David Armbrust interveiws at BRAHM listening day - Sept 20, 2025
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This story was submitted on December 4, 2025 by Admin
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- David Armbrust interveiws at BRAHM listening day - Sept 20, 2025
- Description
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This oral history interview features David Armbrust, recorded on September 20, 2025, at the Blowing Rock Art and History Museum. Armbrust has lived for over 25 years on 15 acres with a post-and-beam house on the Pisgah with breathtaking 100-mile views, located at the end of a three-quarter-mile gravel road through forest off Highway 221. Like many residents, he initially dismissed the approaching hurricane, believing it would dissipate over land and become just a rainy storm. He followed weather podcaster Ryan Hall Y'all, whose coverage indicated no major threat was expected. Fortunately, Armbrust had installed a whole-house generator about 18 months prior and had a 75% full propane tank, which he calculated would last three weeks. Two months before the storm, he had also purchased a Verizon home internet box for $35/month as backup—a decision that proved critical when AT&T's DSL lines went down, allowing him to maintain internet access throughout the eight-day power outage.
During the storm, Armbrust experienced the dramatic contrast between his reinforced concrete lower level (where rain looked like a fire hose spraying the house but wind was inaudible) and the main floor where it sounded like the roof would blow off. His home weather system recorded sustained winds of 85 mph and gusts of 135 mph before the device itself blew away. He watched giant trees 2.5-3 feet in diameter and 120-150 feet tall whipping like saplings, later learning from Ryan Hall's coverage that seven tornadoes had touched down nearby, explaining the violent tree movements. After five days of clearing with chainsaws and his tractor alongside a younger neighbor, they reached Highway 221 only to find a fallen transformer blocking their exit. Armbrust then took his adventure motorcycle through the woods and onto Holloway Mountain Road, riding through mud to reach Highway 105, where he saw a double-wide trailer jammed under a bridge and rode through inch-deep running mud into Boone. He reflects on the critical lesson that staying was dangerous—had he been injured, rescuers couldn't have reached him and he would have put others at risk. The community response impressed him, particularly the American Legion Hall's massive food and clothing distribution operation with organized sorting and labeled boxes. He watched endless "sky caravans" of helicopters flying relief missions all day between Lenoir and Banner Elk areas. Despite offering his generator-powered home for hot meals, showers, and air conditioning, his independent-minded neighbors declined, embodying what he describes as "semi-frontiersmanship." A year later, the Army Corps of Engineers finally removed some trees, but dangerous deadfall remains on hillsides, creating ongoing wildfire concerns. - Spatial Coverage
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