Community Spotlight: Nanostead relief Hub, Marshall NC

Five weeks after the French Broad River submerged downtown Marshall, the community-led recovery effort has made tremendous progress, but the road ahead is long and muddy. We spoke to Marshall local volunteer Morgan Diep, at the Nanostead relief hub on a warm November day.⁠
⁠
Diep says the volunteer hub at Nanostead, originally a tiny home construction company, grew organically into a bustling basecamp in the first days after the flood. "We started serving hot dogs out of this parking lot, and by 48 hours after starting, had a full scale operation." ⁠
⁠
The lot now includes an outdoor kitchen, an extensive library of donated tools and PPE, and a decontamination station where volunteers hose off after returning from the mud-filled buildings downtown. "We really had little outside help or interference coming in, so it was all local community response. It's changes in perspective when it's everybody that, you know, going down there and trying to help each other," says Diep.⁠
⁠
We drive through downtown Marshall past piles of debris and boarded up storefronts. Diep explains that these buildings have been cleaned out already and are now waiting for the rebuilding to begin. "Two weeks ago, that was a pile of debris and mud twice my size," she says. The older brick buildings of Marshall largely survived the flood, including the Old Marshal Jail Hotel where Morgan worked before the storm, but the south side of town is a different story.

Here, the red brick gives way to twisted aluminum, broken boards and empty concrete slabs. Because the French Broad flows South-North through Marshall, the newer buildings bore the brunt of the flood. An old train caboose, that served as a landmark for this small railroad town, now sits off its wheels far from the tracks. Ricky, our driver, explains that it was flipped upright by the Army.

Along with her boots-on-the-ground work, Diep designed a mobile app to help with communication and resource management across the volunteer corps. "I just fit in where I knew I could help and started building digital systems where we could communicate with each other, built a little resource app for just quick information sharing," she says.

Diep says through it all, what's struck her most was the sense of community in Marshall following the disaster. "It's been it's been incredibly difficult, but also incredibly special to be a part of something that is, a collective experience. And the amount of love and support that we've given each other has been the most incredible part of that."

You can learn more about Nanostead, including how to support their relief efforts at their website.