North Carolina: Helene’s Heroes

Economic recovery and rebuilding take hold in Henderson County, North Carolina.

I finally stopped thinking about the life I left behind and began to focus on the adventure ahead. My body was energized, and my optimism quickly carried me down the trail. I longed for the challenges that awaited me, and I raced down the path to find them.” ­­— Jennifer Pharr Davis, longtime resident of Hendersonville, North Carolina, in her book, “Becoming Odyssa: Adventures on the Appalachian Trail”

One year after Hurricane Helene killed 108 people and caused $59.6 billion in damage across western North Carolina, signs of rebuilding and recovery are everywhere in places that lost everything.

Choking back tears, Henderson County Commission Chairwoman Rebecca McCall recounted the moments of sheer devastation.

“The day after, every road was blocked,” she says. “I live in Flat Rock, and I could not get to my parents because of all the trees, floods and washed-out bridges. It came down, literally, to neighbors helping neighbors.”

It was not until day two that people learned that 1.5 million residents in western North Carolina had lost power. “It was impossible to get to Asheville from Hendersonville,” says McCall. “The Interstate was closed because it was either flooded or covered with debris.”

What happened next was nothing short of miraculous. “Every county employee came to work on Monday and many worked through the weekend,” McCall says. “The storm first hit us on a Thursday night and Friday morning. Friday was the first day we woke up to it.”

Two fronts pinned Helene down and held it in place over Henderson County while the tropical storm dumped 30 inches of rain on the county of 120,771 people. “The storm would not leave,” says McCall. “It just sat there for hours and hours.”

A storm three times the size of Hurricane Katrina brought devastation the likes of which had never been witnessed before in western North Carolina. According to meteorologist Ben Noll, approximately 1.5 times more moisture was transported to western North Carolina than had occurred in any prior recorded event in the region. A 1,000-year event was considered to be 16.5 inches of rainfall. Helene dumped nearly twice that amount — a record 31.33 inches — on this highly mountainous terrain.

Loss of life came quickly and suddenly, as 43 people perished in Buncombe County (the Asheville area) and 12 people died in nearby Henderson County. A total of 22 counties in western North Carolina lost at least one resident to the storm.

By September 27, the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) had issued a warning to residents that all roads in western North Carolina should be considered closed and unusable. The National Guard was immediately deployed to the region.

Floodwaters caused a massive mudslide that washed out an entire section of Interstate 40 at the Tennessee-North Carolina border. The Pigeon Forge River rose to its highest mark in recorded history. Henderson County Manager John Mitchell remembers it vividly: “Downed trees blocked everything,” he says. “The flooding got much worse. Trees brought power lines down with them.”

Entire Towns Swept Away
Brittany Brady, president and CEO of the Henderson County Partnership for Economic Development, says that some of the hardest-hit areas in the county were those around the French Broad River, Mills River and Fletcher. “This storm was very impactful for the Town of Fletcher and the manufacturers there,” she says. “About $40 million in damage was done in just one industrial park alone. Equipment was damaged and lost as the Fletcher Business Park took a direct hit.”

Commercial businesses in Hendersonville did too. Floodwaters overran the Fresh Market, Harris Teeter and McDonald’s on the south side of town. The dam on Lake Summit in nearby Tuxedo and Zirconia failed, releasing huge water flow from the Green River and swamping homes, businesses and camps throughout the area.

Other nearby towns absorbed their worst flooding disaster ever. Asheville’s Biltmore Village was submerged for a month. The Black Mountains got deluged. The scenic little towns of Chimney Rock, Montreat and Swannanoa were essentially washed away. A good chunk of the village of Chimney Rock ended up in Lake Lure. “Everyone lost something,” says Brady. “Our topography is just different. There are many people who are still suffering.”

Mitchell adds that “the Deep River Valley was hit the hardest. Bat Cave and Green River were hit hard. The river through Chimney Rock at its peak was three times its normal width. Many properties there were completely washed away.” The Fruitland, Horseshoe and Hot Springs areas also sustained major damage.

What ultimately saved the day, says Brady, was “the leadership in our county. They moved forward faster than anyone else. I went to the county manager and asked him to run a distribution center. The county stepped up immediately and did whatever we needed them to do. We did not get a handout. We just worked really hard, and we worked together.”

A total of 1,500 major structures in Henderson County were destroyed. The tax base in the county suffered about a 2% loss. Mitchell estimates that the county spent about $100 million on its storm response and cleanup. “We could only do that because we had a very robust surplus of 12% of our budget,” he says. “The state only requires 8%, so we were better prepared than most. We also have a well-funded capital projects budget. We rose to the challenge of the event — the largest natural disaster in the history of North Carolina.”

108 people died and $59.6 billion in damages occurred due to Hurricane Helene from September 25-27 in western North Carolina.

Source: North Carolina Governor’s Report on Helene, December 2024

The state will be dealing with the repercussions of Helene for years to come. State government estimates that road repair projects in Henderson County alone will cost more than $1 billion. Statewide, the estimate is north of $5 billion. Federal funds are projected to cover around 81% of those costs.

While five people remain missing and other losses are still being counted, the region is moving forward and showing signs of growth, says Mitchell. “Our sales tax numbers are still on an upward trajectory of 2.2% this year. We are showing 2% growth in hotel and motel tax receipts and a 4% increase in our tax base.”

The Harris Teeter and McDonald’s just reopened; and Fresh Market will soon reopen after a complete remodel. “Henderson County is open for business,” says Mitchell. “The county has embarked on a community rebuilding plan for Bat Cave and the area around it. Our working goal is for that community to be even better than it was before the storm.”

A Blueprint for Recovery
Brady says that is also the goal for Hendersonville. “The North Carolina Railroad Company gave us a grant to bring in a consultant to write a business recovery plan for the county,” she says. “We hired VisionFirst Advisors out of Florida. They have done a fantastic job in developing a master plan to lead us on a road to recovery.”

Though relatively small in population, Henderson County has been a regular producer of corporate facility expansion projects over the past decade. According to the Conway Projects Database, 31 corporate facility investment deals have landed in the county since the start of 2016, bringing $678 million in new capital investment and more than 2,000 new jobs with them.

“We rose to the challenge of the event — the largest natural disaster in the history of North Carolina.”

— John Mitchell, Henderson County Manager

Notable projects during that time include a $217 million factory investment by GF LINAMAR in Mills River in 2016; a $27 million electronics plant investment by Smartrac Technology Fletcher Inc. in Fletcher in 2019; and a $19.25 million warehouse and manufacturing space investment by TAGEOS in Fletcher in 2023.

Over the past three years, a total of five facility deals have been announced in Henderson County. The largest of these was a 200-job metals plant investment by Emtelle USA Inc. in Fletcher. Earlier this year, Manna Food Bank announced a $7 million food and beverage warehouse investment in Mills River.

With Fletcher and Mills River absorbing the brunt of Helene’s wrath, rebuilding the heavily damaged infrastructure in those communities will be at the top of the list of priorities moving forward, say county officials.

Brady, McCall and Mitchell all emphasized that the county would not even be in a position to rebuild had it not been for the volunteer help that poured in from around the country last year when the county needed it most.

“Volunteers came from all over to distribute supplies to flood victims and displaced residents,” says Mitchell. “EMS workers from Alaska came and helped us run a 157,000-square-foot distribution facility that was set up to give out relief supplies. The generosity of people from other areas of the country made recovery possible.”

He singled out the work of the Volunteer Fire Department. “They were the real heroes,” he says. “A lot of them went door to door and checked on every house and every single person. They saved many lives.”

Brady echoes that and adds: “Because of the hard work of so many people, we are open for business again in Hendersonville and Henderson County; and we are open for tourism. I think that in so many ways, we have come so very far in the last year and we have so much to be thankful for.”

A recent visit to Hendersonville confirmed this progress. I spent a week there in late June and saw visible signs of recovery everywhere: a packed auditorium at the Flat Rock Playhouse to see “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” a completely full restaurant at Arbella’s for brunch on Main Street, bustling crowds and cash registers at Mast General Store, and hardly any open spaces left for parking on Main Street for dinner at The Purple Onion in downtown Saluda.

It’s only been one year since Helene, but the people of western North Carolina have already shown us who the real heroes are: the hardworking residents who wasted no time rebuilding homes, factories, streets, parks, schools, warehouses, stores, restaurants, playgrounds, community centers and more.

As record-setting through-hiker Jennifer Pharr Davis can attest, life is not about what you leave behind. It’s about the path ahead.