Like many in Asheville, North Carolina, retro PC enthusiast Clint Basinger—better known by his handle on YouTube, LGR—was not expecting the catastrophic extent of Hurricane Helene's damage to the town and western North Carolina at large: "I thought I was decently prepared for what was to come!" Basinger told me via email. "We've had several tropical storm remnants pass through before, so it felt rather routine."
Through his channels, LGR and LGR Blerbs, Basinger has chronicled his extensive collection of retro PC games, hardware, and other paraphernalia to an audience of nearly two million subscribers. I previously wrote about his beige Pentium 3 tower stuffed inside a giant Ikea Teddy bear, while some of my other favorites include a PC built inside an evil glass pyramid, a 2003 PC with a faux fish tank viewing panel, and his long running series on goofy computer mice. The thing I've always appreciated is Basinger's infectious enthusiasm for the material: Rather than Wata ratings or NRFB value, he's always most interested in this stuff's history, context, and cool factor.
I also did not expect them to fully cleave my roof and home right down the middle, front to back.
Given Asheville's previous resilience to storms—the town had been called a "climate haven"—and Basinger's archival care with his collection—humidity control and storage "on steel shelves elevated on casters or mounted on walls"—there didn't seem much cause for concern. Basinger even had the trees on his property inspected for structural integrity ahead of the storm.
But then Asheville weathered record rainfall before Helene even arrived, priming the area for the flooding to come. With no evacuation order, Basinger stayed put. "What I did not expect," Basinger said, "were two of the healthiest, largest, heaviest oak trees right in front of my house falling at the same time. I also did not expect them to fully cleave my roof and home right down the middle, front to back." In the face of such damage, and fearing for his own safety, Basinger made the call to leave his home and shelter with a neighbor.
"The room with the majority of my vintage hardware was right below where the trees fell through, and it started filling with rainwater in no time," said Basinger. "After briefly peeking into the collection room and seeing all of the water flowing down from the ceiling onto my 80s and 90s computers and peripherals, I simply sighed and closed the door right behind me. Seeing that absolutely made my heart sink, rapidly followed by numbness at how powerless I was to do much about it."
Miraculously, though, Basinger estimated that "95%" of the collection survived in his most recent video, and he's doing his best to keep things in perspective: "It could have been so much worse, but thankfully it was not," he said the new vlog. "Just looking at my actual neighbors down the road or on the other side of the mountain, unfortunately they don't have a home to even restore. Some people lost their lives—a lot of people did.
"Just extremely grateful for what I've got here: The community, the support, all of it. I'm gonna be fine."
Basinger is running a fundraiser through YouTube for Operation Airdrop, a charity that delivers supplies by air to victims of natural disasters. He also directed viewers toward Blue Ridge Public Radio's page documenting local charities to assist flood victims.
As for assessing his own life and the state of his collection after the disaster, Basinger took it piece by piece once he could safely return. The upper floor of Basinger's home did not collapse, and while the room where he stored most of his collection sustained significant water damage, he was relieved to find that most of his treasures could be salvaged.
I'd rather see a good chunk of it spread among other enthusiasts and collectors, hopefully being enjoyed and used more often than I'm able to do myself.
"The experience of taking each piece out of there and finding that nearly all of it was intact enough to simply need a wipedown and some drying off in the sun? Yeah, that brought on an unexpected and revitalizing sense of relief," Basinger told me. "I'd spent days wondering if I'd even be able to salvage that room of stuff at all due to how much rain had soaked through, so to find the majority of those cardboard retail packages and computer game boxes intact seriously caught me by surprise."
A great deal of old hardware still took the hit—in his vlog, Basinger stopped to inspect the remains of an absurd Ferrari branded laptop that cost $2,000 in 2005—but he expressed optimism that even some of these pieces can be saved: "There are many retro items in far worse condition that I've brought back to life before."
Basinger also described a newfound perspective on the retro computing hobby. In addition to rethinking having so many valuable items condensed in one place from a practical perspective, Basinger is considering how to ensure this history is best preserved and bringing joy to as many people as possible: "I also think more than ever that there's a need to redistribute a lotta this stuff."
"I'd rather see a good chunk of it spread among other enthusiasts and collectors, hopefully being enjoyed and used more often than I'm able to do myself. I also found myself thinking that if the worst case scenario happened and all of that stuff was irreparably ruined, that there'd be very little of it I'd want to reacquire. I'm not sure what to make of that last part yet, other than some part of me was ready to accept the loss and felt ready to move onto whatever's next. And I'm still ready for that, but I'm also glad that not much of historical significance was lost either."
