TRAVERSE CITY — A Northern Michigan native moved to Asheville, North Carolina, about a year ago with her husband with plans to start a new life, but now Hurricane Helene has forced Liza Cottrell from what she once called her forever home.
“We live up in the mountains, so we thought that we would be a little safer from the flooding. And we got an alert on our phone telling us to get to higher ground. And little did people know that no matter where you were, it was going to be equally is bad,” says Cottrell.
Landslides, mudslides and flooding, we’ve all seen the unbelievable damage Hurricane Helene caused in the southeast. Cottrell, a Gaylord native now living in Asheville, lived through it. She says she was left up in the mountains for days with her husband, searching for her neighbors and a way out.
“We spent a lot of the time brainstorming how to get out. We were waving down helicopters. We had no we had no way to get a hold of emergency services and nobody had come to find us yet because they didn’t know away in,” she explains.
Cottrell did get in touch with her neighbors. Their neighbor’s son is a firefighter, and with the use of her satellite phone, it gave them the way out.
“The only way I can describe it was being deserted on an island and being found by the firefighters. It was the best day of my life.”
With only a backpack, the Cottrell’s embarked on an emotional journey through Asheville. They were able to use a friend’s car to get to the airport in South Carolina to travel to northern Michigan.
“It is so bad and there are so many people dead and so many people missing and so many families across this country are not able to get in touch with their family members and still are not able to today. We need helicopters to go up into those hills and find people. We are writing S.O.S. on our roof. We are putting axes down for helicopters to land on our land,” says Cottrell.
Now that her family is safe, her mission is to head back with the necessities people need.
“I think that it can be hard to put yourself in everybody’s shoes and it can be hard to feel like you can make an impact. But I promise you, you can.”
You can donate to BelovedAsheville or check out @Liza.Cottrell on Instagram for information
Here is a list of places in Northern Michigan accepting donations:
Gaylord: E-Free Church and Zaremba Equipment
Alpena: Kitchen Farms
Kewadin: Torchport Airpark
Traverse City: Cherry Capital Ink and Av Flight
Cottrell has spoken with people still there and here is a list of what they say they need:
Bug spray, non-adhesive gauze, medical gloves, Benadryl, Pepcid, liquid bandages, medical ice packs, glucose meters with strips and lancets, pulse oximeters, flashlights, batteries, manual can openers, contractor bags, paper towel, plastic utensils, paper plates, non-perishable food, bottled water, pet food, sterile or distilled water, tourniquet bandages, Ziploc bags, slings, Pedialyte, hydration powder packs, oxygen tanks, aluminum foil, baby formula, diapers, wipes, baby food, hand sanitizer, deodorant, dry shampoo, disposable razors, reading glasses