From a friend and a mother of a Warren Wilson student: "Warren Wilson, my kid's tiny college, is an unusual place. It's the queerest place I've ever been (75% by Eli's estimate). It's a music school that emphasizes the offbeat (Eli has taken West African drumming and Klezmer). It's faculty are great teachers. Eli has loved them all, which is pretty darn unusual. It's a farm school, which raises animals for meat (although a big chunk of the students are vegan). And it's a work school, which means the students all work on campus doing everything from landscaping to admissions. It's also in Swannanoa, the epicenter of Hurricane Helene destruction. Because the students work on campus doing more than just answering phones and leading tours, they had skills they could bring to bear to help recover at least partially from the storm. The forestry crew was especially busy cutting the trees that had come down and a student stepped in to supervise the making of meals for 700. The college has been collecting their stories. The terrifying tale below is from the head of the pig crew. There's a link to donate to the recovery fund as well. Small colleges are always on the brink of financial disaster. I worry that this storm could do this amazing place in."
www.warren-wilson.edu
"As floodwaters rose during Hurricane Helene, student Sof Smith — the “Pig Boss” on Warren Wilson College’s Farm Crew — checked to ensure that the pigs were safe in the higher paddocks where she and other students had moved them before the storm. As she fed pigs, the lower fields were already underwater. A few minutes later, she noticed with alarm that the floodwaters had already risen halfway across the middle fields, where they had moved several six-week-old piglets and their mothers the day before to keep them safe. Sof knew then that the fields behind, where they had several more pigs, were certainly in worse shape.
“We had no idea it was going to get that bad,” Sof said. She had to make a quick decision — if she didn’t move the pigs, they would drown. These pigs had never been integrated together before and would likely fight. But at least they’d be alive. She and two other students got the piglets and their mothers into their houses.
Cont. at the link."
www.wbtv.com
