Asheville one month after Helene faces long recovery

SOUTH ASHEVILLE, N.C. – One month after Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc on this corner of western North Carolina, the debris is everywhere.

Shade trees are cut into pieces, sitting on lawns, while ruined flooring and sheetrock pile up next to roads.

Bridges are cut in half, while homes, vehicles and appliances are strewn around, glued into riverbanks or resting in unexpected spots. The remains of a camper, several feet off the ground, are wedged into the railing of a city playground. A dirty blue sedan rests nearly upright, parked on a wooden fence.

If you spend any time on social media, new images or videos with fresh stories of destruction pop up every few days.

Since Sept. 27, groups and individuals have worked tirelessly to make sure people have what they need, from food to gloves to generators.

It’s a community driven to rebuild, while honoring the dozens of mountain residents who died in floodwaters or landslides.

But the recovery will be a massive undertaking, and while there is a course of positive energy running through the region, it’s hard not to be exhausted by living here.

Workers have lost wages, and small-business owners their dreams. Some restaurants and retailers are able to open, but with reduced hours and fewer offerings.

Children have missed as much as a month of school. The area’s largest district returned to the classroom on Friday.

Tourism, a critical revenue source for the region, especially in October, has been hobbled.

In Helene’s immediate aftermath, officials quickly asked visitors to reconsider fall vacations. Now, many western N.C. towns are pleading for day-trippers and leaf-peepers to return. Individual Asheville businesses are promoting their hours, encouraging patrons.

Behind a wire fence, the entrance to the fabled Biltmore Estate looks like it is newly under construction, with fewer trees and a view where a building used to sit. It’s a dusty spot because there’s been no rain since Helene and its preceding storm dropped over a dozen inches.

Asheville’s decimated water system is slowly coming back online. Most people have water, but it may be brown and suitable only for flushing. Shower trailers are set up around town. Towers of bottled water are in every store because we water can’t be safely used from a tap without boiling it first.

Bike and hiking trails are reopening, allowing for some fresh air and a chance to exhale. But with the Blue Ridge Parkway closed for the foreseeable future, many favorite mountains and views remain unreachable.

The scale and cost of recovery is immense.

The state budget office has estimated Helene’s damage and recovery needs at $53 billion. On Friday, the General Assembly approved a second round of relief funding, totaling $604 million, which is on top of an initial $253 million outlay. Gov. Roy Cooper (D) had asked for $3.9 billion, which he called “a downpayment on western North Carolina’s future.”

The state Department of Transportation has identified over 7,000 locations with road damage, including 654 bridges. At least 100 of those bridges need to be replaced, at a cost of at least $1 million apiece, according to a report in The Assembly.

The hit to tourism amounts to a potential “economic maelstrom,” said Elizabeth Button, the chair of Asheville Independent Restaurants (AIR), the Asheville Citizen Times reported.

In 2023, Asheville generated $2.97 billion from tourism, according to Explore Asheville and the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority. It accounts for 20 percent of the county’s gross domestic product.

Citing that figure, AIR has called for state and federal economic support to protect the industry, which employs nearly 15,000 people.

As leaders and residents discuss moving forward, conversations have started to ask, what can we learn from this and how can we reset? Will areas that never expected to flood but are now rubble be redeveloped? In a city already strapped for affordable housing, that discussion will need to be thoughtful and critical.

Asheville leaders have talked about the need to overhaul the city’s aging water system for years. This event has pushed that discussion to the forefront, and the repairs will be pricey.

Recovery efforts already look different, at the start of month two post-Helene.

Buncombe County has received such an outpouring of donations — from water to food to clothing — it’s asked for donors to shift to financial support. 

Much of the cleanup and rebuilding will now require professional expertise over the efforts of neighbors and volunteers.

For most, the tragedies of Asheville, Lake Lure, Burnsville, Spruce Pine, Marshall, Hot Springs, Green Mountain, and so many more towns and hollers, will move into the rearview mirror long before — years before — life returns to normal.

But as the overwhelming outside response to Helene moves on, it is imperative for the future of western North Carolina that its needs are not forgotten.

Katie Wadington is the deputy managing editor of The Hill. She has lived in the Asheville area since 2005 and spent 15 years on staff at the Asheville Citizen Times.