At this point, it’s fair to say we’re all a little wiped out from Helene.

Nearly two months after Tropical Storm Helene blew in her unwanted gusts of destruction, life has not returned to normal. And it likely won’t for some time.

But perspective is so important.

Consider the situation of Fairview residents Amber and Trevor Ballew, and you’ll likely feel better about your own plight. The couple, who both work in the business office of the VA hospital, have been married five years. They recently decided to stop renting the home that once belonged to Amber’s grandmother and just buy it.

They decided to renovate the place, too, incorporating one whole wall of a family cabin that dates to 1913.

“We were renting it until August of this year,” Trevor Ballew, 28, told me. “We had bought it in the middle of August.”

Sounds great, right? Young couple rents, then buys an old family home in a tight-knit community filled with family members, a place where they want to spend the rest of their lives and raise their kids.

The catch? Helene, of course, which hit Friday, Sept. 27.

“We made our first house payment the Monday after the storm,” Trevor said.

He called the mortgage company and the agent congratulated him on making that first payment.

“I was like, ‘We ain’t got a house,’” Trevor recalled.

House cut in half

The house, on Old Fort Road just across a ridge from Craigtown, was cut in half by a landslide that would eventually link up with the slide that claimed 13 lives in that neighboring area, including 11 members of the Craig family. Amber Ballew is related to the Craigs, and she and Trevor often had dinners at their homes, so the loss stung especially hard.

The debris flow destroyed the Ballews’ home — smashed it in and spun around the garage — and left the property an unholy mess of smashed trees, strewn rocks and relocated creek bed.

So instead of busying themselves with the details of a renovation, the Ballews found themselves homeless.

“I’ve been staying with my parents, and he’s been staying with his parents,” Amber said, standing a few feet from their home and the now open-air master bedroom. 

They both work from home, so trying to work and juggle visits to the property and meeting with FEMA and inspectors and people wanting to help has been a lot.

And I haven’t even mentioned the kicker yet: Amber, 26, is seven months pregnant with the couple’s first child.

“We’re trying to move into a rental home that someone offered up to us, because we’re expecting, and she could come any day,” Amber said, noting that she’s 29 weeks pregnant. “And she’s ahead by quite some size. She’s the light at the end of this for sure.”

Mortgage, rent, and uncertainty

Yeah, this young couple has a lot on them right now.

On the financial side, the couple faces the prospect of having to pay their $2,300 monthly mortgage as well as rent, probably in the $1,300 range. Their total household income is in the $90s, Amber said.

“We basically made enough to afford the mortgage that we had,” Amber said. “We basically paid off everything that we could to afford the mortgage, to do a construction loan.”

“That was the thing,” she continued. “Our mortgage was really high, but it was going to be redone in six months when construction was done and factored into a regular loan. And so the interest rate wasn’t going to be so high, and it would have been a lot more affordable.”

A foundation has agreed to help them with rent, but that would just cover about two months. When that runs out and they’d have to pay both a mortgage and rent, well…

“We would never be able to afford it, so we would have to go back to our parents’ house,” Amber said.

Their mortgage company gave them a grant of about $4,000 and offered two months of a grace period with no payments, but they’re still stuck with a loan for the full amount of the house, about $265,000. And the house no longer exists.

They’d tapped only a little more than half of the loan amount, but they owe the full amount.

“We’re paying a mortgage on a full amount, as if we were doing the construction,” Trevor said.

A FEMA rep came out and took pictures, but the agency told the Ballews that it could be 30 to 60 days before they hear what help is available.

So they’re stuck, living separately with their parents, working, trying to figure out what to do with their family land — and trying not to stress the baby out.

“That has been my thing,” Amber said. “I’ve had to sit back and really just try to sit on things, because I didn’t want to stress and cause her to come early, because that wouldn’t be fair.”

Some good news from Buncombe County

The Ballews said they’re also worried whether Buncombe County will even allow them to build back on their site. In 2010, the county adopted higher standards for properties located in steep-slope and protected-ridge areas, and they’re worried that because their home was destroyed by a landslide they might not be able to rebuild.

I was able to get some good news on that front from Buncombe County Planning Director Nathan Pennington. 

“Right off the bat, there’s no problem with rebuilding,” Pennington said, noting he had checked their lot on the county’s land system. “There’s no restriction against rebuilding. And quite frankly, the overlays don’t prohibit rebuilding. They just make sure that you work with a geotechnical engineer.”

The Ballews’ house, though “is not located in the steep slope overlay at all,” Pennington said. “So if they want to build back, I don’t have any restrictions on them.”

Pennington said a fair amount of confusion exists in the county right now, post-Helene, because in some cases people are conflating steep slope regulations and overlays with floodplain standards, which are a different animal. They do not apply in the Ballews’ case, either, as they’re not in a floodplain.

“I would suspect that what’s happening is everyone is looking at floodplain standards and trying to apply them to landslide areas that are nowhere near the Special Flood Hazard Area,” Pennington said. “Because in the Special Flood Hazard Area, yes, there are absolute requirements if you want to rebuild, if you’re not built to modern standards.”

But again, floodplain does not apply to the Ballews, and neither does the steep slope ordinance, apparently. 

“I think if they tried to submit an application, there would be no problem for us to process a site plan review and zoning permit to put a new home here,” Pennington said. “Like I said, the house is located outside of our overlay. And then I think I could probably be successful in moving this through the chain of permitting that would occur next door and permits and inspections quite quickly as well.”

Kassi Day, a spokesperson for Buncombe County, added a couple of other boxes the Ballews will have to check.

“For this case, before they apply for a building permit, they would need to apply for an existing systems check or septic repair permit through Environmental Health,” Day said, noting that an existing systems check is appropriate if no portion of the septic system was damaged, and the replacement home will use a footprint similar to the house that was there previously.  “A septic repair permit is appropriate if there is visible damage to the septic system”

The Ballews’ septic system was still visible on the lot. Day noted that an inspector will need to visit the site to make sure it’s still suitable for a septic system.The permits are free of charge. 

“Next, they would submit a site plan review to Planning, and once Planning has signed off, they would apply for building permits,” Day said.

Residents can apply for the permits at 30 Valley Street or e-mail applications to permitdocs@buncombecounty.org. Day said Permits and Inspection staffers are completing plan reviews at a rate of 98 percent within 24 hours.

So that’s good news for the Ballews and all the other people in Buncombe County facing similar hurdles.

Now, if the Ballews can just get the financial end of their puzzle to fall into place …

I also reached out to FEMA, but public affairs specialist Nicole Wilson said, “We are unable to offer any details about a specific survivor’s case; however, if they are comfortable with you sharing their phone number with us, we will be happy to reach out and work with them directly.”

Amber Ballew told me Friday she finally got in touch with a FEMA representative, so that’s a hopeful sign as well.

The Ballews’ mortgage company did not respond to me by deadline. The couple still has a lot of angst over how they’re going to extract themselves from the mortgage, if they even can. 

A family friend has started a gofundme page for Amber and Trevor, and as of Friday it had raised $12,290 of a $50,000 goal. That’ll help, and the couple is really appreciative of the community support they’ve gotten, but that amount of money would likely cover only the grading that needs to be done on site, and maybe not all of it.

By the way, the Ballews did have regular home insurance, but their policy doesn’t cover landslides. Flood insurance doesn’t cover it, either, but the couple did not have flood insurance anyway because they didn’t live in the floodplain.

A strong bond to the land

If you’re wondering why the couple doesn’t just look into the FEMA program wherein the agency buys your home and you agree to live elsewhere, that’s not in their playbook. The property off Old Fort Road might not qualify anyway, and more important, it is home for the Ballews and has been for generations.

“My thing is, I’m not gonna sell my property,” Amber said. “My great grandparents owned this. This was their home, and my whole family grew up here. Both sides of us, the property (belongs to) my family.”

She’s the fourth generation on the property, so she and Trevor will stay on the land, which totals 1.62 acres. They’d like to rebuild where they were but maybe a little bit elevated.

Amber said she believes the chance of another slide is slim because all the material was cleared out in the devastating Sept. 27 debris flow.

What they’re really looking for is some sense of normalcy to provide for their baby when she arrives in January.

“We really haven’t had a sense of normal yet,” Trevor said. “And that’s what a lot of people don’t have, is the sense of normal. It takes a while, because really all the normal is gone.”

Let’s hope normal returns soon for the Ballews, and for all of us.

Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. John Boyle has been covering Asheville and surrounding communities since the 20th century. You can reach him at (828) 337-0941, or via email at jboyle@avlwatchdog.org. The Watchdog’s local reporting during this crisis is made possible by donations from the community.  To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.

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