WOR morning co-host Michael Riedel returned to the airwaves this morning after a camping trip to North Carolina that turned into a rather harrowing experience due to Hurricane Helene.
Riedel arrived in North Carolina last Tuesday and learned from his group’s guide that the forecast was for rain for the entire duration of their trip. At that point no one connected the rain with the hurricane, however. “[We were up] in the mountains and…it's beautiful…the Smoky mountains…[it was] absolutely gorgeous,” Riedel told Len Berman and morning news anchor Larry Mendte. “[We] hiked [while] walking over little streams and creeks.”
When their time on the mountain first began, Michael and his fellow hikers may have thought their run-in with a bear was going to be the craziest part of their trip. “We saw…a big, big, full grown male black bear right on the path,” Riedel told Berman and Mendte. “And the guide said, ‘Hey, bear,’ and the bear kept coming. He said [to us], ‘OK, on the count of three, we're all going to yell hey, bear.’ [So we did] and the bear keeps coming. And [the guide] said we're going to do it again, and if [the bear] keeps coming, we're going to scurry up the side of the mountain, and we're going to let him pass.’ So we all yelled, ‘Hey bear’ and the bear looked at us, perked his little cute ears up, and then he went.”
Hear more about Michael’s trip via the podcast player below:
After two days of near-steady rain, Riedel’s group’s guide made the decision to end the hike and come down the mountain to seek safety. “The guide said if we don't get down to the road…the river is going to flood and we will be trapped…because there's no way emergency services will be able to get to us,” Riedel told Berman and Mendte. So we [had] to get down as quickly as we [could]. [But] all of the little streams and the creeks that we crossed on the way up…were now raging torrents of water, and we had to find places to cross. And when we crossed the streams, we all had to, like, hold on to each other to form a chain so that the water wouldn't wash us away…and we had to do that three times.”
When they reached the bottom of the mountain and headed into Asheville North Carolina, the guide noted that the French Broad River was flowing over its banks and told the group that that was going to be a big problem in terms of flooding.
Even though they were without electricity, internet, or phone service and had virtually no food and were down to just four bottles of water to share among 10 group members, Riedel and his group found a bed and breakfast in downtown Asheville that despite calls for evacuation was willing to take them in. “You know, I have to say I was very lucky,” Riedel reflected. “There was a woman who worked [there who] took water from the Creek behind the B&B and…made vegetable soup [using vegetables from their garden]…to feed us.”
Ultimately after three days stuck in the aftermath of the storm, Michael was able to share a ride to the airport with another guest at the bed and breakfast and landed back at LaGuardia airport last evening. Talk about home sweet home.