Cat Perry - This oral history interview features Kat Perry, a Blowing Rock Town Council member, recorded on September 20, 2025, at the Blowing Rock Art and History Museum.
Story
This story was submitted on December 4, 2025 by Admin
- Title
- Cat Perry - This oral history interview features Kat Perry, a Blowing Rock Town Council member, recorded on September 20, 2025, at the Blowing Rock Art and History Museum.
- Description
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Perry has lived in the area for 13 years after attending Appalachian State University in the 1970s and returning many times with her husband before purchasing their home in 2016. At the time of Hurricane Helene, they lived on the golf course in Blowing Rock at approximately 4,000 feet elevation. Perry describes the rain as not particularly ferocious but relentless, lasting for hours. She and her husband monitored a drain at the top of their driveway that regularly clogs during normal rains, going out every 30 minutes to clear it to prevent flooding into their garage. About two hours into the storm, Perry walked around their small two-street neighborhood to check on neighbors, completely unaware of the larger consequences unfolding across the region.
Remarkably, Perry's home never lost power, though they did lose internet—which she describes as nearly causing her to "lose my mind," revealing how dependent daily life had become on connectivity. Without good cell service and unable to Wi-Fi call, text, or receive messages, they felt isolated despite being physically safe. When the rain subsided, they drove to the Food Lion parking lot to find internet access, responding to concerned friends from all over—their first indication that the situation was being widely reported as serious. The next day at Food Lion, Perry encountered a fellow town council member and others who said "it was really bad." She and her husband drove to Sam's Club in Hickory to buy water, returning to donate it to the Presbyterian Church food pantry across from Braum, only to find they were already overwhelmed with supplies and seeking additional storage space. Perry helped them locate a secondary location, then visited the American Legion, which had already established a smoothly operated collection and distribution system.
Perry emphasizes the strange contrast of Blowing Rock seeming "sort of spared" and existing "in a bubble" while just miles away there was "total devastation." She learned much later about the full extent of loss—friends living near Meat Camp on nearly 50 acres had a house slide down from the hill above them in a mudslide, killing all four occupants. Perry reflects that nobody anticipated mudslides of that magnitude, noting that what devastated the western part of the state "wasn't flooding as much as mudslides"—the water moved the earth so quickly and without warning. She praises the community's spontaneous response, with people rolling up their sleeves immediately, and describes witnessing many people filling vans and trucks to deliver supplies long distances for months. As a member of the Rotary Club (motto: "Others before self, service before self"), she notes they donated significantly to charities and rebuilding organizations. Perry acknowledges feeling changed by the event, developing "more of a sense of community on a larger scale" and recognizing that unpredictable disasters like hurricanes and tornadoes (Blowing Rock had a tornado a couple days before Helene) can happen anywhere. She expresses hope for better emergency notification systems, particularly for isolated mountain areas where terrain creates communication challenges, referencing a journalist's series about people in the Spruce Pine/Mitchell County area who had no warning before being washed away. Perry appreciates the oral history project's focus on real people's stories rather than "parachute journalism" where national reporters cover an event and leave, missing the ongoing recovery narratives. - Spatial Coverage
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