November 3, 2024
Canton, NC, USA
LED BY Astrid KAemmerling
During a one-on-one walk with Hannah Burnisky, owner of Cold Mountain Art Collective in Canton, North Carolina, she detailed her preparations and experiences during Helene's flood. She moved artwork out of the flood zone, but the water level surpassed expectations, reaching 25.8 feet, higher than the previous record of 22 feet in 2004. Her gallery was affected, with water reaching almost to the ceiling in her gallery and community pottery studio. Despite efforts to save pottery equipment, significant damage occurred. She currently plans to rebuild, ideally aiming for a New Year's Day reopening, and is seeking grants and community support to aid in the recovery process.
DETAILS
Location: 33 Adams Street, Canton, NC
Start Time: 11:00 am
Duration: approx. 00:37 min.
Equipment: iPhone
Interview Excerpts
I think I closed Wednesday, so like two days prior to the event, I was really in my mind, thinking it would be a lot like our flood in 2021. So, I made preparations that would have been adequate for that and maybe even a little bit more. I lifted everything up, I moved things out of what was that flood zone. It was only 32 inches in 2021 and I felt comfortable with that, until our Mayor called and said, You really need to consider getting everything out. And at that point, it was like Thursday, so the day before, and I really had to prioritize what I could and couldn't get out. So things like my kilns, there's no way I could have gotten those out. My wheels, you know, these are just big, heavy things that I couldn't move. So I prioritized all of the artwork in the gallery knowing that that isn't insured, so all of for all 40 of our artists wouldn't lose their work, at least. So I spent pretty much all day, Thursday, in the pouring rain, moving everything I could out of the gallery. It took me like four or five trips in my Forerunner. And then I had a friend who just showed up out of the blue with a trailer, and she helped me move some of the furniture, like small, small things.
[…]
And I was like, okay, so I walked down Main Street and I rounded that corner, and I just wasn't expecting it to be that high. I wasn't I don't know what I don't know what I was expecting, but that was not it. It was just so much worse than I imagined in my head, and it was gut wrenching and heartbreaking, and all I wanted to do was call my mom, but I couldn't, because we had no cell phone service, and I just sat there on the sidewalk at the top of the road because the water was almost at the top where the corner was. […] You know, I feel like, if they'd have let me swim out there, I would have, you know, I'd have been like hauling buckets of water. Not that it would have made any difference, but I would have tried just to have to go through it again at such a worse extent,
[…]
I'm still raising funds just to help because I still have to pay my mortgage. There are still, like, regular bills that I have to pay for that aren't, you know, being put on pause. And so just getting me through as like sustenance, so that I because I'm not, I don't have any other income right now. I can't make my pottery. I'm sold out of what I have, and I don't have really, like a place to work and or the time and energy to put into it, either. So, you know, financial sustenance there and then, once the building, the built back is done, I'm gonna probably set up volunteer days where people can come help me, paint, assemble furniture, detail, clean, stage things,
[…]
Ideally, in my mind, my mind, I would love to have a New Year's Eve and New Year's Day grand reopening just to kind of really start the year off. But I know the holidays coming, people are going to be holding their families and, you know, doing those things, and so contractors […] they're going to be preoccupied, understandably so. So I know things will be moving a little slower over the next two months.
Photography by Astrid Kaemmerling