Recovery after Hurricane Helene
Dear friends and supporters,
In September 2024, my business experienced a disaster no one in Asheville was prepared for— the massive and devastating flooding from Hurricane Helene. Despite my studio being on the second floor of Riverview Station in Asheville's River Arts District, the floodwaters rose a historic 24.5 feet, causing over 3 feet of water to flood into the second floor, devastating my workspace and supplies.
The impact was immense: both of my pottery wheels were completely submerged in water and toxic mud, and I lost many wood throwing bats and tools that were essential to my craft. Several pottery pieces were damaged or lost, my glaze buckets and much of my clay were compromised. Additionally, many metal tools rusted beyond repair, and my torch, shelves, and countless other supplies were also a complete lost.
As we approach the one year anniversary, I have so much to be thankful for. Thanks to the amazing Kelsey Schissel of Plays in Mud Pottery, I was able to move into part of her studio and gallery to start making work again. Much of my tools and supplies have been replenished due to generous community tool drives as well as individual donations to my recovery.
A year later, donations will help fund my finite resources such as clay and glaze ingredients, but it will also help sustain my business while it experiences significant loss of sales due to the drop in tourism in Asheville from the disaster.
Thank you for your continued kindness and support as Keira Marie Designs weathers the prolonged affects Hurricane Helene has had on Asheville and its economy.
With gratitude,
Keira Marie Peterson
Aerial view of my studio at the height of the flood. My studio is in the lower right corner. The river is normally on the far right side of the picture, with a greenway, road, and large parking lot separating it from my studio.
A look at my compromised wood table with my destroyed torch, toolbox full of ruined tools, and the pile of my favorite tools ruined from a whirlpool in a heap on the floor.
Shelf of compromised bisqueware, works in progress.
I had to leave behind my two wire shelves as there wasn’t a safe way for me to remove them. You can see the layer of mud on the third shelf showing how high the waters rose. Thankfully I could salvage my work and supplies on the third shelf up. Everything below the third shelf was ruined and not salvageable.
My studio’s glaze room. I was able to save two buckets of glaze, but many buckets and test batches, as well as greenware works in process were ruined.
Looking into the room that use to be my office at The Village Potters Clay Center on the bottom floor of the same building my studio was in.
Thankfully I was able to save the clay on the higher shelves, but all the clay on the same shelf as the one labeled “65” and below were compromised, including a few bags of expensive porcelain.
Wood display shelf that was not salvageable, with some finished works I was able to save on the top shelf.
My wood top Soldner wheel (top left) and Shimpo wheel (middle top with the yellow splash pan) were completely submerged in flood water and covered in toxic mud. Among the wreckage was also all of my masonite wood throwing bats, my stool, ware boards, several buckets of reclaim clay, my three brand new rolling dollies, and several tools.
Above is a full view of the damage to my main working space. Below is the several inches of thick mud and clay we had to carefully walk through to salvage what we could, and the many wood bats I could not save.
The flood water line on the exterior wall of my second floor studio.