The Eden Lake Retreat buzzed with activity last week as a couple hundred attendees built mini solar installations, wired battery controllers and shared stories of recovery and resilience. Absent was the hum of gas generators, as strings of solar panels powered Starlinks, lights and projectors.
Jamie Trowbridge, a Marshall resident and operations coordinator for Footprint Project in western North Carolina. Footprint Project deploys solar panels and batteries in communities that have lost power after a disaster. In western North Carolina, they helped create a resilience hub in Barnardsville after Hurricane Helene. The nonprofit also organized this event, dubbed Resilience Fest.
“They refer to it as the ‘disaster rodeo’ because it’s a bunch of the same organizations that respond to disasters in a lot of places,” Trowbridge said.
When Hurricane Helene flooded western North Carolina, nonprofits scrambled to help until more permanent relief could arrive. This “disaster rodeo” follows in the wake of catastrophes, such as a traveling rodeo, providing essential services like water, electricity and communications. Many of those groups gathered recently near Asheville to revisit the community they helped 10 months ago.
One part festival, one part group therapy session
The festival gave these organizations a chance to get to know one another without the backdrop of recent catastrophe and get ready for the next disaster, wherever it is. Trowbridge said it was also an opportunity for some “show and tell” regarding recovery technologies.
Steve Combest, WaterStep’s chief operating officer, stood in front of a humming cart near the middle of the retreat. A hose releases a steady stream of water into a large plastic vat.
“This setup was used in Asheville,” Combest said. “Essentially, it’s a mini water treatment plant. So we were able to draw water out of a trout-worthy stream next to a fire station in Reems Creek, and we distributed about 80,000 gallons-worth of water.”
Combest said he took inspiration from the community in Asheville after Hurricane Helene. “The rest of the country could really learn a lot of good lessons from the way Asheville took care of itself,” he said.
In a shelter overlooking the camp, Trowbridge taught a workshop on connecting solar power to batteries after a disaster. Attendees learned how to build a battery control box that links solar panels to a trailer's battery, allowing folks to safely charge the battery and operate the home's lights without damaging the battery.
Jimmy Luttrell, a conceptual physics teacher in New Orleans and one of the festival’s attendees, connects red and black wires to a switch breaker inside the control box.
“I've been partnering with Footprint Project for the last three years to build solar generators in the classroom,” Luttrell said.
He said the class deployed 12 generators last year, six went to community organizations, such as community centers, lighthouses and gardens.
“In the classroom, I spend a lot of time talking about renewable resources,” Luttrell said. “I spend a lot of time talking about mutual aid and community resilience.”
Luttrell’s student projects reflect a growing trend among the organizations at Resilience Fest — a growing emphasis on preparing communities before disaster strikes. It’s something that Trowbridge at Footprint Project has been considering as well.
“Do you wanna live in a world where we all collaborate well to solve these problems and do it together?” Trowbridge said. “Or do you want to live in a world where we fight over things because of an imagined sense of scarcity?”
The evening ended with a benefit concert, hosted by the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association, at Sierra Nevada's Mills River brewery, featuring members of the Steep Canyon Rangers. It raised over $25,000 for Footprint Project and Land of Sky Regional Council.
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