Mayor Zeb Smathers Guides Canton Through Aftermath of Tropical Storm Fred
Tropical Storm Fred slammed through Haywood County on August 17, leaving a swath of death and destruction that is all too familiar to this part of Western North Carolina. It had only been 17 years since the remnants of hurricanes Ivan and Francis left their mark on the Town of Canton and surrounding communities over the course of 10 tragic days.
In the aftermath of Tropical Storm Fred, the NCBA Young Lawyers Division, working in partnership with the ABA Young Lawyers Division, Legal Aid of North Carolina, and FEMA, activated the state’s Disaster Legal Services network. “The DLS pro bono program,” as denoted on the NCBF website, “provides disaster-related resources and services to the public with the support of the North Carolina Bar Foundation.” Learn more here and volunteer.
The storm’s aftermath also brought to light the efforts of NCBA member Zeb Smathers, who serves as Mayor of Canton and was just reelected earlier this month. Like his father and law partner Pat Smathers, who served as the town’s mayor from 1999-2011, Zeb Smathers is now witnessing firsthand what it takes to lead a community through the recovery process in the wake of a natural disaster. His thoughts were captured in the following interview for North Carolina Lawyer magazine.
How much advance warning did you have?
An hour and a half. We knew there was going to be a lot of water, but we had no idea what destruction would occur. All day, I and others were monitoring the rainfall, but at 3:30 that day, we started to receive reports of what was happening in Cruso (located south of Canton on the Pigeon River). Then came the reports of retaining walls breaking. I was in Canton, at Riverview Garden, our local “feed and seed,” when I saw the water rising. I have never witnessed anything like this water rising . . . it was almost supernatural. Immediately Canton was broken into two halves of the riverbank, dividing our citizens and response teams.
I’m not looking for a medal – there are plenty of people who deserve one – but at one point because the water came so quickly, I had to get into the water and get people out of their homes. If it’s a hurricane, we have days to prepare. For this storm, we had hours at best.
If this storm had happened a few hours later, with children home from school, we would have lost hundreds of lives, because there was no warning. One big difference between 2004 and now is social media. As a result, people were able to communicate and get out. People ask me was this storm worse than the storms of 2004? My answer is yes because of the intensity, how quickly it happened, the number of deaths, and no preparation time.
What happened next?
That evening I contacted Governor Cooper’s Office, Senator Tillis and Senator Burr, because luckily, I had knowledge of how the emergency management chain of command works. Also, we are blessed to have several Canton employees who were with us in 2004. I also leaned on my father who was mayor in 2004.
The water recessed as quickly as it came. Search and rescue started immediately. Our local emergency management teams were assisted by Swiftwater teams from New Hanover County, the Cherokee Tribe, Greensboro, and Buncombe County. We initially projected that we had lost about 60 lives which turned out to be six; but six is too many. If not for the bravery of these teams, the number would have been higher. I will never have enough words to adequately thank these men and women from across the Old North State.
Mayor Zeb Smathers, left, leads U.S. Senator Thom Tillis through downtown Canton. (Photo courtesy Mountaineer Publishing Inc.)
Speak to the bipartisan support your town received.
I cannot say enough about the cooperation between Governor Cooper’s office, Senator Tillis and Senator Burr’s office, our local delegation in Raleigh, and the bipartisanship and leadership shown by our local elected officials. It took exceptionally too long for us to receive our FEMA declaration, but we finally received it from President Biden. Senator Tillis, former Rep. Heath Shuler, and Governor Cooper did an amazing job getting the declaration signed.
The cooperation across the region and across the state – from food to rescue equipment – it’s tragic that it takes a tragedy to bring out the best in us.
Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers, right, and Gov. Roy Cooper tour Canton following Tropical Storm Fred. (Photo courtesy Mountaineer Publishing Inc.)
I was doing an interview with a reporter out of Raleigh, who asked me, “How does this change you as a mayor?” I responded by saying I didn’t like the toxicity beforehand existing in our political discourse, but once you see what happens when people do work together, it changes you.
Yes, there is a time and place for disagreement and politics, but once you see what can happen when people work together, you realize we don’t have to settle for less.
If you want the discourse, if you want the division, if you want the destruction, that’s easy. But you don’t have to do that. We can do better. We can fly with our higher angels.
We witness it time and time again across this state and across this country when people work together across political lines. We’re not going to agree on everything, but the important stuff, we can find solutions. It is my hope that the lasting legacy of this storm not be the destruction and death, but the end to some of the division. Let that message be what defines our future, whether it be locally or across the state or the nation – that we can come together.
Zeb Smathers, left, leads House Speaker Tim Moore, right, and area lawmakers on a tour of Haywood County. (WLOS staff photo)
How is the recovery progressing?
In some ways we are farther ahead than I thought we would be. Some businesses are back open, and some are getting ready to reopen. Canton is a blue-collar mill town, but for years we were in a permanent state of decline. When I was elected as an alderman in 2013, we had about an 18 percent downtown occupancy; we’re now at 85 percent. There are so many mill towns across the state, whether it is textiles or furniture, that have been shut down. So, the realization that Canton has fought it way back while still having a manufacturing base provides us with a deep sense of pride.
As a result of our blue-collar heritage, Canton has an immense amount of grit. We’re not afraid of a fight, hard work, or having the odds against us. Canton has been down before, and we fought our way back; we will do it again. Just within our city limits, we lost our town hall, our police department, our fire department, our recreation facilities, several homes, and many businesses. Outside of our city limits in our communities like Cruso and Bethel, we have hundreds of people displaced. Haywood County was facing a housing shortage before the floods that is worse now.
The contents of Riverview Farm and Garden were moved to the parking lot by community members. (Photo courtesy Mountaineer Publishing Inc.)
So, in some regards we will be back sooner rather than later, but some things will be slow to return. It will be years before Canton’s town employees have a permanent home to call our own. I remember in 2004 they said, “Oh, we’ve had two 500-year floods back-to-back. We will be good for a while” . . . we made it 17 years. But it is easier said than done when you’re living on a river. The question is “How much are you going to spend?” knowing this will happen again.
People are saying, “Yes, we want you to build back,” but what can we do to make the next storm easier to deal with? Money saved is money earned. But we’re waiting to see what the federal government gives us, we’re waiting to see what Raleigh gives us – right now it is tied up in the budget talks, but the wheels are moving. Until we know how much money we’re dealing with, we really can’t plan for the future.
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Was Canton ground zero?
No. The worst disaster was in the Cruso community; the water upstream literally created a wall of water. This wall caused massive landslides, knocked out most bridges, and caused six deaths. The storm was simply a monster which started in Cruso and worked its way down the river to us.
Bethel Bridge on the Pigeon River incurred significant damage from Tropical Storm Fred. (Photo courtesy Mountaineer Publishing Inc.)
What have you experienced in regard to legal issues?
I knew very quickly there were going to be many legal questions in the aftermath of the storm, for example navigating FEMA procedures and deciphering insurance policies. I think the legal needs of this community will be ongoing for quite some time.
Thinking long term, I feel there is going to be a permanent need for disaster relief attorneys in North Carolina as it now seems these types of storms are a constant in our state. It may be in the northeastern corner of North Carolina, or it may be out here in the mountains, but you’re dealing with many of the same legal issues that pull from many different areas of the law.
Locally our legal system, our judges, lawyers, and clerks have been great and responsive to the needs of our citizens. Here in Western North Carolina, we are blessed to have so many citizen lawyers – lawyers I saw in court in the morning and shoveling mud from businesses in the afternoon. Lawyers who are talented enough to be at large firms, making more money, living in a bigger cities, but choose to practice in a small town. Lawyers can make such a difference in the lives of so many when they choose to practice in places like Haywood County.
Personally, I think in these areas there is such an opportunity for lawyers to make a difference in domestic court. For example, when you counsel a young mother who is contemplating getting herself and her children out of an abusive relationship. When as an attorney you can encourage your client to be an example to their children, especially daughters, that they deserve better. Watching these clients get a new home, receiving a 50-B, working with local law enforcement to be able to move forward. I always tell these mothers that their children are going to grow up in a different world and they need an example from their mother of strength, resolve, and not settling for a dangerous situation. That it’s never too late to be a superhero to show their children they deserve a better, safer life.
Lawyers like myself have watched the opioid crisis wipe out a generation of Haywood County opportunity. I’ve been to more funerals than I would like but have also watched people get the help they need to get their homes back and their children back through assistance with DSS. Citizen lawyers can play such a major role in making people’s lives better and being that steady hand through the storms of life. Many of our clients don’t have a mom and dad, they don’t have a church family, they don’t have friends that have their best interests in mind; lawyers can fill those gaps to show love and a path forward.
Most lawyers in these areas across North Carolina do not keep track of pro bono hours because it is such a normal, everyday occurrence. It’s what we sign up for and we are honored to do. But in these small towns, lawyers still matter. You’re still “their lawyer.”
At Christmas we have a client for over 20 years who has brought our law firm a rum cake. Or someone might bring by a nice bourbon, although my wife tells me that we cannot pay the bills with Kentucky mash. It is something meaningful and special when people come to you and you’re are part of their family. I think that is so much of what the bar and our law schools should instill in our attorneys.
I tell a lot of my clients – that they don’t call it the pursuit of happiness for nothing. It is a pursuit – you have to go out and get it. So if you don’t like your job, the relationship you’re in, the color of your kitchen walls, do something about it.
I do worry that there are so many colleagues of mine making good money, but there is something missing. There are ups and downs to being a general practitioner and a citizen lawyer, but I never have a doubt that I am making a difference in people’s lives and that fulfills me more than any fee.
There is such an opportunity for the citizen lawyer, especially in this state. The strength of North Carolina was built on our small towns, our public schools, and our universities. The importance of getting educated, making connections, and returning to your hometown to build a stronger North Carolina from Murphy to Manteo. That’s how we got where we are in this state – we’ve had great leaders like Terry Sanford and Jim Hunt. They understood that connection of giving back to the place that has given you so much.
And I think truly that if North Carolina is going to remain stable and grow in the right way, we need lawyers in these communities making a difference. Lawyers who are running for school board, getting involved in their churches, speaking up on issues that matter. And yes, it is important for lawyers to get elected to the legislature – Democrats and Republicans. There was a strength in having lawyers serving in Raleigh in the past. Look at the General Assembly and see the deficit in elected lawyers. Some of our strongest leaders have a legal background. For example, the Speaker of the House Tim Moore is a practicing attorney down in Shelby. Governor Cooper started with his family’s legal practice in Nash County. Lawyers have a legacy to uphold in helping shape the very laws we advocate.
Anything we didn’t discuss that a good reporter would have asked you about?
For the legal community, I just want to say thank you to the people across the state for their prayers, support, and hard work. Legally, I am mostly involved with ones working in Buncombe County, Henderson County, and my jurisdiction, which is Haywood County to Cherokee County. The lawyers, the judges, the district attorneys, the clerks – just the kind words and support – it is such a wonderful place to practice law, and that is because of these colleagues. Each one of these people, whether you’re a DA, a magistrate, judge, or in law enforcement, again had opportunities to go elsewhere, but came home. We cannot lose how special our legal community is because if we do, we will never get it back.
To keep our legal community, I return to the political lessons I learned during the floods. We don’t have to settle for division, doing what is best only for us, or being lost in billable hours. There’s nothing to say we cannot still be a close-knit legal community and family of attorneys helping each other. The only reason we don’t have to do that is if we choose not to.
We can choose to be better. Every day when you leave your house, we as lawyers get to make a decision on what type of person and what type of lawyer we’re going to be that day. Being a good lawyer, being a good person, making a difference, caring for your fellow man and woman, it’s a reality and it does exist. We just have to make a conscious decision to do better.
Russell Rawlings is director of external affairs and communications for the North Carolina Bar Association.