Tag: Beloved Asheville

#OnThisDay: 2nd Anniversary of Hurricane Helene Status Report

Since western North Carolina was so severely damaged by Hurricane Helene beginning on September 26, 2024, I am blogging about it today. I don’t want people to forget, and I want people to know that the people in the region are still recovering from the storm.

Trouble came on a scale no one could have predicted.

You can find thousands of photographs from the disaster online. I just did not have permission to post any of them.

Summary of Hurricane Helene Damages in North Carolina (Data gathered from various online sources, some not in agreement, of course. This is my best effort as a regular citizen.)

Lives lost: 106

Total estimated damages: Nearly $60 billion

Federal funds received to date: $14.4 billion

Highest recorded rainfall, September 25-27, 2024: 30.78 inches in Busick, a community near Mount Mitchell in Yancey County

Landslides: More than 2,000

Dams that failed or were severely damaged: 40

Tornadoes spawned: 8

Housing units destroyed or severely damaged: 3,800

Housing units damaged: 125,000

Timberland damaged: 822,000 acres

Trees downed in national forests in NC: Millions

State-maintained roads destroyed or heavily damaged: 5,000 miles

State-maintained bridges destroyed or damaged: 700

State-maintained culverts destroyed or damaged: 700

Privately-owned roads, bridges, and culverts severely damaged: 7,000

Water and sewer systems damaged: More than 160

Jobs lost in western NC in the month after the hurricane: 19,000

Examples of Assistance western NC has received:

Search and Rescue members sent from California: 151

Starlink internet terminals sent from a Kentucky storm chaser: 30

Starlink internet terminals contributed by SpaceX: 500

Line crews sent from T&T Line Construction of Hornwell, New Brunswick, Canada: 11

Additional line crews from Quebec, Canada: several

Line crews from across the US: multiple

Helicopters sent in to transport and set power poles: Duke Energy

Disaster relief assistance: 1st Battalion of the 169th Aviation Regiment of the Connecticut Army National Guard

Volunteer private helicopters in rescue efforts: Operation AirDrop and the Carolina Emergency Response Team

Meals provided by World Central Kitchen: More than 64,000

Affordable microhomes built by Beloved Asheville: 12 so far, with another village planned in nearby Swannanoa

New housing units built by Blue Haven, Inc. (a 501(c)(3) organization which is part of singer Eric Church and his wife, Katherine’s Chief Cares Foundation: 37 (Please visit https://chiefcares.org/ and https://wataugaonline.com/eric-churchs-chief-cares-expanding-in-western-nc/ to learn how this endeavor works and is being expanded.)

Value of pizzas donated to Asheville residents by Mellow Mushroom: $5,000

Liters of water distributed by FEMA: 6.5 million

Meals distributed by FEMA: 7.1 million

Cajun Navy arrived from Louisiana immediately with search-and-rescue teams. They stayed for weeks, if not months.

Heavy equipment work donated by Precision Grading of Tryon, NC (a small excavating and grading company that now includes a 501(c)(3) division to handle donations whose name is now Precision Grading & Disaster Relief.) Basically, their disaster relief work is free-of-charge, but individuals receiving insurance benefits for damages are requested to pay the company for work done.): More than 500 days of very hard work and counting. Visit https://myfox8.com/video/north-carolina-nonprofit-owner-worked-500-days-straight-helping-hurricane-helene-victims-rebuild/12197331/ for a recent report.

Mountain Mule Packers Ranch’s nonprofit Mission Mules (in Mount Ulla, NC) carried tons of food, water, insulin, building supplies to areas inaccessible by other means in North Carolina.

Books collected and distributed by 21st Century Packhorse Librarian: 9,000

PVC pipes cleaned out of the French Broad River due to the flooding of the IPEX plastics manufacturing plant in Woodfin, NC by volunteers from the environmental nonprofit MountainTrue: 6 million pounds. (IPEX has agreed to pay MountainTrue $500,000 for their efforts.)

Amish people from Pennsylvania and Ohio came and built tiny homes for people who had lost their home to the hurricane, but I could not find the exact number.

Rebuilding projects completed or underway in Yancey and Mitchell counties by Rebuilding Hollers, a 501(c)(3) organization: 585 (Visit https://rebuildinghollers.org/Projects for more details.)

Looking to the Future

Landslides:  The State of North Carolina is remapping western NC using new LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) scans that show the actual damage and waterway channel shifts as a result of Hurricane Helene. That data will continue to be processed for updated flood-hazard maps. That information will be shared with FEMA.

Information I found indicates that FEMA flood zone maps concentrate on rivers and coastal storm surge. Western NC is 300 to 400 miles from the coast. The steep terrain and 30-inch rainfall associated with the hurricane turned tiny streams into raging rivers that were not accounted for on FEMA flood maps. Therefore, fewer than 3% of the properties in western NC that were most damaged by Hurricane Helene are included in FEMA’s mapped flood zone areas.

LiDAR scans that have been superimposed over older maps that predicted potential landslide locations have lined up very well and have identified many additional landslide-prone locations. This information will be used to restrict future development.

Water, Wastewater, and Sewer Systems:  Water, wastewater, and sewer systems receiving State funds for repairs and reconstruction are required to repair/reconstruct to a higher, storm-resilient standard and not merely rebuilding to the pre-Helene standards. The NC Department of Environmental Quality has awarded grants totaling more than $1 billion for water and wastewater infrastructure in western NC counties. Another $750 million is needed.

Dam Repair/Reconstruction:  After not having a state budget for a couple of years, the NC General Assembly finally adopted a budget this summer. It includes $20 million toward the repairing and reconstruction of failing dams. Government officials and environmentalists will hopefully work together to implement work to be done. Reports indicate that some of the dams were constructed to supply water to textile mills that no longer exist and those dams – at least one of which dates back to 1905 – were not built for flood control. This, no doubt, will be a contentious issue over the coming years as removal of a dam is not a simple undertaking.

Brother Wolf Animal Rescue

If you’ve been following my blog for the last two years, you will remember that I have written a number of times about Brother Wolf Animal Rescue in Asheville, North Carolina. Staff and others did an amazing job of evacuating all the animals before the facility was wiped out by Helene’s flood waters.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Asheville stepped up and provided temporary quarters for Brother Wolf, and a campaign was held to raise money for a land and building(s) in a less vulnerable location. Having temporary space provided by the local ASPCA made it possible for Brother Wolf to find homes for more than 900 animals in 2025 and many more were given medical care.

In 2026, the ASPCA awarded Brother Wolf a $1 million grant toward its rebuilding!

Brother Wolf Animal Rescue is a registered 501(c)(3) organization. For more information, visit https://www.bwar.org/.

Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina

If you follow my blog, you know that the Blue Ridge Parkway is near and dear to my heart. Portions of the parkway are still closed, but it is predicted to be fully-reopened in NC by the end of 2026; however, not all hiking trails, picnic areas, or other recreation areas will be fully restored by then.

Please visit https://www.nps.gov/blri/planyourvisit/roadclosures.htm if you want more information or are planning a trip. That website is updated weekly.

Keep in mind that the North Carolina portion of the parkway runs from Milepost 216.9 at the Virginia state line to its terminus at Milepost 469.1, so most of the parkway is open now. Motorists just need to check maps of the parkway and plan accordingly.

If you’re planning a trip to enjoy the beautiful fall foliage in the Blue Ridge Mountains, be sure to get off the parkway occasionally to support restaurants and small businesses because they took a big hit in multiple ways since September 26, 2024.

Interstate 40 in Pigeon River Gorge

For months after the hurricane, I gave updates from the North Carolina Department of Transportation on I-40, US highways, state highways, and state roads as they were reopened – and in many cases – rebuilt. That story continues two years later and will not soon end.

I invite you to watch a two-minute video at https://www.ncdot.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/2026/2026-09-02-i-40-reconstruction-update.aspx, which is part of a September 2, 2026 update from the NC DOT. (Note the size of the Pigeon River under normal times in the right portion of the photo.) The numbers are staggering and the ultimate estimated completion date for the 5.5 miles of I-40 that were destroyed or severely damaged by the hurricane is now the end of 2029.

As is indicated in the referenced video, the state hopes to have three lanes open by the end of 2028. Currently, only two lanes (one eastbound and one westbound) are open with a 35 mile-per-hour speed limit.

US-176 in North Pacolet River Gorge

A 1.1-mile stretch of this federal highway between Tryon and Saluda, NC has been closed since Hurricane Helene. It has received little publicity, and I’m afraid I have failed to mention it in my earlier hurricane recovery blog posts.

A month ago, Blythe Construction of Charlotte was awarded the contract for this $32 million highway reconstruction project. The work is projected to be completed late in 2029. The project faces many of the same challenges as the reconstruction of I-40, as the highway is/was wedged between a river and steep terrain.

The flooding of the North Pacolet River during the hurricane washed out portions of the highway and all the soil underneath it. Some of the slopes where the highway was now drop as much as 60 feet down to the river.

Engineering for such a reconstruction project usually takes five to seven years but was fast-tracked and completed in less than two years. For more details, visit https://www.ncdot.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/2026/2026-08-17-us-176-helene-contract-awarded.aspx.

In Closing

I look forward to the day I don’t need to give Hurricane Helene updates! Perhaps on the storm’s fifth anniversary, Brother Wolf Animal Rescue will be settled in its new facility, the Blue Ridge Parkway will be fully restored to its former glory, I-40 will almost be rebuilt through the Pigeon River Gorge, and US-176 through the North Pacolet River Gorge between Tryon and Saluda will almost be rebuilt.

I apologize to the countless individuals, organization, and companies that I have failed to name that have and will continue to work tirelessly to help the residents of western NC recover from Hurricane Helene.

Janet

All history is local, but no history is just local.

Saturday’s 1st Anniversary of Hurricane Helene

If you’re tired of reading my blog posts about Hurricane Helene, just imagine how tired of the slow road to recovery the residents of western North Carolina are.

Saturday marked the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene ravaging much of western North Carolina. As I wrote this on Saturday, North Carolina was in a State of Emergency in preparation for a possible hit from what was developing into Tropical Storm or Hurricane Imelda.

As you can imagine, the word “hurricane” rattles us in North Carolina – all 500 miles or so from the Outer Banks to the Tennessee line.

I have tried to include a report on the area’s recovery every Monday in my blog. You may be tired of reading about it, but I believe it is important for me to use my little blog to remind all of us that it takes years for people and a landscape to recover from a natural disaster.

We tend to have short attention spans now, and there are so many things happening in our country and world that news organizations cannot dwell on the past.

We tend to think in terms of hurricanes being a coastal threat, but most of Hurricane Helene’s rath was visited upon the Blue Ridge Mountains in western North Carolina, some 500 miles north of where it made landfall on the Gulf coast and dumped up to 31 inches of rain on a rugged, remote terrain. It was a “perfect storm” of wind and rain coming on the heels of several days of heavy rain.

It is estimated that Hurricane Helene did $60 billion in damage to North Carolina alone. Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee also had damage, but my state’s damage was so severe that I have chosen to concentrate on it.

Likewise, I have primarily reported on the status of road repairs. That is not to ignore the fact that damage to homes, businesses, and lives is even more important. It is just not possible for me to gather details about the recovery of those aspects of life. I hope my weekly updates about the repair and reconstruction of our roads and highways have served as an indicator that people’s lives are still in disarray.

Today I will share with you a sampling of the damage, the progress being made, and the never-give-up spirit of the people of western North Carolina. There have been many milestones in the recovery, but there is still a long way to go.

Please don’t forget the people.

A NASA photo looking down on a hurricane
Photo by NASA on Unsplash Not Hurricane Helene.

Coal deliveries via rail

WLOS-TV in Asheville reported that a CSX coal train arrived in Spruce Pine on Thursday – the first train headed south to arrive in Spruce Pine since Hurricane Helene hit a year ago. Sixty miles of CSX railroad tracks were severely damaged in the storm.

Fish hatchery

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission reports that the Armstrong State Fish Hatchery in McDowell County, which was nearly destroyed by the hurricane, is anticipated to be fully operational in November. More than 600,000 hatchery fish died in the storm. The facility was partially operational last spring.

“Each dollar anglers spend to fish for mountain trout in North Carolina returns $1.93 to its economy and results in a $1.38 billion impact, according to new data from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC).”

Federal Emergency Management Agency

Some people are still living in FEMA housing. In fact, people are in some cases opting to purchase the FEMA trailers to continue to live in.

WBTV in Charlotte reported that “state officials estimated as of Wednesday, Sept. 24, North Carolina had received federal funds to cover about 10.6% of the state’s total $60 billion Helene damage estimate.”

The station’s online report quoted an Avery County elected official as saying, “They keep changing the goalposts.” There is growing frustration in Avery and Yancey counties after FEMA denied funding for debris removal that local officials thought were eligible for reimbursement. Mountains of tree debris create fire hazard during dry spells in such heavily wooded areas.

Local officials in mountain counties are complaining about how slow the paperwork is being processed by FEMA along with inconsistency in guidelines. A FEMA spokesperson decline an interview with WBTV and offered no explanation of the cleanup projects in Avery County.

Veterans Restoration Quarters

Asheville Buncombe Community Christian Ministry’s decades-old transitional shelter for homeless veterans was severely damaged and uninhabitable after the hurricane.

The more than 250 residents were evacuated during the hurricane induced flooding of the Swannanoa River during the storm. Water was more than a foot deep as the last evacuation bus pulled away from the property.

The WBTV report stated, “The timeline for reopening the Veterans Restoration Quarters is likely years away and is estimated to cost at least $13 million.”

Food relief

Last week 1,800 boxes of groceries were packed by volunteers in Charlotte and distributed near Asheville by MANNA FoodBank, Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina, and Food Lion.

The CEO of MANNA FoodBank was quoted in a WSOC-TV report as saying, “And what we’re seeing is the highest need for emergency food assistance that we’ve ever seen in our 42-year history.”

Beloved Asheville

Excerpts from Beloved Asheville’s website: https://www.belovedasheville.com/:

“We became a major distribution hub sharing life-saving supplies with 15,000 people a day in impacted zones from Marshall to Chimney Rock, Barnardsville, Burnsville, Spruce Pine, Pensacola, Waynesville, Marion, Old Fort, Black Mountain, Swannanoa, Asheville, and Fairview–towns big and small and mountain hollers. We shared millions of pounds of food, millions of gallons of water, and millions of necessities from hygiene, first aid, and tools for clean up and repairs.”

“We know it will take years to heal these mountains and our people. And we are committed to be here for the long-haul until the last nail. And we need people to join us in this commitment. We carry deep wounds from this storm, but we are stronger than we could have ever imagined. We know that together we can restore, heal, and rebuild this beautiful land and lift up our mountain neighbors. We invite you to join this movement to heal Appalachia.”

Brother Wolf Animal Rescue

Excerpts from Brother Wolf Animal Rescue’s newsletter last Thursday, looking back over the year since Hurricane Helene completely wiped out their facility…

“We lost neighbors, communities were swept away, and Brother Wolf’s entire campus…everything we had built since 2007, was swallowed by floodwaters. Every physical asset we relied on to save lives was gone overnight.”

“The day before the storm hit, something extraordinary happened. In just two hours, 100 animals were urgently evacuated from our shelter and carried into the arms of loving foster homes, saving them from a fate we can’t bear to think of.”

“In the days after, with no power, no water, no internet, our staff met in parking lots and drove through broken roads to orchestrate the transport of 150 animals out of the disaster zone. With partners, we treated over 1,200 injured pets—covered in fish hooks, with broken bones, sick from toxic floodwaters—and stood beside their families as they survived a nightmare.”

“These are the facts, but no list of numbers can tell the whole story. Because the hurricane did not end when the waters receded.It is still here. It is in us. It will be with us forever—a lasting scar and, somehow, a guide for what’s to come.

“And through all of it, the animals have been our compass. 

“When people think of animal rescue, they often picture the animal being saved. The dog carried out of floodwaters, the sick cat adopted from an overflowing shelter. And yes—that is true, we do save them; but what is just as true is how those same animals save us.”

“Today, one year later, the world feels heavy – full of griefs far beyond our own. In this shared sorrow, we’ve discovered that even as we mourn what was lost, animals are finding new beginnings. Families are laughing again. Neighbors are still helping neighbors. And together, we are slowly healing.”

“The ASPCA opened their doors to us, temporarily sharing their space so we never had to stop helping animals. Not for One. Single. Day.”

“As we look ahead, we carry both the weight of what was lost and the bright hope of what is to come. The road to rebuilding will be long, but also filled with possibility—and we are more certain than ever that the future holds incredible things for Brother Wolf, for the animals, and for our community.

“A new chapter is unfolding for Brother Wolf, and your kind heart is woven into the fabric of our story. Your belief in us has carried us through the darkest year of our lives, and together we are stepping into a future brighter than we could have ever imagined. Our story continues, written in every life touched, and enduring beyond storms and time: in saving them, we save each other too.”

Jake Jarvis of Precision Grading

I have mentioned Jake Jarvis of Precision Grading of Saluda, North Carolina, several times on my blog since September 27, 2024. I continue to follow him on Facebook. He is still out and about with his heavy equipment in the mountains of North Carolina every day, helping people and not charging them a penny unless that have insurance money with which to pay him.

Hurricane Helene Update at the end of Year One of Recovery

As of Friday, 38 roads in North Carolina were still closed due to Hurricane Helene. That count included five US highways, two state highways, and 31 state roads. That’s the same as last Friday’s NCDOT report. Progress seems slow, but remember that more than 1,400 roads were closed a year ago Saturday.

Of course, sections of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina will remain closed for another year or more, and I-40 at the Tennessee line will continue to be just two lanes at 35 miles-per-hour for a couple more years while five miles of the highway are being rebuilt in the Pigeon River Gorge.

Janet