ASHEVILLE, N.C. — You never appreciate the basic necessities in life until you are without them.
Imagine being without running water for weeks. No way to take a shower and no way to make food.
One woman has been without water like many others across western North Carolina for weeks after Hurricane Helene hit.
While she has water now, she told WFMY News 2's Amber Lake that when she didn't she would come down to the creek, and she would use a small bucket to bathe herself, wash her hair and take water back up to her home until the water was turned back on.
"People are anxious and people are stressed. Then I thought about this creek," said Liz Bulkley.
Bulkley, along with her cat, Seymour, made the trek from their home to the creek every day.
There, she would wash her hair and fill buckets up to bring back up to her home.
"I never thought I would experience something like this for such an extended period of time too. I believe we were without water for 19 days," said Bulkley.
Bulkley and Seymour introduced the creek to neighbors so they had means of temporary water as well.
Thankfully, water has been restored to the neighborhood within the last week. However, some restrictions are still in place.
"I don't really know anybody who is willing to drink that water because it's cloudy and it's, you know, comes with warnings and so most things are, are ok in the household, for instance, I can flush my toilet, which is really terrific," said Bulkley.
That is progress for a part of the state who couldn't even do that for weeks.
But, as we've said before, mountain folks are resilient. And like Bulkley, they are doing what they can to press forward.
"I also see that right now we're vulnerable and in the face of that it takes some incredible strength to overcome those fears and anxieties. And I think we're on the road to doing that," said Bulkley. "This is a powerful place here in western North Carolina. It's really powerful. Some people believe there's a lot of magic in the mountains here."