derive of environs

I lived in Asheville 20 years ago when Hurricane Katrina devoured New Orleans. Friends and friends of friends came here as a place of refuge. Tent cities popped up at the punk houses across town. In the evenings there would be campfire stories about people stealing cars to get away. I lived with someone that had lived in New Orleans for some time and put zines out specifically about New Orleans punk culture. When the Spike Lee joint When the Levees Broke came out, we rented a motel to watch it as we did not have a television. The documentary seemed the only connection to the real world. I was not here in Asheville for Helene, but that motel was destroyed in the storm. Also, that friend basically drank himself to death after returning to NOLA. Last I saw him I was in New Orleans and took him out for a drink. When he left the bar, the bartender asked if I knew him and that they were worried. Saying that I was the only person they had seen him with that he seemed close to. He was underground punk famous at one point, as were so many others. I think he had falling outs due to changing politically correct requirements, and bad boundaries with the new upcoming generation…and maybe a few of the old guard.
Post-Helene Asheville is different than the one I visited in the summer of 2022. There is a vacancy is people’s eyes that is unexplainable. There is a silent violence in the abandonment of the southern Appalachian people, similar to that of the people of New Orleans during Katrina. Lack of infrastructure has made space for drugs and nationalism. Bars I use to frequent are now dens of sin and competition for turf. They all seem to also work for FEMA during the nine to five, at least they look like that one guy I saw in that big truck.