Three Lessons From Helene

The recent devastation in Western North Carolina, Eastern Tennessee, and other part of the country left a lot of people stranded without even the basic necessities. I was personally caught up in that for about 48 hours, and my situation wasn’t nearly as bad as some others. However, those 48 hours gave me a lot of time to reflect on planning ahead and how people tend to approach planning. Yes, I usually write about estate and Medicaid planning issues, and in the end these lessons can be applied to that type of planning as well.

On Friday, September 27, 2024, the day Hurricane Helene reached Western North Carolina, I was traveling back to Raleigh, North Carolina from an estate planning conference in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. I thought I had planned well enough ahead to travel through Asheville before the brunt of the hurricane hit, but I was wrong. I was actually the third car in line behind the DOT trucks with the flashing arrow closed Interstate 40 just east of Black Mountain, NC. With less than a half a tank of gas, I wasn't going to just drive around in the increasing wind and rain and got a room to wait out the storm.

I checked in around 11:30 a.m. to no power or Wi-Fi, which was expected. I had a solid portable battery, plenty of protein shake mix, a few vegetables, and several containers of water. I also had no shortage of Diet Coke in my car. I also had decent cell service. What I didn't expect was the emergency alert on my phone that a dam in the area was failing, and a suggestion to get to high ground. I already was, but I knew at that point there was going to be a lot more damage than just some high winds knocking down a few trees and power lines. There was no more cell service after that.

I went through the night just fine, and I set out that Saturday morning around 8 a.m. to find a way back to Raleigh. So after filling up all of the water containers and making a few protein shakes, I set out for Black Mountain. As I approached the exit for Black Mountain off Interstate 40, I saw signs that the road was still closed while simultaneously seeing there was some limited cell service on my phone, so I pulled off. While I couldn't get enough of a signal to check websites, I was able to text people out of the affected area and get information. While the DOT website was listing Interstate 40 as opening to traffic by 5 p.m., that didn't turn out to be the case. Other information listed a the winding local road of Route 9 to be open, my attempt to go through around 5:30 p.m. led me to stopped traffic because of a mudslide.

Along with several others, I ended up stranded in the parking lot of the Ingles in Black Mountain for the night. At this point, I had only eaten a tomato sandwich from a kind restaurant worker passing them out (or the food would have gone bad with no refrigeration), a sliced cucumber, and several protein shakes. I also drank far too much Diet Coke because I was preserving the water to mix with the protein powder. With very little sleep, I eventually woke at my usual 4 a.m. to find more of a cell signal. Of all places to get news on the condition of the roads, I was able to pull up Reddit and the Asheville subreddit had a post from a few hours earlier about how someone got out.

With a quick text to friends and family, I set out. I ended up traveling South on Interstate 26, got onto State Route 74 heading east, and finally was able to fill up on gas just before the warning light came on. All of the previous exits did not appear to have any power, which meant gas couldn't be pumped. I eventually reached Interstate 85 to head north until I finally reached Interstate 40 East around Greensboro. In all, I spent about 48 hours trapped, but I finally made it home Sunday afternoon around 1.

As I reflected on my ordeal, which was far less than what many more people went through, I realized there were three big lessons I could take away that equally applied to being prepared for travel as with estate planning:

Bare Essentials or Being Thorough: When planning for a trip with a potential hurricane hitting, you can go with the bare essentials or you can plan much more extensively. In my case for this trip, I had enough to get me through, but just barely. I had a nearly full tub of protein powder and some veggies, about a gallon and a half of water, and not even half a tank of gas. If I had just made one more stop before heading out, just to be safe, I could have gotten a case of water and more food. Thankfully, I had an excellent portable battery that kept my phone fully charged the entire time.

When it comes to estate planning, you can go with the bare essentials of an online Will service that also provides power of attorney documents and advance directives, or you can meet with an attorney who can assist you with a full blown estate plan that incorporates a revocable living trust. The online plan may get you through a disaster, but, then again, it might not be enough for your situation.

Once you are in a crisis, you only have what you have: The only thing you can do in a crisis is take stock of what you have, plan a path forward, and then execute it the best you can. In my case, I had to ration water in order to make sure I had enough "food" in the form of protein shakes to get me through several days. Thankfully, I only needed two days worth. I got home a little dehydrated but basically OK. With estate planning, if a document like a power of attorney or advance health directives don't have the correct/expansive language for your agent to do what they feel best, then they are just going to have to settle with the language in the existing documents until you can execute new and better ones.

Learn From Each Crisis and Do Better: Considering I travel to Asheville and other areas of the state to meet with clients, I am going to start keeping emergency rations in my car along with an "extra" case of water that I can regularly "rotate out "and use once replaced. I will also continue to keep extra paper towels, and I will also make sure my portable battery is fully charged. I'll also make sure to not drop below half a tank of gas at any point I am more than a quarter tank of gas from home.

As for this aspect of estate planning, many of my clients initially come to me when there is a crisis in either their life or someone else's, and they realize they need to prepare a little better. There is nothing like being an executor or administrator of an estate for two years to make someone want their estate to avoid probate, and they start looking into a revocable living trust. (For more information on avoiding probate, check out the free program at http://www.FreeTrustCourse.com).

In all, I made it out OK. I didn't necessarily think about these comparisons in the middle of the crisis, but I definitely did while reflecting on it later. And while I am now safe, by the time this is published there will still be a lot of people in need in Western North Carolina. While FEMA and the state have done a commendable job, non-profits and charities focused on disaster relief always need funds, if not for this particular crisis than the next one. If you wish to donate, please consider the American Red Cross.