'I'M HOMELESS, BUT I'M ALIVE'

HURRICANE HELENE AFTERMATH BOONE — Suzanne Baber didn't see a pass, a run or a touchdown during Appalachian State's return to its home field, and she was fine with that. Baber, who's an EMT, was among the thousands of western North Carolina residents who suff ered the wrath of Hurricane Helene as it spawned destructive fl ooding across the region. That fl ooding severely damaged her home and has forced her and her two cats to move to temporary accommodations.

Yet, there she was on Saturday, operating one of the elevators inside the Mark E. Ricks Athletics Complex atop Kidd Brewer Stadium, ferrying photographers, TV technicians, reporters, cheerleaders and nearly everyone else up and down throughout the game with Georgia State. The only thing she knew about what was going on outside was what people would occasionally tell her.



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More than 33,000 watched the football game, while many others away from the contest were continuing the task of cleanup and recovery from Helene. The storm devastated a wide swath of the region and Boone was not spared as flood waters rushed through the town. But for the time Baber spent at "The Rock," all was good.

"I lost my home and everything in it," Baber said. "Yeah, it was nine feet of water. I'm homeless, but I'm alive.

" Being at the game, she said, was a necessary distraction. "It feels great because I needed that diversion from watching everything I had. Sixty-two years of pictures and memorabilia and things like that," Baber said.

"So, I needed that diversion, and I'm so happy to be able to come here for that." Baber said police in Newland told her that they tried to reach her at her home to get her to leave, but she apparently slept through their warning. With the floodwaters approaching, Baber gathered her cats and left home.

She said she spent more than two hours in the rain inside her car in the parking lot at the police department not knowing where to go or what to do. Ultimately, she landed in a motel in Linville with the clothes on her back and her cats. She would go back to the home to find her favorite pair of sneakers, adorned with the App State colors as well as a logo and Yosef, the mascot.

"You're in shock," she said. "You're just thinking, 'What am I going to go back to?' I had that home for eight years and it was paid for." As she left the center, she was carrying a styrofoam plate full of food that she could warm up in the microwave in her room.

But at the end of November, she will have to give up that room. At that point, the future will be up in the air. Her home needs massive repairs, if that's possible.

Reuniting Several parking lots adjacent to the stadium were filled with tailgate parties where people were reuniting for the first time on a Saturday since the ETSU game on Aug, 31. App State had a Thursday night game against South Alabama and was scheduled to play Liberty on Sept. 28.

Helene scuttled the latter. "We've been tailgating with, basically, this crowd for probably 30, 35 years, and it's always a regathering of old friendships," said Don Hinson of Charlotte, whose other home in Blowing Rock was largely unscathed. "And that's what it means.

"We get to see our friends again. But as much as we love football," he said, "football is secondary to the fellowship." About a football field away, Don Solesbee and his friends renewed a tradition that he said has gone on for 30 years.

He calls the setup "The Solesbee Shack." He said he was out of bed at 5 a.m.

to get ready for the day. "It was a tragic, horrific type event that happened, but having the game this Saturday was important for this community," Solesbee said. "You have local businesses, local business owners that for weeks were closed, and when you bring in 30, 35,000 fans to this community, these businesses thrive.

Solesbee acknowledged that October is the biggest month of the year because it's the time when the leaves display their vibrant colors, drawing tourists from far and wide. That didn't happen this year because utility workers and other critical personnel needed the local hotel rooms as a base before going back out into the field. Businesses didn't get to cash in on that, but Solesbee suggested that a comeback is looming, and it started with the football game.

" "So, this is a return back to some normalcy for the folks here locally, while being sensitive to those that are still struggling because that won't change for months up here," he said. The other comeback The game that drew 33,373 people was a see-saw affair with eight lead changes. A Joey Aguilar touchdown pass in the closing minutes led to a 33-26 victory, the significance of which was not lost on Aguilar.

"This was the first home game in almost a month and a half. So, it's a big win, not only for the team, but the community," Aguilar said. "Give everybody a chance to step out of reality for a little bit of the things that were going on and just get a win back in Boone.

Appalachian State football coach Shawn Clark, whose team climbed to a 3-4 record, drew a parallel between his team's challenges and those facing the residents surrounding him. "Just like our community has battled their tails off the last four weeks to get some normalcy in their lives, our program has been doing the same thing," Clark said. "Our community is behind us 100%, and we're behind our community 100%.

It's going to be a long haul for our community, and we're going to be there every step of the way. I hope today's win gave everyone in western North Carolina and Watauga County something to be proud of." Feeling good Her bosses, Baber said, told her she could have stayed away from the game.

She wasn't having it. "I feel like I won because my bosses were reluctant about would I want to come after losing my home and everything in it," Baber said. "And I was just the opposite.

I was like 'Heck, yeah, I want to come and watch App State play' and I want to come, work and be here because it was just the camaraderie, the people, the laughing, they know me. They didn't know what I'd been through, but it just put a smile on my face." By the time Baber was able to leave, Kidd Brewer Stadium was empty.

She's not sure what the future holds, but in the meantime, she will wait on insurers, FEMA and anyone else to come look at her home and see if it's salvageable. She reiterates the fact that she survived the onslaught because there were others who didn't survive. "So, when you kind of do the comparison in perspective, you just look at it and say, 'Well, this was great to be able to come back to App State and just have all the camaraderie and people laughing," she said, "and that's not what I had for the last four weeks.

'" And when Old Dominion visits App State next weekend, Baber's bosses may try to make her stay away, but her mind is made up. "App State, they just mean a lot to me," she said, "so I'm just glad I can come to the game and I'll be here next Saturday for our next game." Skip.

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