Report from @margaret on autonomous mutual aid efforts in the wake of #HurricaneHelene in #Asheville, #NorthCarolina.
"Then another church with another relief site. Then the fire station, more relief. Then the anarchist bookstore, bustling with people self-organizing to get supplies out everywhere across the region. Every day there’s a community meeting out back, with spanish and english translation available. The punk bar across the street set up a portapotty after they cooked and gave away all the food in the walk-out freezer.
Yesterday I waited by the back door of a grocery store with a fireline of people collecting the food that was going to otherwise be thrown out. There wasn’t a line of people waiting to take it home personally, which would have been fine, but instead fifteen cars of people connected to probably half a dozen different mutual aid organizations, constantly discussing which small town’s distribution hub currently needs fresh produce, or water, or insulin.
Mutual aid looks mostly like meetings, spreadsheets, Signal loops (group messages), wellness checks, and deliveries. Deliveries by car, by truck, by ATV, by dirt bike, by pack mule, by helicopter, by foot. Neighbors who don’t even like each other are knocking on each other’s doors and making sure everyone has what they need."
https://margaretkilljoy.substack.com/p/disaster-compassion-is-real-in-north