On Tuesday evening, around a thousand people gathered at Pack Square to collectively mourn the profound loss Hurricane Helene brought less than a month ago. They held candles and each other as elected officials and community members played music, read lines of poetry and scripture, and shared words of comfort.
Hosted by Asheville and Buncombe County, the vigil offered a way to remember all that was devastated and lost to Helene. When the storm rolled through, it caused 95 deaths statewide, with 42 of those deaths in Buncombe County. There are nearly 30 people still missing statewide. None of the victims names have been released by official sources, and no victims names were read at the vigil.
The storm destroyed homes, parks, roads, businesses, and other vital community spaces. Even three weeks later, many businesses are still struggling to reopen without clean running water.
“We are in deep grief and deep mourning, for those who have lost their lives, their loved ones, their homes, their businesses, their jobs and their life savings,” Reverend Jim Abbot, one of a handful of speakers and performers, said to the crowd.
“We have not yet fully recovered, but we are resilient and full of hope,” he said.
County Commissioner Jasmine Beach-Ferrara said candles felt especially symbolic for the vigil, given that so many went without power for weeks in the aftermath of the storm.
“Many of us lived by candlelight and flashlight and lantern through some of the darkest days and nights of our lives,” she said. “And that's how some people were saved and people let others know they needed saving. It's how we read stories to our kids at night as we tried to help them understand what was happening.”
As the sky began to darken, members of the Asheville Choir began to sing a rendition of Bill Withers’ “Lean on Me,” as attendees passed the flame from candle to candle, illuminating Pack Square.
The candles, Beach-Ferrara said, symbolized “who we are to each other,” and a collective ability to “turn darkness into light” and ”light into warmth.”
A 10-foot tall paper heron puppet made a surprise appearance at the vigil, courtesy of local arts group Street Creature Puppet Collective.
“We really felt like the creatures needed to be here at this candlelight vigil tonight,” Jennifer Murphy, the creator of the puppet, told BPR. She said she chose the heron because of its beauty and connection to the river, “which of course is our bane and our beauty and our joy and our very big challenge right now.”
