Melissa Ginther

Melissa Ginther

Melissa Ginther reflects on her experience helping a family of six who were displaced after a massive landslide sideswiped their house, and they were forced to evacuate in the middle of the storm.

English

1 digital audio recording

mp3

3:00

Hi, my name is Melissa Ginther, and I live in Grovemont, and I live above the massive landslide that destroyed three homes and killed two people. That same landslide sideswiped an Airbnb, and in that home, there were six individuals living. They were trying to figure out if they were going to live in Asheville or the surrounding area, or move back to Utah. They, after getting sideswiped by all the debris of the landslide coming downhill - they weren’t sure what to do. They knew they couldn’t stay in their house, so they weren’t sure if they were going to go up the hill or down the hill. They prayed to God, and God told them to go up. The first house they came to, an older woman said that she wouldn’t be of much help to them because she could barely take care of herself. They kept going up the mountain. Each hand that they put into the side of the mountain just oozed with water. But the mom and the dad, and the four kids kept going.

I had just gotten done letting my dog outside because there was a lull in the storm, and he starts barking. And I’m like, “Jasper, what are you barking about? There’s nothing out there.” I look out the window, and there’s this little kid coming up over the side of the mountain where I live. I quickly rushed them inside and get them to safety. The next four days, we hang out in the house. The parents are facing some ethical issues and also a lot of trauma has rose up within them, but it doesn’t keep us from working together. They watch the children, and all five children, one of which is mine, played so hard together that I think really diminished the impact of the storm and what had happened to their family and to ours. I’m a single mom, so it was really endearing to have my child have so much fun those four days. While everybody was off having fun, it allowed me, who is a very wilderness-minded and can live off the land, to prepare places for going to the restroom for seven of us - eight of us, taking water up from the nearby streams.