Andrew Turnbull served as the resident caretaker at Buck Creek Trout Farm for more than a decade. His trailer was on site, allowing him to keep an eye on weather events and other risks to the fish and the property. He fell in love with his surroundings and the people who came from all over the world to visit the catch out pond, brimming with North Carolina trout. Turnbull enjoyed helping people weigh and clean their catch, paid for by the pound. Visitors returned regularly, remembering Turnbull and his dog, Lucy, who took seriously her role of greeting customers.
Business was strong before Hurricane Helene hit, with a lot of visitors finding the trout farm because of its proximity to the Blue Ridge Parkway. “We had just remodeled everything, as far as our gift shop and the area around catch out pond,” said Turnbull. “It had all been rebuilt from the ground up, and it was very nice.”
Forecasted rainfall means late nights and little sleep for trout farm caretakers, who work day and night to mitigate water flow and protect the fishery habitat until the weather improves. Turnbull had been doing that the morning Helene hit. Over three days, he watched the water get higher and higher as the storm approached.
“It got to a point where you couldn't mitigate anymore, and we just had to shelter in place and wait for it to blow over,” said Turnbull. “We just knew that soon it was going to blow over and it was going to be sunny and the water would go back down.”
The creek began flooding and Turnbull grew concerned about how high the water was getting. He was sitting at his kitchen table, exhausted from days of round-the-clock caretaking, when he checked the water level again and realized he needed to get to higher ground. He took Lucy to his friend Steve's nearby cabin, then hurried back to grab some personal belongings. Back at his trailer, Turnbull began gathering up his wallet, cell phone, and a change of clothes. The moments that followed took him by surprise in a way that was difficult to describe.
“I took a minute to make sure I had everything I needed, and in that moment, that’s when, boom! The mountain came down,” said Turnbull, still impacted by the memory. “It wasn’t water that happened. It was more like a slurry of rocks as big as a table, with huge logs, and…earth! Everything you can imagine.”
Turnbull got his bearings as quickly as he could and looked around for a way to escape his damaged surroundings, noticing that one end of his trailer was missing. His kitchen was gone. His bed was gone. He looked across the way toward the neighbor’s house and could see directly into their living room. The gift shop down in the valley was gone. His car and the farm truck were gone.
“My structure was just demolished,” said Turnbull. “If I had fallen asleep at the kitchen table, I don't know where I'd be right now.”
All of the points of references to his surroundings were gone, but he knew that land like the back of his hand. He made it back to the cabin to be reunited with Lucy and Steve. FEMA arrived the next day to rescue them, despite sections of the road being washed away.
With the trout farm years from making an uncertain comeback, Turnbull faced the need to start over. At 54 years of age, still unsettled from the impacts of Helene, he didn’t have a career path in mind, but he knew that being in the outdoors was a priority. In December, his neighbor and McDowell Tech faculty member, Darian Buchanan, encouraged him to apply for a state-funded emergency grant to start taking classes and building new skills. Being able to start over without incurring debt helped Turnbull embrace his transition back into the classroom.
He is currently taking classes in carpentry and heavy machinery and says he is thankful to have the opportunity to learn and put his new skills to use helping people and aiding in recovery.
“I’m taking one day at a time,” said Turnbull. “I'm just happy to be here and I'm thankful for the opportunity and I'm very appreciative of the grants and all the help that we have received.”
Visit our WNC Recovery Stories page to find more stories about student grant recipients, and to learn more about the people and organizations making a difference in western North Carolina.