trip to Texas just ten days before Helene hit the Carolina coast. As María and her husband monitored the hurricane's movement northwestward, they frantically tried to contact friends and neighbors. Weeks afterward, reflecting on the tragedy, María couldn't get to sleep. "That poem gushed out of me," she recalled, "about 10:30 that night."
At the Wilma Dykeman Legacy's request, Maria provided the following English translation:
Together We Are Asheville
Although we are not from here
We are Asheville
And those of us who are from Here
We are Asheville
The surprise, the fear, the water, the tears,
of those who were lost
We were not in Asheville but
we suffered with Asheville
Now we walk toward the future
We are Asheville
Together we console each other
in our different languages and
different cultures
Together we are strong
Together we are Asheville
God willing
Forward Together
