Asheville, North Carolina is among the very top of communities in the Appalachian South hardest hit by the storm Helene. The Associated Press description of what their reporters saw in Asheville: The destruction and desperation were unimaginable.
Why? Asheville and many surrounding mountain towns were built in valleys...
WHY? Why are cities built in valleys? Why not build cities upon the hills?
The outdated answer is that cities needed a mode of transportation to deliver and receive goods. Like Johnstown, Pennsylvania. That's right, Flood City. There is a river that runs through Asheville, too the French Broad River. I don't know what goods 19th century Asheville sought to move, lumber perhaps, but whatever the original motive, the times long out grew that motive.
Asheville is now a thriving, vibrant tourist destination and is the home to a liberal arts university, the University of North Carolina at Asheville. Guess where they built the university? I'll give you a hint. The address is 1 University Heights. I'll give you another hint. The university motto is "I Lift My Eyes to the Mountains". Several dozen people gathered on high ground in Asheville, where they found one of the city’s hottest commodities — a cell signal. I guarantee you they climbed to the university, a city upon a hill.
