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George Dixon, renowned blacksmith; Michael and Nora Drye, and their grandson, Micah • Asheville Watchdog

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avlwatchdog.org – SALLY KESTIN – 2024-11-10 08:00:00

Asheville Watchdog is bringing you the stories behind the staggering loss of life from Helene, the children, parents, grandparents, multiple generations of a single family, all gone in one of the worst natural disasters to hit the mountains of western North Carolina. This is the sixth installment.  

Jill Dixon hunkered in her husband’s office in their Swannanoa home, clinging to their two dogs, as the water from the Bee Tree Creek breached its banks and rapidly rose toward the house and then inside.

“The water came up higher and higher and higher, and I was yelling for help,” she said. “The water was up to almost my shoulder…and George didn’t answer.”

George Dixon, 72, had gone into a bedroom in the back of the house to retrieve car keys and evacuate his family. Torrential rains from Tropical Storm Helene Sept. 27 had turned the creek into raging floodwaters.

Read previous installments of The Lives We Lost.

In a matter of minutes, the water had ripped the back of the Dixons’ home off its foundation, sweeping away a back bedroom with George Dixon in it.

Floodwaters from a creek behind the Dixons’ home ripped the back portion off and swept George Dixon away. // Watchdog photo by Starr Sariego

“Somehow, I don’t know how, he made it around to the front and was hanging on to a tree in the front yard and then another big gush of water came really deep, very forceful,” Jill Dixon said. “Trees were falling everywhere, and he got swept away again, and that was the last time I saw my husband.”

With the water inside the house several feet deep, Jill Dixon, 69, climbed onto a dresser with her dogs. Her 40-year-old daughter and two grandsons, 19 and 17, one of whom is autistic and uses a wheelchair, floated on a mattress, she said.

“I was trapped in there, probably for five or six hours, and I was having hypothermia, shaking, chills, blue lips, blue nail beds,” she said. “The water was getting deep, so we kicked out the window to get some of the water out … and it was really scary.”

A neighbor finally reached them, traversing washed out roads and bridges. ”There were so many trees down that the neighbor had to use a chainsaw and cut a tunnel through the trees to get me out,” Jill Dixon said.

Her husband’s body was found two days after the storm, buried in mud, but Jill Dixon said he was not positively identified until Oct. 13, two weeks later.  “I was so worried and so upset,” she said. “I kept wondering where he was.”

Highest honor in blacksmithing

Dixon was a renowned blacksmith described by fellow artists as among the best in the country.

“He did everything from big chandeliers, iron gates, the old way blacksmiths did it,” his wife said. “Everything was handmade, hand sanded, very detailed, and he had the most complete blacksmith shop in the United States.”

Dixon had been head blacksmith at Samuel Yellin Metalworkers in Philadelphia before moving to Swannanoa in 1992. He helped restore the decorative iron and metal works of Yellin, the country’s premier 20th century blacksmith, whose pieces from the early 1900s included commissions for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Yale and Princeton universities, and the Washington National Cathedral.

George Dixon with the Alex Bealer award, a froe that’s used for splitting shingles and blocks of wood. // Courtesy of Leigh Morrell

Dixon taught Yellin’s techniques at demonstrations throughout the country and was founder and editor of “the Traditional Metalsmith” and later “The Artist-Blacksmith,” quarterly publications dedicated to traditional methods of fine architectural ironwork.

Dixon received the 2019 Alex Bealer award, the highest honor from the Artist-Blacksmith Association of North America “for contributions to the blacksmith world,” said Leigh Morrell, the group’s former president.

He chaired the association’s best attended national conference, held in Asheville in 1998, that attracted blacksmiths from around the world, Morrell said.

“The guy was incredible,” said Morrell, who along with Dixon started the Historic Blacksmith Conservancy.

Dixon specialized in Gothic work, said Ernie Dorrill, a blacksmith and friend in Canton, Miss.

“Some of it was very small work, very tiny, like rivets, and some was rather large, like gates,” Dorrill said. “He did a lot of restoration of Yellin’s work,” including two lanterns at the Bank of Philadelphia, each weighing two tons.

George Dixon, right, with Leigh Morrell in 2023. // Courtesy of Leigh Morrell

Dixon’s love for blacksmithing began as a hobby, and he largely taught himself.

“George researched everything,” Dorrill said. “He said, ‘Look Ernie, these are the same tools they used 1,000 years ago, and if you want to do good hand work, you’ve got to use the same techniques and technology.’

“He was brilliant, he really was,” Dorrill said “We’ve had a tremendous loss with George… It ripped a hole in my heart.”

Dixon had a shop in his house and was still working.

“It’s a real hard craft to learn, and it takes a long time,” his wife said. “But he was a very special guy, and that was pretty much his hobby, too, blacksmithing, that’s what he did. His whole life centered around that.”

Dixon was writing his third book, Jill Dixon said. 

“We help each other out”

A blacksmith friend and Dixon’s son are hoping to salvage his work from a computer that was damaged in the floodwaters, Dorrill said. They’ve also been sifting through mud to recover Dixon’s tools and drying water-soaked drawings.

“He was a superb illustrator,” Dorrill said.

Jill Dixon said she’s grateful to the support of her husband’s blacksmith community and her neighbors along Bee Tree Road.

After she was rescued, Dixon said one neighbor “was nice enough to give me some dry clothes and a place to sleep overnight and some food.”

“It’s been truly an outpouring of caring for each other that’s part of the community up there,” she said. “We help each other out. It’s a lot of Christian people around you, the Bible Belt area.”

Dixon said her pastor took her in for several nights. Their church, Bee Tree Christian Church, founded in 1872, was also severely damaged in the storm.

Bee Tree Christian Church, a half mile from Dixon’s home, was badly damaged in the storm. // Watchdog photo by Starr Sariego

Dixon said she went two days without water.

“I have to give myself heart medicine, and I have to, every week, give myself a shot because of rheumatoid arthritis,” she said. “I went without any medicine for over three weeks. I could hardly walk by that time.”

Dixon was stunned when she saw the widespread devastation from Helene.

“It was so traumatic for me to see whole neighborhoods swept away – holes, massive, deep holes in the ground, trees down everywhere. People were desperate for food, water, clothing,” she said.

She’s leaning on her faith to cope with her enormous loss.

“I thank the good Lord that I lived through it, because I could have drowned very easily,” Dixon said. “I was rescued, and my faith in God has gotten so much stronger since this experience.”

She salvaged two photos from the ruins of her home, the only ones she has left, including one of her and George. On Oct. 7, they would have been married 50 years.

Jill and George Dixon in 1997, one of two photos she has left. // Courtesy of Jill Dixon

Dixon is now staying with a friend in Raleigh.

“I’m trying to start over, but it’s been really difficult,” she said. “I lost my husband, I lost my car, everything … all my cards, my purse, all my records, documents that you have, everything, my antique furniture. I had a good Chinese collection of really old pieces.”

Dixon does not intend to return to the Asheville area. “I don’t want to ever go through something like that again,” she said.

The couple’s two dogs, Rally, a Pomeranian, and Loki, a mountain feist, survived the flood, but Dixon said she could no longer keep them.

“They went to an animal shelter,” she said. “They’ve been put up for adoption. It’s sad. I miss them, too, but … I’m accepting the realities I have right now.”

She said she has not yet received assistance from FEMA. A GoFundMe page to benefit her had raised nearly $18,000 as of Saturday.

Dixon said she’s keeping a positive attitude. 

“I think each day will get a little bit better,” she said. “I get a second chance at life.”


Michael, Nora and Micah Drye

The deaths of Michael and Nora Drye, both 73, and their 7-year-old grandson, Micah, and the rescue of their daughter Megan Drye, 39, were broadcast almost in real time on Facebook. There, their daughter, Jessica Drye Turner, pleaded for prayers.

“My family is currently on the roof of their house in Asheville, NC with nothing but the clothes on their back and one working phone,” Turner wrote at 1:46 p.m Sept. 27. A little over half an hour later, she posted a photo of someone’s feet perched on a roof. Brown floodwaters were lapping at the eaves of the Dryes’ Swannanoa River Road home.

Little is left of the Drye home, where Michael and Nora Drye, both 73; their 7-year-old grandson, Micah; and their daughter Megan Drye, 39, sought refuge on the roof as floodwaters rose Sept. 27. Megan Drye was the lone survivor. // Watchdog photo by Starr Sariego

At 4:23 p.m., she updated the post with another photo. It was one of the last images of Nora Drye. She was looking out at the destruction.

Eighteen-wheelers and cars were floating by, the group of four reported via their one phone.

At 2:54 a.m. Sept. 28, Turner provided a horrifying update.

“[M]y parents and nephew drowned bc the roof collapsed,” she posted. “My sister got wedged btw something. She was rescued an hour later.”

Leaning on her faith, Turner typed out a mournful celebration of her parents’ life and a plea for Megan’s.

“The image I focus on every time I imagine that moment is how joyfully they are praising Jesus at his feet, dancing with renewed bodies and not remembering how they passed,” she wrote. “I plead to Jesus to hold my sister tightly. God is faithful. Just. Weeps and mourns when we do and comforts us in our times of need. He rescued my parents and nephew in his way and took them home.” 

Nearly 12 hours later, Turner reported she had located Megan. Someone called a local hospital, connected with a nurse who brought the phone to Megan, allowing her to speak with her family.

On Sept. 29, Jessica and her sister drove to Asheville and picked up Megan.

Nora Drye’s body was found nearly two miles from Micah’s and Michael’s in Biltmore Village, according to death certificates. Micah’s body was found Sept. 30, Michael’s on Oct 1, and Nora’s on Oct. 5.

The cause of Michael’s death was listed as a “landslide injury.” Micah and Nora’s cause of death was drowning, according to the death certificates.

Turner would return to the same Facebook post, updating it more than 20 times through Oct. 10, returning with more details about exactly what happened to her parents and nephew as recalled by Megan.

“The roof did not collapse, the house did,” Turner wrote in an Oct. 1 update, describing the ensuing panic and terror as the floodwaters took her family, one by one, sparing only Megan, who let herself float away and became lodged between two trailers before someone saw her. 

Megan and Jessica told their stories to numerous news outlets, launching the story to international attention. Asheville Watchdog reached out to the family but was not able to connect for an interview.

Michael was an attorney and mediator for over 40 years, according to a joint obituary for the couple and their grandson. He “left a legacy of compassion and care in helping clients, friends, and family navigate the legal complexities of some of the most difficult seasons of their lives.”

A debris pile stands before Michael Drye’s family law office sign on Swannanoa River Road. Drye was an attorney and mediator for more than 40 years. // Watchdog photo by Starr Sariego

In May 17 he was honored by the North Carolina State Bar for being a board certified family law specialist continuously for 30 years, according to his LinkedIn profile. 

Nora was “a lover of life and devoted mother of three girls. [She] inspired many by being an unwavering example of living an active, pure, peaceable, and quiet life,”  the obituary said.

The two were members and leaders at Biltmore Church, according to a report from Religious News Service. 

“Micah will be remembered for his vibrant energy, his gentle and affectionate spirit, and his relentless pursuit to become a superhero, which he did,” the obituary said. 

A memorial service for the three is set for Monday at Biltmore Baptist Church.

– Andrew R. Jones, Asheville Watchdog


Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Sally Kestin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter. Email skestin@avlwatchdog.org. Andrew R. Jones is a Watchdog investigative reporter. Email arjones@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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At least 3 of 43 fatalities in Buncombe were unhoused people • Asheville Watchdog

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avlwatchdog.org – JOHN BOYLE and SALLY KESTIN – 2024-11-21 06:00:00

Asheville Watchdog is bringing you the stories behind the staggering loss of life from Helene, the children, parents, grandparents, multiple generations of a single family, all gone in one of the worst natural disasters to hit the mountains of western North Carolina. This is the seventh installment.

Buncombe County’s homeless advocates feared the worst: Helene would be deadly for the dozens of unhoused people living along the banks of rivers and streams that turned into raging floodwaters.

“We thought that the death toll just in this population was going to be up in the 20s, 30s, just because of how many people camp on the rivers,” said Alanna Kinsella, homeless services director at Homeward Bound.

Read previous installments of The Lives We Lost.

Asheville Watchdog has identified three unhoused people of the 43 who perished in Buncombe from the Sept. 27 tropical storm: Jody Henderson, an Air Force veteran described by his sister as extremely loving, Calvin “Michael” McMahan, who liked to travel and preach to people he met, and Lisa Plemmons, a cook at an Asheville nursing home who was living in her car and had been featured in a previous installment of The Lives We Lost.

About five unhoused people remain unaccounted for, Kinsella said.

“Did they leave town before? Do we have their legal name? It’s really hard to know,” she said. “It could only be one or two people that are really actually missing.”

The toll on Asheville’s homeless community turned out to be lower than feared. The Asheville-Buncombe Homeless Coalition called a Code Purple beginning the morning of Sept. 26, opening shelter space for anyone who needed it and providing free bus transportation.

Teams that included community paramedics and outreach workers visited homeless encampments to warn people near water and urge them to seek shelter. Advocates were also able to spread the word about Code Purple early because of the persistent rains ahead of the storm.

At AHOPE, a day shelter run by Homeward Bound, “so many people were coming in here at that time because people needed to get dry, they needed to get supplies,” Kinsella said. “We were really able to disseminate that information really quickly.”

Many went to shelters, “and a lot of our campers really moved into the core of town,” Kinsella said.

In the weeks after the storm, advocates have been attempting to account for everyone. Asheville’s 2024 Point-In-Time count identified 739 people without housing, most in emergency shelters or transitional housing, but 219 were camping, sleeping in cars or on the street.  

The task has been difficult because some homeless people were known only by aliases or street names.

“It really took an entire community of us to come together and say, ‘Okay, I know that person’s legal name,’ or ‘I only know them by this,’“ Kinsella said. “It was a lot of really having to piece things together.

“It may be a while before we know the full scope of who all from our community, of people experiencing homelessness, have been lost.”

Here are two of their stories.

Jody Henderson

Jody Henderson’s life never was easy, but he “was one of the most loving people you would ever meet,” said his sister, Kathy Henderson Cook.

Her younger brother struggled with bipolar disorder and was often homeless and unable to work. Henderson had a high IQ and was good looking, she said, but the disease kept him hamstrung for most of his adult life.

“He had so much going for him, but he just couldn’t put that grasp on things and just stay with it,” Cook said. “He would float off, and then he would just get kind of loopy.”

Henderson, 63, died Sept. 27, swept away by Helene’s floodwaters, according to his death certificate. 

He had been staying at the Veterans Restoration Quarters on Tunnel Road in East Asheville, but Cook said he’d spent a couple of weeks at the VA hospital for mental health treatment.

On the day before Helene, Henderson was on a “weekend pass” from the VRQ and rented a cabin along the Swannanoa River at the KOA Campground. He needed a space that would accept dogs, as he didn’t want to go somewhere without his beloved mutt and emotional support dog, Bullet.

Cook said that on Sept. 27, as the river breached its banks and the water rose, her brother was standing on top of the cabin. An evacuation team had just arrived. As he often did when his situation was dire, Henderson called his sister.

“He called me at 9:17,” Cook said. 

Their conversation was short.

“He said, ‘Sis, I love you. The evac team just arrived. I’ll call you,’” Cook said. “He hung up, and he was gone.”

A witness at the campground said “it was around 10 o’clock when the building collapsed and everything went crazy,” Cook said.

Jody Nyle Henderson grew up with Cook in Chesnee, South Carolina, and had lived in California, Utah, Nevada, North Carolina and Texas before returning to Chesnee in 2018,  according to his obituary. He attended Chesnee High School and Spartanburg Community College before joining the U.S. Air Force.

He is survived by three children, Cook and another sister, Kristi Henderson Walker. A brother, Michael Kenneth Henderson, died previously.

Jody Henderson’s emotional support dog, Bullet, survived Helene’s flooding and is now living with a friend in Maryland. // Courtesy of Kathy Henderson Cook

“His final days were in a log cabin with his beloved dog Bullet by the Swannanoa River with a view of God’s beautiful creation surrounding him as he made new friends,” his obituary states. “Bullet was adopted by one of those new friends, Chelsea of Maryland, who rescued Bullet from the flooding.”

Cook said her brother easily made friends, including Chelsea, whom he met at the campground. She did not want her last name published. 

“He’d never met her. Didn’t know her, but of course, you know — two hours with Jody — best friends,” Cook said.

Cook, who called her brother “Bo,” said his death has been difficult, and she still has “moments where I tend to struggle with emotional issues.

“But as a whole, I know this was a blessing from God,” Cook said, explaining that she always worried about her brother, especially when he stopped his medications and was unhoused. 

He would end up in need and then call to come stay with her, she said.

“He would do anything for me — he just didn’t have the ability to fight the disease,” Cook said. “And I don’t hold that against him.”

She noted that her brother suffered from “tall tale syndrome,” exaggerating facts or making up stories.

She and her sister take comfort knowing that Henderson went out with a story that would normally be hard to believe, one involving a historic storm that showed immense power and swept away entire buildings. 

They’ve also taken comfort in the outpouring of support from the community, from churches to governmental agencies.

“It was a blessing to have to lose somebody and be as fortunate as we are in a community like we live in, to have people come together,” Cook said.

– John Boyle, Asheville Watchdog

Calvin “Michael” McMahan

Calvin McMahan’s sister feared the worst after Helene when she did not hear from the big brother who never went more than a few weeks without checking in.

Calvin “Michael” McMahan liked traveling to different places and preaching to the people he met. // Courtesy of Pamela Douthit

The last she knew, McMahan, who went by his middle name, Michael, had been in Asheville, said Pamela Douthit of Bryson City. “I was wondering where he was, hoping he was okay, worried to death,” she said.

Douthit said police told the family that McMahan had drowned in the storm. His body was found Sept. 30 on Glendale Avenue along the Swannanoa River in one of the areas hardest hit by flooding.

The official cause of death was “landslide injuries,” according to his death certificate.

McMahan, 63, was the oldest of 10 children and had been unhoused for the past 15 to 20 years, his sister said.

Michael McMahan, far right, was the oldest of 10 children. Eight of the McMahan siblings are pictured in this family photo with their mother, Mildred, front. // Courtesy of Pamela Douthit

“He lived everywhere,” she said. “He had property here in Swain County, but he wanted to travel. He wanted to visit different places, so he decided being homeless was his choice.”

McMahan liked to preach to the people he met. “He testified to people,” Douthit said. “He talked about God and how free we are and how thankful we are.”

McMahan visited his sister and her husband in Bryson City from time to time and would stay for a couple of weeks. “He said he had to do God’s work, so he went on out down the road,” she said.

McMahan had been staying under a bridge near the Swannanoa. His sister said he frequented homeless shelters in bad weather and must not have known about the dangerous flooding predicted in Helene.

Michael McMahan, right, as a child with his sisters, Pamela, middle, and Kathy. // Courtesy of Pamela Douthit

“I guess it just snuck up on him. He was asleep or something,” she said. “I hate that he had to go the way he did.” 

McMahan had a son and a daughter in Florida, she said. He had been a house painter and loved the guitar, though he did not know how to play.

“Like anyone else, he made mistakes, but he tried to do the best he could do for other people,” Douthit said.

McMahan had “some trouble with the law…He changed his life, and he started working for the Lord and doing what the Lord said to do. I was proud of that,” his sister said.

“I loved him. He was a good person,” she said. “He will be missed.”

– Sally Kestin, Asheville Watchdog


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. Sally Kestin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter. Email skestin@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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Worries arise that loan to Saint Augustine's University could threaten school's future

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www.youtube.com – ABC11 – 2024-11-20 17:21:21


SUMMARY: St. Augustine’s University faces significant financial struggles, with millions in debt raising alarms among community members regarding its partnership with Gothic Ventures. Concerns center on the 24% interest loan agreement, which includes a 2% management fee and collateralizes campus properties. Critics fear that failure to repay could lead to the university’s closure. Gothic Ventures, noting the university’s financial challenges, expressed a willingness to discuss modifying the loan terms. Opponents demand changes like lowering the interest rate to 9% or enabling debt transfer to alleviate the strain on the historically Black college and secure its future.

A group of leaders are worried about a $7 million loan given to Saint Augustine’s University. The group includes religious leaders, social justice advocates and SAU alumni. Together, they spent Wednesday raising awareness about the loan and pushing for a solution to the school’s financial challenges.

Story: https://abc11.com/post/saint-augustines-university-despite-financial-accreditation-struggles-leaders-join-forces-push-save-hbcu/15563919/
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Jurisdiction on 6 complaints split between state, counties | North Carolina

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www.thecentersquare.com – By Elyse Apel | The Center Square – 2024-11-20 16:09:00

SUMMARY: The North Carolina State Board of Elections divided six Republican complaints concerning election integrity between itself and county boards. The disputes include issues with voting registration, overseas ballots, and allegations of felons voting, particularly in the close state Supreme Court race between Republican Jefferson Griffin and Democrat Allison Riggs. Griffin initially led by 9,851 votes but trailed by 722 votes post-election. The board reached a compromise to share jurisdiction, aiming to protect election integrity. Additionally, several recount requests from Republican candidates in legislative races are pending, with deadlines for legal briefs approaching.

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The post Jurisdiction on 6 complaints split between state, counties | North Carolina appeared first on www.thecentersquare.com

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