Posted on WLOS News 13 website on December 4, 2024
Buncombe County, N.C. (WLOS) — Hundreds of Buncombe County residents spent the day at A-B Tech connecting with organizations that will help them move forward nearly 10 weeks after Helene.
“Mountain people are proud and it’s hard for them to ask,” said A-B Tech President John Gossett. “We feel like we’re a part of it and we want to be a part of the solution.”
Gossett helped transform Ferguson Auditorium into a bustling fair filled with nonprofit, city, county, and federal resources.
“Education still teaches Maslow's hierarchy of needs because it’s still righteous, right, and people need food, clothing, and shelter before they need anything else,” Gossett said.
The Asheville Water Resources Department used the resource fair to answer customer questions and hand out more lead tests.
In around three weeks, they have distributed more than 6,000 test kits, according to Water Resources Department PIO Clay Chandler.
“[We are] very, very appreciative of A-B Tech for giving us the space to help our customers out with this," Chandler said. “It sort of allows [them] to come to us.”
Kenilworth resident Iris Flovin says she is still not drinking water in her century-old home.
“I mean, I see the lead-based paint on the walls, but I haven’t really been too worried about lead until seeing the city reports coming through about 'Go ahead and get it tested if it’s an older home,'" Flovin said. "We got a shower filter and have been using that cautiously and getting bottled water where we can."
She picked up her test on Wednesday.
“I’ve been told it is a very clear and complete packet,” Flovin said.
It’ll be four to six weeks until she gets the results back, but Chandler said his office is working on bringing in outside help to streamline the process.
"That’s not because we’re moving slow, that’s because third-party contract labs that analyze these samples are slammed and they have limited capacity,” Chandler said of the long timeline to get results back.
To help save time, the Water Resources Department is also asking customers to bring their samples back to City Hall once they are complete.
