ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — It takes water to flush a toilet and tens of thousands of North Carolinians have been without it since Hurricane Helene ripped through the state three weeks ago.
When Lark Frazier went around asking her Asheville neighbors how they were doing as far as water to flush, several burst into tears over the stress of where to go to the bathroom and what to do with the waste. Some told her they were eating less to avoid going. Others said they were dumping poop in the yard and covering it with leaves.
An elderly woman mentioned planning to scoop it out of the toilet with her hands. “Not only is that horrifying and inhumane but it’s dangerous for her to be handling her waste like that,” Frazier said. Since Helene swallowed mountain towns, damaged water infrastructure and killed nearly 250 people across the Southeast, local governments have been overwhelmed, and that’s spurred community organizing and innovation.
Frazier is one of the newly-minted leaders to have stepped up. She grew up in rural Colorado, using an outhouse for years before her family got a flush toilet. She drew on that experience, then came across the Emergency Toilet Guidebook online, published by the Regional Disaster Preparedness Organization in Oregon.
She began fashioning rudimentary toilets and training others to do it, too. The concept is simple: line a sturdy bucket with a thick plastic bag, cover the top with a toilet seat or a water-resistant foam noodle for comfort, then dr.