\n\tOn the recent morning of Sept. 27, a handful of early fall rainstorms rolled into the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina. By late afternoon, sunshine had overtaken the high peaks and valleys in this corner of Southern Appalachia \u2014 a far cry from the chaos and destruction exactly one year ago.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThis morning, I felt fragile, but not to the degree I did a year ago when our whole existence was nearly swept away by the flood,\u201d Lance Mills tells Rolling Stone. \u201cToday, I observed the irony of looking out the windows of our new house at the wreckage of our old house, still frozen in the moment it could no longer be our home.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tOn Sept. 27, 2024, Mills, a local singer-songwriter, was awakened by his son telling him the Swannanoa River in their backyard was coming over its banks. In just a few hours, their home in the small community of Swannanoa, located between Asheville<\/a> and Black Mountain, North Carolina, would be flooded.<\/p>\n \n\tLarge swaths of Asheville, including its popular River Arts District<\/a> and Biltmore Village, were pulverized. Small towns along the French Broad River, like Marshall and Hot Springs, were severely affected, with floodwaters either leveling buildings or plastering the structures with thick mud and silt.<\/p>\n \n\tBy the numbers, Helene dumped upwards of 30 inches of rain across the region, resulting in 108 casualties, 73,000 affected homes, and $60 billion in damages for Western North Carolina alone. One year after the storm, it\u2019s estimated that only around nine percent of requested funds from Congress have actually reached the region. The state\u2019s governor Josh Stein is in a battle with Washington, D.C., to get the billions in needed funds. \u201cHelene is not just a story of destruction and pain, it is also a story of resilience and grit,\u201d Stein said in a social media post on the anniversary. \u201cThis recovery is not a sprint, it\u2019s going to be a marathon.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tA year ago, Darren Nicholson, an acclaimed Americana\/bluegrass musician, was atop Utah Mountain in his native Haywood County, North Carolina, helping clear driveways of fallen trees for trapped residents. Since the flood, Nicholson, like many artists<\/a> hailing from these parts, has performed at a string of benefit concerts and fundraisers around WNC. Last October, Luke Combs and Eric Church, both North Carolina natives, staged a massive benefit show<\/a> at Bank of America stadium in Charlotte.<\/p>\n \t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe are stronger together, supporting each other,\u201d Nicholson says. \u201cI hope that continues long after the initial push.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tOver the anniversary weekend, Asheville-based Americana group Rising Appalachia headlined a two-day show at Pisgah Brewing in Black Mountain. The event raised much-needed funds and also brought together several grassroots organizations still in the thick of post-Helene recovery, including BeLoved Asheville and ReString Appalachia.<\/p>\n \n\tFounded by Nicholas Edward Williams, a singer-songwriter, musicologist, and host of the American Songcatcher podcast, ReString Appalachia aims to replace the instruments of musicians damaged in the flood.\u00a0 So far, more than 600 instruments have been donated, with 550 flood victims able to receive the gifts \u2014\u00a0a symbolic gesture of empathy and culture in this musically-rich landscape.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI deeply care about Appalachian music culture. Our project was very intentional. We wanted to know exactly what people lost and wanted to replace one of each thing that they lost,\u201d Williams says. \u201cWe understand the mental wellness that music provides, especially in the midst of a disaster, and how you need to process your life somehow. A lot of people do that with music. So, if they didn\u2019t have that opportunity, then how could we help them?\u201d<\/p>\n \t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n \n\tSince Helene, ReString Appalachia has become a bona fide nonprofit. The organization has offered help in other natural disasters across the nation, including Hurricane Milton last fall, the Los Angeles fires in January, and the Texas Hill Country flood this past July.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThere\u2019s still so much rebuilding that has to happen,\u201d Williams says of WNC in a post-Helene world. \u201cAnd the amount of underfunding that has been received by our federal government is so unbelievable. It\u2019s incredibly infuriating.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWNC Long Haul was another vital organization that has emerged post-Helene. A \u201crecovery and resilience fund\u201d through the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, the entity focuses on distinct mileposts \u2014\u00a0three month, six-month, one-year, and three-year marks \u2014 following the storm.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI was thinking of it as like a savings account for recovery from Helene,\u201d says WNC Long Haul founder Rachel Dudasik. \u201cAfter the storm, everybody asked, \u2018Where do I give?\u2019 And there were a lot of great places, but what\u2019s going to be harder is when we still need these dollars in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tSince its inception, WNC Long Haul, a donor assisted fund, has given out nearly $500,000 to 23 organizations and nonprofits in need. There\u2019s also a large amount of funds earmarked for the three-year mark. \u201cYou see the things that you do make an impact, but it\u2019s still a drop in the bucket,\u201d Dudasik says. \u201cYou see the improvement, but then you drive around and see an empty lot that used to be a place you loved.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tA native of Marshall (pop: 777), Dudasik watched her community get destroyed by Helene. With the French Broad River overtaking downtown, every business there was eliminated.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThis community? These old, hunched mountains that raised me? I think we already had it in us to do what needed to be done, and to take care of each other,\u201d Dudasik says. \u201cI just don\u2019t think we knew it yet. The silver lining of the storm was everybody helping out. These mountains weren\u2019t made for the storm, but the people were.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThere are too many stories, too many tragedies, and too many silver linings to properly detail, especially as the national media spotlight has long moved on to the next crisis. But the town of Marshall represents a microcosm of recovery and resiliency in the wake of the floods.<\/p>\n \n\tIn early May, Marshall hosted a reopening ceremony for the downtown corridor. As officials cut a red ribbon on the steps of the town hall, the sounds of buzzsaws, hammers, and construction vehicles echoed throughout the streets. The work remains, and so do the people.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI have cried so many times this week just thinking about getting ready for today,\u201d Connie Molland, co-owner of Flow Gallery and treasurer of the Downtown Marshall Association, says. \u201cRibbon cuttings are new beginnings, and this is a new beginning for our town.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tLocated on Main Street in Marshall, Flow was \u201cBusiness No. 6\u201d to reopen. Prior to Helene, there were roughly 25 businesses in the historic downtown. All were taken out by the flood. According to Molland, around 13 buildings in that small riverside corridor \u201cdo not exist today,\u201d with another eight structurally damaged. The town hall and post office have yet to reopen.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThere were days I didn\u2019t know if I could keep doing it, but people just kept showing up,\u201d Molland says of the cleanup. \u201cAnd I knew it was important for us to reopen.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAcross the street from town hall on Main is Zuma Coffee, the social hub of the community and an anchor business of Marshall since it opened in 2002. It\u2019s also home to a popular Thursday night bluegrass jam. During Helene, Zuma was pummeled, with most of the business going downriver. \u201cAs I was watching [the flood], I thought, \u2018There\u2019s no way I\u2019m doing this again,\u2019\u201d says Zuma owner Joel Friedman. \u201cBut we just got right back into it again. People show up.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tA few doors down from Zuma is the Old Marshall Jail. Even with the business reopening, owner Josh Copus is still running around, covered in dust and paint, either putting finishing touches on his building or helping fellow business owners. \u201cI think it\u2019s important for us to celebrate the progress we\u2019ve made and the work that we\u2019ve done,\u201d Copus says, \u201cwhile also being very clear to everyone in the world that, \u2018This is not over. We are not OK.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWith the late afternoon sunshine beginning to slowly fade, the barstools at Mal\u2019s, a raucous honky-tonk spot on Main Street, start to fill up. Opened in 2022, it has become one of the go-to places for fellowship and live music in Marshall and the surrounding communities. Right before the river began to rise, Mal\u2019s was still planning to open, but all eyes were on the flood stage. At peak flooding, 11 feet of water smashed through the windows and filled up the bar. Today, Mal\u2019s owner Mallory McCoy and her staff are once again pouring drinks.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe\u2019re lifers at this point,\u201d she says of the bar\u2019s return. \u201cAnd I think we have the community that everybody\u2019s looking for. We all do our part.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAlong with being a contributing writer for Rolling Stone, I\u2019m also the arts and culture editor for The Smoky Mountain News, which extensively covers the region. Over that time, I\u2019ve been lucky enough to report from every corner of these mountains. Helene affected me deeply, and as we cross the one-year anniversary of the storm, I\u2019ve struggled to make sense of what happened here, and what still needs to be done.<\/p>\n \n\tI lost most of everything I own in \u201cThe Flood,\u201d as it\u2019s called nowadays by those who reside in WNC, when the Pigeon River in the small town of Canton overtook its banks and sent a wall of water through downtown and a storage unit I rented. It\u2019s all just stuff, but the emotional toll was real: Mementos of my past were covered in toxic mud and now lie buried in a landfill somewhere.<\/p>\n \n\tBut most often, I find myself thinking of Lance Mills and Rachel Dudasik. As Mills processes the one-year milestone, there\u2019s a bit of good news in his life. His new home has finally been completed and he and his family moved in just last month.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cTonight, I\u2019m feeling immense gratitude for the fact that we have a roof above our heads and warm, dry beds to sleep in,\u201d Mills says. \u201cEverything changed a year ago today, except that we have each other and we now understand that nothing else matters more than that.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n \n\tDudasik, meanwhile, remains committed to the work that remains \u2014\u00a0physical, economic, but also cultural and political. In conversation, she emphasizes that we as a people must retain the hope and compassion seen during the aftermath.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe need to grasp onto that moving forward, not only to the determination and the drive, but also the humanity of it all,\u201d she says. \u201cThat part is easier to lose when you\u2019re not shoveling mud every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the recent morning of Sept. 27, a handful of early fall rainstorms rolled into the Blue Ridge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[17383,192,47095,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-204361","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-asheville","9":"tag-environment","10":"tag-hurricane-helene","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}