Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies, and the real answers:

Question: I have heard nothing about the WNC Nature Center or the animals. Were the animals OK after Helene?

My answer: Physically, yes. But they’re emotionally wounded about not getting their $750 emergency checks from FEMA yet. 

Real answer: Good news on the animal front.

“I’m happy to tell you that all the animals survived the storm and are doing well,” Vanessa Tsumura, marketing and events manager at the WNC Nature Center, said via email. “While the Nature Center did not suffer serious damage, Swannanoa River Road and the bridge to Gashes Creek Road were heavily damaged. For that reason, the park is closed and we have not announced a reopening date.”

The center will announce a reopening date on social media and its website as soon as possible, she added. The center notes that although it’s closed, “you can still book custom experiences, including private, guided tours and other small events,” and its outreach team is still offering off- site programs with ambassador animals.

Located in east Asheville, the Nature Center is a local favorite, well-known for its black bears, river otters, cougars, coyotes, red pandas, and more.

In a November newsletter, Center Director Chris Gentile noted how it relied on the support of nearby Highland Brewing to be able to access the center right after the storm.

“We all feared the worst but were overjoyed to discover that although we had damage to many of our fences and walking paths, all of the animals in our care survived the storm,” Gentile wrote. “Our dedicated team immediately got to work setting up generators, procuring gasoline, and rounding up potable water so that we could do necessary animal care. Our amazing partner Appalachian Wildlife Refuge arrived with food for animals and humans alike, and suddenly we all started to feel like we could make it through this challenging time — we had partners and community members who were there to help us — we were not alone.”

The North Carolina Zoo sent a team of arborists and welders to help with repairs, and multiple other zoos reached out to help out with supplies, including the Knoxville, Kansas City, Saint Louis, Topeka, Dickerson Park (Springfield, Missouri) and Blank Park (Des Moines, Iowa) zoos.

“While we have made incredible progress, there are still challenges ahead,” Gentile wrote. “The timeline for fully restoring the main access to our Center is still unclear and could take months still to complete. We are however continuing to work closely with the City of Asheville as we look to find solutions that would allow guests to come back on-site as soon as possible.”

Question: I recently received the below email from Spectrum regarding a credit for service outage during the Helene aftermath. If I am reading correctly, I am only receiving a credit for the time that Spectrum service was out after Duke power was restored. Like a lot of folks who stayed post Helene, I have a generator and if service was available I would have been able to utilize it. The wording makes it seem like the Duke outage caused the Spectrum outage. This seems a bit cute to me. What say you?

Spectrum email: Hurricane Helene Credit

Hello Spectrum Customer,

A credit has automatically been applied to your account for Hurricane Helene, covering the days that you didn’t have service after power was restored.

The credit will appear on your next bill, or you can see it now by visiting Spectrum.net/billing, then selecting Activity, and then Transactions.

If you’re still experiencing a service issue, please contact us.

Thank you for being a Spectrum Customer,

Spectrum Support Team

My answer: I say it’s not quite as cute as those red pandas at the WNC Nature Center.

Real answer: I’ll note that I’ve had some other folks ask about Spectrum’s billing and crediting practices in the wake of the storm, and I sent along another one of those questions to Spectrum spokesperson Patti Michel.

“Credits are being applied, and if customers have questions about their credits they should contact us and our customer service teams directly, who are best equipped to answer and explain account related questions,” Michel said.

I realize this is not terribly helpful.

Spectrum notes that, in general, “Credits are being applied for the period of time when service was out after power had been restored.”

“Customers who haven’t yet received a credit should see it on their next bill and should be able to see it online within 24 hours,” Spectrum says, noting that you can log onto your account and check the credit within the billing tab, under “current activity section” and then “credit & charges.”

Good luck, and let me know if you aren’t getting fair treatment.

Question: Neither you nor the City of Asheville seem to have mentioned the possibility of hardening the path of the existing water lines with concrete walls. They would need to be buried to the depth of the pipe, and/or line the river bank where it parallels the pipelines. It would be very expensive, but it might be competitive with installing new lines in a new right-of-way that would avoid the possibility of erosion damage from a future Helene-level storm event. Would you ask the city to consider that alternative?

My answer: Sure. I’m always happy to ask the city to spend a hundred million bucks here and there.

Real Answer: Water Resources Department spokesperson Clay Chandler pointed out a couple of big issues with this idea.

“First, the cost,” Chandler said. “The amount of concrete needed would far exceed our financial capabilities. There also exists a range of complications when it comes to accessing in the event of a leak or break water lines either wholly or partially encased in concrete.”

In other words, it would be tough to jackhammer through concrete to reach a broken line.

The two main lines out of North Fork were buried pretty deep under the road that leads to the treatment plant, and the bypass line, designed as a backup, was down at 25 feet. But all three still washed out under Helene’s relentless rainfall on Sept. 27.

Chandler did say the department’s primary focus, beyond daily operations and keeping the water running, is increasing resiliency.

He noted several projects that would help considerably with resiliency:

• Sediment basins for the six filters at North Fork and two filters at Bee Tree, which would allow the city to treat especially turbid water. Approximate cost: $101 million.

• An alternate bypass line at North Fork that is geographically separate from the current bypass. Approximate cost: $20 million.

• Longer term, a treatment plant in West Asheville that pulls from the French Broad River. Approximate cost: Depending on exact location and design, between $20 million-$50 million.

“Each of those projects would obviously require outside funding,” Chandler said. “Taken together, they would certainly require full or almost-full funding from our partners with the state, the feds or both.”

Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Got a question? Send it to John Boyle at jboyle@avlwatchdog.org or 828-337-0941. His Answer Man columns appear each Tuesday and Friday. The Watchdog’s reporting 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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