September 26, 2025 • 31 mins
One year after Hurricane Helene, state officials and communities are reflecting on the disaster’s long recovery. Leaders are pressing for quicker federal aid and fewer bureaucratic hurdles in the aftermath of future storms. Meanwhile, Invest 94L is being closely monitored as forecasters track its potential development in the Atlantic. At the same time, conversations in Raleigh are turning toward the possibility of redrawing congressional districts, which could have major political implications.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
It's five oh six and welcome into a Friday edition
of The Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk eleven ten
ninety nine three WBT. I'm Nicked Craig. A good morning
to you. Well. The calendar this morning it reads at
September the twenty sixth, the one to day, what tomorrow
and one year ago. It was a Friday, September the
(00:29):
twenty seventh, twenty twenty four. That's when the center of
Hurricane Helene crossed the South Carolina North Carolina line around
eight am. As you are well aware in our coverage
over the last year, it brought widespread destruction to portions
of upstate South Carolina in the mountains of western North Carolina,
(00:50):
causing flooding, landslides, and hurricane force wind gusts, leaving unimaginable
devastation and destruction in its wake. This is one of
the same that made this storm even more deadly than
it should have been. Heavy rain had already fallen across
western North Carolina in the days and weeks beforehand, priming
(01:11):
the mountains and saturating the tree roots in the ground
for catastrophic flooding, and so when Helene hit dumping while
it was a record amount of rain. The saturated ground
just couldn't take any more. In many trees in the
western half of the state tipped over like twigs. It
was not much to push them over due to the
ground being so saturated. The storm was the deadly Atlantic
(01:34):
hurricane since Maria back in twenty seventeen, and the deadliest
to strike the United States mainland since Katrina in two
thousand and five. According to the National Hurricane Center they're
based out of Miami, Florida. North Carolina recorded one hundred
and seven fatalities, eighty six directly from the storm and
(01:54):
twenty one indirect from things like medical emergencies, car crashes,
and posts. Storm cleanup. Eighty six individuals dying directly from Helene.
That record of deaths in North Carolina one hundred and seven,
making it, from at least a record keeping standpoint, the
deadliest storm in North Carolina history, and damaged well. Unfortunately,
(02:17):
it was everywhere. Homes, businesses, hospitals, schools, leveled, destroyed literally
in some cases washed away, as landslides and historic flooding
took out major roads and highways. We all saw the
video and pictures of Interstate forty literally falling apart into
the western half of North Carolina. Bridges destroyed as well,
(02:41):
the electrical grid completely ripped out of certain areas of
western North Carolina, cellular systems, water treatment facilities, many of
them heavily heavily damaged, during some cases completely destroyed, and
as we have looked at the recovery over the last
twelve months, Helene now ranks as the fifth costliest Atlantic
(03:02):
hurricane on record, behind only Katrida, Harvey, Ian, and Maria.
Those are all obviously storms that have affected North affected
the United States, I should say, over the last twenty
years or so, and it is unfortunate to see so
much of the devastation and destruction estimates still hanging in
(03:22):
the ballpark of around sixty billion dollars for Helene just
in western North Carolina. That does not include the impacts
of the Florida area, the Big Bend area of Florida
where the storm made landfall, and the devastation left in
portions of Georgia and South Carolina. That sixty billion dollar
total just the state of North Carolina. The National Hurricane
(03:45):
Center report on Hurricane Helen paints a devastating picture for
western North Carolina, as they have done a really good
job in the last year, and as you would expect
them to do, to do research and provide historical data
and accounts of that storm. The North Carolina Forest Service
estimating more than eight hundred thousand acres of timberland were
(04:09):
lost and two hundred and fourteen million dollars was done
in damage to the forests alone. Bunkom County, which hosts
the city of Ashville, was hit especially hard and received
a lot of major national media attention due to the
fact that Asheville is a very large, the largest city
in western North Carolina. The city of Ashville and Buncom
(04:31):
dealt with flash flooding, river flooding, and landslides. Thirty seven
people died in Bunkham County, one of the largest populations
of death anywhere from Helleen. Sixteen died in landslides around
Fairview in Swananoah and Black Mountain, nine drowned and raging
floodwaters of the Swannanoah River, and six lives were lost
(04:52):
immediately in the city of Ashville with more fatalities, but
as there was so much devastation int struction, it's really
hard to pin down exactly Unfortunately, where some of those
individuals lost their lives. More than five hundred water rescues
took place just across Bunkhom County alone as historic river
(05:12):
flooding devastated Ashville's low lying areas. The Biltmore Village was
submerged or in some cases literally swept away. The River
Arts District was largely destroyed, and flooding also struck Bernardsville,
along the Ivy River and areas near the Broad River
in the southeastern portion of the county. And all At
(05:34):
least three hundred landslides were reported in portions of western
North Carolina, many of them in Bunkhom County. That led
to so much of that devastation and destruction. Helene crippled
Ashville's water system, and clean water wasn't restored until weeks
after the storm. You had to head over to mid
to late November of last year before there was some
(05:56):
semblance of normalcy with running water in this city of Ashville,
in and around Bunkham County. In some cases, it took
more than two months immediately after the storm to get
water back to some municipal customers. Power was out for
the vast majority of the state, with electrical crews estimating
it would take months to get power restored. Fortunately, while
(06:19):
the devastation and destruction was quite severe as you are
well familiar with, at this point, crews were able to
work a lot quicker than some of the early estimates,
which indicated that power could be out for some folks
eight nine, ten months, due to the fact that they
would have to restring potentially dozens, if not hundreds of
miles worth of high tension electrical cables that were either
(06:41):
taken down by trees falling in the mountains of North Carolina,
or in some cases there was just no poles left
at all. They were swept away and pushed down river
by the massive amount of flooding. Tens of thousands of
trees were knocked down, many of them destroying homes across
the western half of the state, and in all, more
than five hundred and sixty structures were destroyed, with at
(07:04):
least nine hundred sustaining major damage, with nearly nine thousand
or so. Still we're still kind of waiting to see
exactly what some of those numbers look like as we
now sit here almost one year ago since Hurricane Helleene
and the rainfall totals irregardless of some of the flooding,
(07:25):
and some of the wet weather that existed in western
North Carolina before Helene. Take a listen to some of
these rainfall totals. In Yancey County, they reported thirty point
seven inches of rain from Halleene Transylvania County twenty nine
point nine to eight, Mitchell County twenty three point three
to one, Avery County almost twenty three inches of rain
(07:47):
there as well as those numbers continue massive amounts of rainfall.
The peak wind gust from this storm in North Carolina
was one hundred and six miles an hour. That was
at Mount Mitchell in the U Nancy County. Although Mount
Mitchell is an incredibly high point, it is one of
the tallest points east of the Mississippi, so no surprise
(08:08):
that that reported such a hefty wing gust, but one
hundred and six miles an hour there. Banner Elk in
Wataga County also reported a record wind gust of one
hundred and one miles an hour, So those wins were
felt both high and low. As we sit here on
this one year mark. It was August September the twenty seventh,
(08:31):
twenty twenty four, when Helene was getting ready to impend
so much damage and destruction on the western half of
our state. The North Carolina General Assembly did meet this
week a House Oversight Committee hearing dealing with some of
the recovery, the cleanup and restoration efforts that have been
ongoing over the last twelve months. We'll get into some
(08:51):
of those details as we roll through the program this
morning right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. It's
five twenty one. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News
Our News Talk eleven ten ninety nine to three WBT.
As we look at one year ago Hurricane Helen getting
(09:13):
ready to create so much devastation and destruction across the
western half of North Carolina, we do need to keep
a current eye on the twenty twenty five Atlantic hurricane
season the basin. The Atlantic Basin really heating up over
the last couple of days, and we've got a multiple
systems that we are tracking this morning. Hurricane Humberto is
(09:35):
still forming and is now fully a hurricane. It was
a tropical storm yesterday morning when we talked about it,
and that storm currently is sitting just north of the
Lesser Antilles and it is expected to recurve before it
hits the United States coming potentially pretty close to Bermuda,
but looks to split the gap between Bermuda and the
(09:55):
continental United States. That is a storm that we are
keeping an eye on. However, this other area, you've been
hearing about it and likely seeing social media posts about it.
INVEST ninety four L This is a low pressure system
that is currently working its way off of Hispaniola that
is set to potentially develop strong likelihood of development. According
(10:17):
to the National Hurricane Center out of their four am
advisory this morning, so just about an hour or so ago,
they say that this system has an eighty percent chance
of development in the next forty eight hours. And with
that forecast models have been seemingly very consistent over the
last day or so. Both the major European and gfs
US model for this system show some sort of tropical
(10:41):
feature making its impacts between the North and South Carolina
coast coming up very early next week Monday, late afternoon
and evening into the early hours of Tuesday morning. Fortunately,
due to its close proximity to the United States before
it develops, it is not expected to become a major hurricane. However,
(11:02):
it could very easily be a very strong tropical storm
or even a category one week category two storm, as
it will shoot out of that area in the tropics
in the next twenty four to forty eight hours. That
is something that we are keeping an eye on, and
we'll do so throughout the weekend as folks across the
(11:23):
North and South Carolina coast should make sure that they've
got their hurricane prep kit in place if this storm
does materialize and does cause some level of damage, as
it is expected to again impact the coast of these
two states sometime late in the day on Monday through
the day on Tuesday. We'll keep an eye on it
right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour, where it's
(11:46):
now five twenty four News Talk eleven ten ninety nine
to three WBT. As we look back twelve months ago,
tropical storm and Hurricane Helen left unimaginable devastation across the
western half of North Carolin, and over the last twelve months,
we have seen a lot of progress in many areas,
billions of dollars flowing in from both federal and state governments.
(12:09):
There was a meeting in the North Carolina General Assembly
this week looking at how some of that progress is ongoing.
A joint legislative Government Operations Meeting dealing with Hurricane Helen recovery.
To walk us through some of the details from that
committee meeting, Teresa Opeka, Carolina Journal dot Com joins us
on the news hour. Teresa, it's almost remarkable to say
(12:29):
it was one year ago, but it was, and work
continues across western North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Yes, good morning, Nick, thanks for having me so. Yeah,
it's hard to believe it's been a whole year since
Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina and devastated many communities.
I believe about one hundred eight people lost their lives.
So it was just truly truly a devastating time for
the state. And we did have a Hurricane Helene. It
(12:56):
was actually, shouldn't say it, Hurricane Leen. Joint Legislative Government
Ops Subcommittee hearing on how things are progressing with Hurricane
Helene recovery in Western North Carolina. There was one thing
that all officials came to a consensus about at that
hearing is that FEMA's bureaucracy has been a hindrance and
(13:17):
not a help. That was the one standard message across
county officials, state officials. You know, it just has not
been a They have not been a big help. There's
more like you hear about red tape. There's been more
layers of red tape being added, and that's not helping
the people who desperately need it out.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
There, obviously, Teresa, it's a sad thing to hear, but
I'm not going to sit here this morning and tell
you that I'm shocked to hear it. I mean, you
can go look back at the horror stories from FEMA
back twenty plus years ago in the New Orleans area
after Hurricane Katrina affected that the federal entity that is
the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been under scrutiny many
(13:58):
of times, and it's unfortunate that with all of that scrutiny,
I think it's probably accurate to say maybe not a
whole lot has changed up to this point.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Yeah, sure sounds like it hasn't. In fact, it just
sounds like things aggressively have gotten worse. You know, we
had Avery County Commissioner Dennis Aldridge, who was there spook
at the hearing. He said their biggest obstacle moving forward
is the lack of clarity and consistent guidance from FEMA
every time they get close to the finish line. They
keep changing the goalposts, is what he said. He says,
(14:29):
so you know they have all of that going on.
He said, they're counting budgets about forty two million dollars,
but debris removals cost them fifty three million. That's not
been reimbursed. They've only been obligated by FEMA to pay
about seven hundred five or femas will I've been obligated
to pay about seven hundred five thousand, and another five
million is being held. And he said that constant shifts
(14:51):
and federal guidance are stalling projects. You know, there were
so much more being discussed about. All the goalposts are
being moved, more layer are being added. Homeland Security Secretary
Christy nome I think any project over one hundred thousand
dollars has to hit her desk first for her to
sign and off on it. There were also some requests
(15:14):
back in February for hazard mitigation projects to either buy
out houses or if this is the federal government page
seventy five percent, the state's pay twenty five percent. We
heard at that hearing that none of those have been
even responded to. They're just sitting there since February, so
it's a big mess.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Well, it's a big mess. And we've heard the discussion
at the national level from President Donald Trump about dismantling
and getting rid of FEMA in its current form and
essentially turning into a clearinghouse for check writing for local
and state governments that need help after natural disasters like
Hurricane Helene Theresa. Obviously, the President has been in the
Oval office now going on a little over nine months,
(15:56):
and I assume some would have hoped that things wouldn't
still be this bad at that point. But it probably
just points to how huge the bureaucracy is and how
hard it really is to dig down into these issues.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Oh, I would definitely agree with you. Yeah, it's just
too much, you know, like they what's the old saying,
I'm from the government, I'm here to help you. If
you hear that run I think it was Ronald Reagan
that said that. Yeah, yeah, it's like okay, yeah, great,
thank you. So yeah, so it seems like, according to
(16:28):
President Trump, but maybe better serve to put this back
into the state's hands to have them take care of it,
or even seeing you know, different organizations like Samaritan's Purse.
We heard from Luther Harrison the vice president of North
American Ministries. You know, they aside from giving out supplies
when the storm first hit, they've they've paid for over
(16:49):
fifty families mortgages, replaced over two hundred vehicles, purchased mobile homes.
They're rebuilding homes they've gone through, they're furnishing homes. They've
gone through so much. It's not just Samaritan first, it
was even the homage from Pennsylvania who came down and helped.
You know, so you're wondering now, obviously then not all
of them can do that, but maybe the you know,
(17:09):
even had Representative Brendan Jones say, you know what, maybe
we should take a look at seeing if maybe we
can get more of these kind of groups to get
these houses and get the things up and running a
lot faster. Now we're getting the funding from the federal government.
Seems they're dragging their feet, and you know it might
be a good idea. Maybe not for everything, but you know,
(17:31):
look what they've done, which is so remarkable.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
We'll continue the conversation with Teresa Opeka coming up after this.
You're listening to the Carolina Journal News Hour. It's five
thirty seven. Welcome back to The Carolina Journal News Hour
Newstock eleven, ten ninety nine three WBT. Some social media
drama on going between California Governor Gavin Newsom and North
(17:57):
Carolina Senate Leader Phil Berger. Gavin Newsom posted and reposted
a story yesterday on his X account indicating that Phil Berger,
the leader of the North Carolina Senate, was going to
was set to get an endorsement from President Donald Trump
and his primary run coming up earlier coming up early
next year, in exchange for redrawing North Carolina congressional maps.
(18:20):
That post was sent out by Gavin Newsomb around three
point forty yesterday afternoon with the headline quote Donald Trump
is swapping endorsements in exchange for rigging elections, and it
barely makes the news. I'll note to the California Governor's point,
he literally posted a news story so hard to argue
it's not making the news. Nevertheless, Senate Leader Phil Berger
(18:42):
clap back on that on his X account, saying quote,
I've been watching what's going on in California with Gavin
Newsom trying to steal the Republican majority in Congress. We
have drawn four congressional maps in the last six years
in redistricting fights with Democrats because of their sue till
blue strata. If we have to draw one more map
(19:02):
this year, we will. That said, I've never spoken to
President Donald Trump about this or an endorsement. The Democrats
are spreading lies to hurt President Trump. So a little
back and forth social media activity between the leader of
the North Carolina Senate and California Governor Gavin Newsome with
I guess the potential now discussions and talks about redrawing
(19:24):
the first congressional district, which is really the only true
swing district in North Carolina. The state has fourteen congressional
districts in total. The other thirteen are drawn in a
way that either favors Republicans or Democrats. The first congressional
district in which a Democrat, Don Davis currently serves, is
(19:45):
a one that is essentially a toss up district. So
we'll wait and see before the end of this year.
Candidate filing for the midterm elections will be in early December,
So district maps, if they are to be reached, not
saying necessarily that they are, but if they are set
to be redrawn, that will have to happen within the
(20:05):
next couple of months. We'll continue to attract that progress
right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour, where it's
now five point thirty nine News Talk eleven ten ninety
nine three WBT continue our coverage of what has been
a busy week in the North Carolina General Assembly, a
Government Oversight Committee hearing looking at Hurricane Helene response and
(20:26):
recovery across the western half of our state. Well, and Teresa,
let's go back almost a year ago to the immediate
aftermath of the storm. There was very heavy criticism on
the Cooper administration and other elected officials across western North
Carolina for what was being described as a lackluster slow response.
And we saw these groups like Samaritan's Person others. You know,
(20:49):
we had the Cajun Nava coming up from Louisiana all
swarming into western North Carolina to provide food supplies, internet
access through through starlink elon Musk, making that available for
free for folks in western North Carolina, and the mediate aftermath.
We've got a relatively recent track record of how these
local entities seem to just be a whole lot more
(21:11):
efficient than either a local, state or federal government.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Absolutely absolutely, and it's no difference. Is the last few
hearings have covered these for a couple of years now
when they went back to Encore. Now we're focusing on
Hurricane Helen with Grow and See that's the Governor's Governor
Stein's new office for Helene recovery. We had Representative Jones
(21:37):
basically lamb pasting former Governor Cooper Yes at that hearing,
basically saying, you know, this is on him. His response
goes all the way back to Matthew and Florence and Helene,
you know, and it's just like, what are you doing?
You know, he put the blame onto him a family
strand it still to his stay in motels and hotels trailers.
(22:00):
Even the General Assembly came up with a Cooper Accountability Act,
So you know, he said, we're giving you know, Governor
Stein and Grow and See a notice to do a
much better job than the Cooper administration did. And like
what he said at the end, he says, you know,
the family's of western North Carolina, You're not forgotten. General
(22:20):
Assembly is going to stay in the fight and he
will not let another hurricane Cooper under his watch. He
stressedly said that. So yeah, I mean just what a
track record that the state even has when helping out
hurricane victims. It's not a good one. So these private
entities helping out have been a humongous help.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Teresa. You mentioned at the beginning, of course, the human
toll and tragedy of this more than one hundred people
in western North Carolina losing their lives from this storm.
An absolute tragedy there. But then we focus on the
economics side of it, Helene, And these estimations are still
very fluid and they could change. But as we sit
here this morning, sixty billion dollars in damage. That is
(23:05):
almost an inconceivable amount of money from just one storm.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Yeah, you can't wrap your head around it. I mean
a billion, I mean that seems a billion, you know,
a million or sixty billion. It's just amazing. And like
you said, it's fluid. I imagine that that number is
going to change, you know, maybe in the coming year
or so, you might see it go up. So we
did hear from officials too that the state was approved
(23:33):
or residents rather were approved for about five hundred and
seventeen million in FEMA assistance, but the states only received
a little over ten percent in federal funding. To cover
the damage from the storm after requesting about forty eight percent,
and normally states receive about forty to fifty percent. Hurricane
Helene has been the fifth costliest of any hurricane since
(23:54):
two thousand and five, so that that's remarkable in itself
as well, and to know that the state really hasn't
gotten a lot of federal funding, which is just not great.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Well, fortunately some of the funding has come in from
the General Assembly. They have passed a variety of either
mini budgets or bills specifically allocating money for Hurricane Helen
billions of dollars. Fortunately, theresa out of the state's Rainy
Day Fund and other funding programs that are available in
North Carolina, and obviously things there's still a lot of
work that needs to be done. Families still need to
(24:26):
be back in their homes. But as our coverage has
continued over the last couple of weeks, businesses are reopening,
Tourism is heading back out to the western half of
North Carolina. There is still some good progress that has Ongoone, yes.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Most definitely, you know, you've got the roads opened up
as well, and I believe it's Mitchell that reopen of
all the state parks so over in Western North Carolina
have reopened for recreation. And now we're talking about fall,
but seeing the leaves leaf peeping and all of that.
So yeah, it's a great time, as you say, to
go out and support those businesses, support those people trying
(25:01):
to put food on the table, pay their mortgages and
their bills, all their families, go out and support them.
And you know, as they say, Western North Carolina is
definitely open for business. So that is a good good
thing that has come out of all of this.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Wrapping up on the federal discussion. Inside of this, we
saw that the governor was in Washington, d C. Last week.
Photos posted on his social media indicated that he met
with both of our United States Senators Ted Budd and
Tom Tillis, a very lengthy meeting with the congressional delegation
as well in the House of Representatives. I was assuming
that those meetings went well to recent Hopefully some more
(25:38):
pressure from state officials like Governor Stein can get some
more of this money flowing out of the Feds.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Yes, and that's what they've all been saying, even General
Assembly said yesterday at that hearing. Rather that they said
they were definitely keeping the pressure, keeping the pressure on
the congressional contingent from North Carolina to get those funds
because they are so desperately needed. So yeah, I'm hopefully
that the meeting did go well and hopefully we see
(26:06):
more more federal dollars flowing in and less red tape
for people to deal with here in North Carolina.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Teresa, We've got some additional quotes from this meeting, including
some of the video clips that you talked about from
this this lengthy committee meeting that happened in the General Assembly.
Where can folks go and find those details this morning?
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Sure they can head on over to Carolina Journal dot com.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
We appreciate the update. Teresopeca from Carolina Journal dot com
joins us Son the Carolina Journal News Hour. Good morning again.
It's five point fifty three. Welcome back to the Carolina
Journal News Hour, News Talk eleven ten ninety nine three WBT.
As we hit the one year mark. It was Friday,
(26:49):
September twenty seventh, twenty twenty four, Carolina Journal News Hours,
just a couple of weeks old, when we were tracking
Hurricane Helene, the center of that storm across the North
South Carolina border around eight am back on the twenty
seventh of September last year, bringing unimaginable widespread destruction to
(27:09):
portions of upstate South Carolina and western North Carolina. Flooding, landslides,
and hurricane force winds caused an unimaginable amount of destruction,
more particularly here in the western half of our state.
One of the reasons that the destruction was as bad
as it was was due to the fact that heavy
rain had already fallen across western North Carolina in the
(27:31):
days before the storm, another low pressure system in the area,
causing some moderate rainfall. Nothing that is should in itself
have been too remarkable, but you add that on top
of twenty twenty five thirty inches of rain from Hurricane Helene,
the ground became absolutely so saturated that the tree roots
would really didn't have anything to hold onto, which caused
(27:54):
so many trees to fall, falling through homes and businesses
in the western half of the state. Hurricane Helene was
the deadliest Atlantic hurricane since Maria in twenty seventeen, and
is the deadliest to strike the United States mainland since
Hurricane Katrina back in two thousand and five, and the
numbers of they are very sombered North carol The National
(28:15):
Hurricane Center reports one hundred and seven deaths in the
state of North Carolina from Helene, eighty six directly from
the storm, twenty one indirectly from things like medical emergencies
in the immediate aftermath and the damage. It was widespread
and it was everywhere. Homes, businesses, hospitals, schools. It was
(28:37):
absolutely remarkable, landslides and historic flooding, completely washed away roads, highways,
Interstate forty literally fell into a gorge, bridges, and even
the electrical infrastructure cell phones, water treatment plants, and wastewater
treatment systems in some cases literally washed off the map.
(28:58):
Helene now ranks as the fifth cause Ustius Atlantic hurricane
on record, behind Katrina, Harvey, Ian, and Maria, those storms
affecting both portions of Florida and Texas. The North Carolina
impact has estimated to be around sixty billion dollars. Bunkhom County,
which hosts the city of Ashville, was hit especially hard
(29:20):
by the storm, and because Ashville is such a major
US city and many folks, even not from North Carolina,
have either visited or have heard of the Asheville area,
there was a lot of the national spotlight on Bunkhom
County and Ashville. Flash flooding, river flooding, and landslides killed
the dozens of people in and around Bunkham County. Sixteen
(29:42):
died in landslides around the Fairview area and in Swananoa
in Black Mountain. Nine drowned in raging floodwaters from the
Swananoa River as it took absolutely no mercy on anything
in its path. More than five hundred water rescues took
place just in Bunkhom County alone, as historic river flooding
(30:02):
devastated the low lying areas around Asheville. The Biltmore Village
was submerged or in some cases completely swept away. The
very popular River Arts District was largely destroyed, and flooding
also struck Bernardsville along the Ivy River and areas near
the Broad River in the southeastern portion of the county.
(30:23):
In total, there were hundreds, if not thousands, of landslides
in western North Carolina, which only added to the amount
of devastation and destruction. Tens of thousands of trees were
knocked down, many crashing onto homes, causing even more destruction
from that storm, and some of these rainfall totals, even
looking back one year ago, remarkable in Yancey County thirty
(30:46):
point seven eight inches of rain, Transylvania County twenty nine
point nine inches of rain as well, there as in
the days prior to that seeing five six inches of
rain from a different low pressure system. It is remarkable
to look back on what a year it has been
across western North Carolina. Will have continued coverage of the
(31:09):
one year mark of Hurricane Helen over on our website,
Carolina Journal dot com. That's gonna do it for a
Friday edition. WBT News is next, followed by Good morning BT.
We're back with you Monday morning, five to six right
here on News Talk eleven, ten and ninety nine three
WBT
It's five oh six and welcome into a Friday edition
of The Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk eleven ten
ninety nine three WBT. I'm Nicked Craig. A good morning
to you. Well. The calendar this morning it reads at
September the twenty sixth, the one to day, what tomorrow
and one year ago. It was a Friday, September the
(00:29):
twenty seventh, twenty twenty four. That's when the center of
Hurricane Helene crossed the South Carolina North Carolina line around
eight am. As you are well aware in our coverage
over the last year, it brought widespread destruction to portions
of upstate South Carolina in the mountains of western North Carolina,
(00:50):
causing flooding, landslides, and hurricane force wind gusts, leaving unimaginable
devastation and destruction in its wake. This is one of
the same that made this storm even more deadly than
it should have been. Heavy rain had already fallen across
western North Carolina in the days and weeks beforehand, priming
(01:11):
the mountains and saturating the tree roots in the ground
for catastrophic flooding, and so when Helene hit dumping while
it was a record amount of rain. The saturated ground
just couldn't take any more. In many trees in the
western half of the state tipped over like twigs. It
was not much to push them over due to the
ground being so saturated. The storm was the deadly Atlantic
(01:34):
hurricane since Maria back in twenty seventeen, and the deadliest
to strike the United States mainland since Katrina in two
thousand and five. According to the National Hurricane Center they're
based out of Miami, Florida. North Carolina recorded one hundred
and seven fatalities, eighty six directly from the storm and
(01:54):
twenty one indirect from things like medical emergencies, car crashes,
and posts. Storm cleanup. Eighty six individuals dying directly from Helene.
That record of deaths in North Carolina one hundred and seven,
making it, from at least a record keeping standpoint, the
deadliest storm in North Carolina history, and damaged well. Unfortunately,
(02:17):
it was everywhere. Homes, businesses, hospitals, schools, leveled, destroyed literally
in some cases washed away, as landslides and historic flooding
took out major roads and highways. We all saw the
video and pictures of Interstate forty literally falling apart into
the western half of North Carolina. Bridges destroyed as well,
(02:41):
the electrical grid completely ripped out of certain areas of
western North Carolina, cellular systems, water treatment facilities, many of
them heavily heavily damaged, during some cases completely destroyed, and
as we have looked at the recovery over the last
twelve months, Helene now ranks as the fifth costliest Atlantic
(03:02):
hurricane on record, behind only Katrida, Harvey, Ian, and Maria.
Those are all obviously storms that have affected North affected
the United States, I should say, over the last twenty
years or so, and it is unfortunate to see so
much of the devastation and destruction estimates still hanging in
(03:22):
the ballpark of around sixty billion dollars for Helene just
in western North Carolina. That does not include the impacts
of the Florida area, the Big Bend area of Florida
where the storm made landfall, and the devastation left in
portions of Georgia and South Carolina. That sixty billion dollar
total just the state of North Carolina. The National Hurricane
(03:45):
Center report on Hurricane Helen paints a devastating picture for
western North Carolina, as they have done a really good
job in the last year, and as you would expect
them to do, to do research and provide historical data
and accounts of that storm. The North Carolina Forest Service
estimating more than eight hundred thousand acres of timberland were
(04:09):
lost and two hundred and fourteen million dollars was done
in damage to the forests alone. Bunkom County, which hosts
the city of Ashville, was hit especially hard and received
a lot of major national media attention due to the
fact that Asheville is a very large, the largest city
in western North Carolina. The city of Ashville and Buncom
(04:31):
dealt with flash flooding, river flooding, and landslides. Thirty seven
people died in Bunkham County, one of the largest populations
of death anywhere from Helleen. Sixteen died in landslides around
Fairview in Swananoah and Black Mountain, nine drowned and raging
floodwaters of the Swannanoah River, and six lives were lost
(04:52):
immediately in the city of Ashville with more fatalities, but
as there was so much devastation int struction, it's really
hard to pin down exactly Unfortunately, where some of those
individuals lost their lives. More than five hundred water rescues
took place just across Bunkhom County alone as historic river
(05:12):
flooding devastated Ashville's low lying areas. The Biltmore Village was
submerged or in some cases literally swept away. The River
Arts District was largely destroyed, and flooding also struck Bernardsville,
along the Ivy River and areas near the Broad River
in the southeastern portion of the county. And all At
(05:34):
least three hundred landslides were reported in portions of western
North Carolina, many of them in Bunkhom County. That led
to so much of that devastation and destruction. Helene crippled
Ashville's water system, and clean water wasn't restored until weeks
after the storm. You had to head over to mid
to late November of last year before there was some
(05:56):
semblance of normalcy with running water in this city of Ashville,
in and around Bunkham County. In some cases, it took
more than two months immediately after the storm to get
water back to some municipal customers. Power was out for
the vast majority of the state, with electrical crews estimating
it would take months to get power restored. Fortunately, while
(06:19):
the devastation and destruction was quite severe as you are
well familiar with, at this point, crews were able to
work a lot quicker than some of the early estimates,
which indicated that power could be out for some folks
eight nine, ten months, due to the fact that they
would have to restring potentially dozens, if not hundreds of
miles worth of high tension electrical cables that were either
(06:41):
taken down by trees falling in the mountains of North Carolina,
or in some cases there was just no poles left
at all. They were swept away and pushed down river
by the massive amount of flooding. Tens of thousands of
trees were knocked down, many of them destroying homes across
the western half of the state, and in all, more
than five hundred and sixty structures were destroyed, with at
(07:04):
least nine hundred sustaining major damage, with nearly nine thousand
or so. Still we're still kind of waiting to see
exactly what some of those numbers look like as we
now sit here almost one year ago since Hurricane Helleene
and the rainfall totals irregardless of some of the flooding,
(07:25):
and some of the wet weather that existed in western
North Carolina before Helene. Take a listen to some of
these rainfall totals. In Yancey County, they reported thirty point
seven inches of rain from Halleene Transylvania County twenty nine
point nine to eight, Mitchell County twenty three point three
to one, Avery County almost twenty three inches of rain
(07:47):
there as well as those numbers continue massive amounts of rainfall.
The peak wind gust from this storm in North Carolina
was one hundred and six miles an hour. That was
at Mount Mitchell in the U Nancy County. Although Mount
Mitchell is an incredibly high point, it is one of
the tallest points east of the Mississippi, so no surprise
(08:08):
that that reported such a hefty wing gust, but one
hundred and six miles an hour there. Banner Elk in
Wataga County also reported a record wind gust of one
hundred and one miles an hour, So those wins were
felt both high and low. As we sit here on
this one year mark. It was August September the twenty seventh,
(08:31):
twenty twenty four, when Helene was getting ready to impend
so much damage and destruction on the western half of
our state. The North Carolina General Assembly did meet this
week a House Oversight Committee hearing dealing with some of
the recovery, the cleanup and restoration efforts that have been
ongoing over the last twelve months. We'll get into some
(08:51):
of those details as we roll through the program this
morning right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. It's
five twenty one. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News
Our News Talk eleven ten ninety nine to three WBT.
As we look at one year ago Hurricane Helen getting
(09:13):
ready to create so much devastation and destruction across the
western half of North Carolina, we do need to keep
a current eye on the twenty twenty five Atlantic hurricane
season the basin. The Atlantic Basin really heating up over
the last couple of days, and we've got a multiple
systems that we are tracking this morning. Hurricane Humberto is
(09:35):
still forming and is now fully a hurricane. It was
a tropical storm yesterday morning when we talked about it,
and that storm currently is sitting just north of the
Lesser Antilles and it is expected to recurve before it
hits the United States coming potentially pretty close to Bermuda,
but looks to split the gap between Bermuda and the
(09:55):
continental United States. That is a storm that we are
keeping an eye on. However, this other area, you've been
hearing about it and likely seeing social media posts about it.
INVEST ninety four L This is a low pressure system
that is currently working its way off of Hispaniola that
is set to potentially develop strong likelihood of development. According
(10:17):
to the National Hurricane Center out of their four am
advisory this morning, so just about an hour or so ago,
they say that this system has an eighty percent chance
of development in the next forty eight hours. And with
that forecast models have been seemingly very consistent over the
last day or so. Both the major European and gfs
US model for this system show some sort of tropical
(10:41):
feature making its impacts between the North and South Carolina
coast coming up very early next week Monday, late afternoon
and evening into the early hours of Tuesday morning. Fortunately,
due to its close proximity to the United States before
it develops, it is not expected to become a major hurricane. However,
(11:02):
it could very easily be a very strong tropical storm
or even a category one week category two storm, as
it will shoot out of that area in the tropics
in the next twenty four to forty eight hours. That
is something that we are keeping an eye on, and
we'll do so throughout the weekend as folks across the
(11:23):
North and South Carolina coast should make sure that they've
got their hurricane prep kit in place if this storm
does materialize and does cause some level of damage, as
it is expected to again impact the coast of these
two states sometime late in the day on Monday through
the day on Tuesday. We'll keep an eye on it
right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour, where it's
(11:46):
now five twenty four News Talk eleven ten ninety nine
to three WBT. As we look back twelve months ago,
tropical storm and Hurricane Helen left unimaginable devastation across the
western half of North Carolin, and over the last twelve months,
we have seen a lot of progress in many areas,
billions of dollars flowing in from both federal and state governments.
(12:09):
There was a meeting in the North Carolina General Assembly
this week looking at how some of that progress is ongoing.
A joint legislative Government Operations Meeting dealing with Hurricane Helen recovery.
To walk us through some of the details from that
committee meeting, Teresa Opeka, Carolina Journal dot Com joins us
on the news hour. Teresa, it's almost remarkable to say
(12:29):
it was one year ago, but it was, and work
continues across western North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Yes, good morning, Nick, thanks for having me so. Yeah,
it's hard to believe it's been a whole year since
Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina and devastated many communities.
I believe about one hundred eight people lost their lives.
So it was just truly truly a devastating time for
the state. And we did have a Hurricane Helene. It
(12:56):
was actually, shouldn't say it, Hurricane Leen. Joint Legislative Government
Ops Subcommittee hearing on how things are progressing with Hurricane
Helene recovery in Western North Carolina. There was one thing
that all officials came to a consensus about at that
hearing is that FEMA's bureaucracy has been a hindrance and
(13:17):
not a help. That was the one standard message across
county officials, state officials. You know, it just has not
been a They have not been a big help. There's
more like you hear about red tape. There's been more
layers of red tape being added, and that's not helping
the people who desperately need it out.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
There, obviously, Teresa, it's a sad thing to hear, but
I'm not going to sit here this morning and tell
you that I'm shocked to hear it. I mean, you
can go look back at the horror stories from FEMA
back twenty plus years ago in the New Orleans area
after Hurricane Katrina affected that the federal entity that is
the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been under scrutiny many
(13:58):
of times, and it's unfortunate that with all of that scrutiny,
I think it's probably accurate to say maybe not a
whole lot has changed up to this point.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Yeah, sure sounds like it hasn't. In fact, it just
sounds like things aggressively have gotten worse. You know, we
had Avery County Commissioner Dennis Aldridge, who was there spook
at the hearing. He said their biggest obstacle moving forward
is the lack of clarity and consistent guidance from FEMA
every time they get close to the finish line. They
keep changing the goalposts, is what he said. He says,
(14:29):
so you know they have all of that going on.
He said, they're counting budgets about forty two million dollars,
but debris removals cost them fifty three million. That's not
been reimbursed. They've only been obligated by FEMA to pay
about seven hundred five or femas will I've been obligated
to pay about seven hundred five thousand, and another five
million is being held. And he said that constant shifts
(14:51):
and federal guidance are stalling projects. You know, there were
so much more being discussed about. All the goalposts are
being moved, more layer are being added. Homeland Security Secretary
Christy nome I think any project over one hundred thousand
dollars has to hit her desk first for her to
sign and off on it. There were also some requests
(15:14):
back in February for hazard mitigation projects to either buy
out houses or if this is the federal government page
seventy five percent, the state's pay twenty five percent. We
heard at that hearing that none of those have been
even responded to. They're just sitting there since February, so
it's a big mess.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Well, it's a big mess. And we've heard the discussion
at the national level from President Donald Trump about dismantling
and getting rid of FEMA in its current form and
essentially turning into a clearinghouse for check writing for local
and state governments that need help after natural disasters like
Hurricane Helene Theresa. Obviously, the President has been in the
Oval office now going on a little over nine months,
(15:56):
and I assume some would have hoped that things wouldn't
still be this bad at that point. But it probably
just points to how huge the bureaucracy is and how
hard it really is to dig down into these issues.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Oh, I would definitely agree with you. Yeah, it's just
too much, you know, like they what's the old saying,
I'm from the government, I'm here to help you. If
you hear that run I think it was Ronald Reagan
that said that. Yeah, yeah, it's like okay, yeah, great,
thank you. So yeah, so it seems like, according to
(16:28):
President Trump, but maybe better serve to put this back
into the state's hands to have them take care of it,
or even seeing you know, different organizations like Samaritan's Purse.
We heard from Luther Harrison the vice president of North
American Ministries. You know, they aside from giving out supplies
when the storm first hit, they've they've paid for over
(16:49):
fifty families mortgages, replaced over two hundred vehicles, purchased mobile homes.
They're rebuilding homes they've gone through, they're furnishing homes. They've
gone through so much. It's not just Samaritan first, it
was even the homage from Pennsylvania who came down and helped.
You know, so you're wondering now, obviously then not all
of them can do that, but maybe the you know,
(17:09):
even had Representative Brendan Jones say, you know what, maybe
we should take a look at seeing if maybe we
can get more of these kind of groups to get
these houses and get the things up and running a
lot faster. Now we're getting the funding from the federal government.
Seems they're dragging their feet, and you know it might
be a good idea. Maybe not for everything, but you know,
(17:31):
look what they've done, which is so remarkable.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
We'll continue the conversation with Teresa Opeka coming up after this.
You're listening to the Carolina Journal News Hour. It's five
thirty seven. Welcome back to The Carolina Journal News Hour
Newstock eleven, ten ninety nine three WBT. Some social media
drama on going between California Governor Gavin Newsom and North
(17:57):
Carolina Senate Leader Phil Berger. Gavin Newsom posted and reposted
a story yesterday on his X account indicating that Phil Berger,
the leader of the North Carolina Senate, was going to
was set to get an endorsement from President Donald Trump
and his primary run coming up earlier coming up early
next year, in exchange for redrawing North Carolina congressional maps.
(18:20):
That post was sent out by Gavin Newsomb around three
point forty yesterday afternoon with the headline quote Donald Trump
is swapping endorsements in exchange for rigging elections, and it
barely makes the news. I'll note to the California Governor's point,
he literally posted a news story so hard to argue
it's not making the news. Nevertheless, Senate Leader Phil Berger
(18:42):
clap back on that on his X account, saying quote,
I've been watching what's going on in California with Gavin
Newsom trying to steal the Republican majority in Congress. We
have drawn four congressional maps in the last six years
in redistricting fights with Democrats because of their sue till
blue strata. If we have to draw one more map
(19:02):
this year, we will. That said, I've never spoken to
President Donald Trump about this or an endorsement. The Democrats
are spreading lies to hurt President Trump. So a little
back and forth social media activity between the leader of
the North Carolina Senate and California Governor Gavin Newsome with
I guess the potential now discussions and talks about redrawing
(19:24):
the first congressional district, which is really the only true
swing district in North Carolina. The state has fourteen congressional
districts in total. The other thirteen are drawn in a
way that either favors Republicans or Democrats. The first congressional
district in which a Democrat, Don Davis currently serves, is
(19:45):
a one that is essentially a toss up district. So
we'll wait and see before the end of this year.
Candidate filing for the midterm elections will be in early December,
So district maps, if they are to be reached, not
saying necessarily that they are, but if they are set
to be redrawn, that will have to happen within the
(20:05):
next couple of months. We'll continue to attract that progress
right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour, where it's
now five point thirty nine News Talk eleven ten ninety
nine three WBT continue our coverage of what has been
a busy week in the North Carolina General Assembly, a
Government Oversight Committee hearing looking at Hurricane Helene response and
(20:26):
recovery across the western half of our state. Well, and Teresa,
let's go back almost a year ago to the immediate
aftermath of the storm. There was very heavy criticism on
the Cooper administration and other elected officials across western North
Carolina for what was being described as a lackluster slow response.
And we saw these groups like Samaritan's Person others. You know,
(20:49):
we had the Cajun Nava coming up from Louisiana all
swarming into western North Carolina to provide food supplies, internet
access through through starlink elon Musk, making that available for
free for folks in western North Carolina, and the mediate aftermath.
We've got a relatively recent track record of how these
local entities seem to just be a whole lot more
(21:11):
efficient than either a local, state or federal government.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Absolutely absolutely, and it's no difference. Is the last few
hearings have covered these for a couple of years now
when they went back to Encore. Now we're focusing on
Hurricane Helen with Grow and See that's the Governor's Governor
Stein's new office for Helene recovery. We had Representative Jones
(21:37):
basically lamb pasting former Governor Cooper Yes at that hearing,
basically saying, you know, this is on him. His response
goes all the way back to Matthew and Florence and Helene,
you know, and it's just like, what are you doing?
You know, he put the blame onto him a family
strand it still to his stay in motels and hotels trailers.
(22:00):
Even the General Assembly came up with a Cooper Accountability Act,
So you know, he said, we're giving you know, Governor
Stein and Grow and See a notice to do a
much better job than the Cooper administration did. And like
what he said at the end, he says, you know,
the family's of western North Carolina, You're not forgotten. General
(22:20):
Assembly is going to stay in the fight and he
will not let another hurricane Cooper under his watch. He
stressedly said that. So yeah, I mean just what a
track record that the state even has when helping out
hurricane victims. It's not a good one. So these private
entities helping out have been a humongous help.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Teresa. You mentioned at the beginning, of course, the human
toll and tragedy of this more than one hundred people
in western North Carolina losing their lives from this storm.
An absolute tragedy there. But then we focus on the
economics side of it, Helene, And these estimations are still
very fluid and they could change. But as we sit
here this morning, sixty billion dollars in damage. That is
(23:05):
almost an inconceivable amount of money from just one storm.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Yeah, you can't wrap your head around it. I mean
a billion, I mean that seems a billion, you know,
a million or sixty billion. It's just amazing. And like
you said, it's fluid. I imagine that that number is
going to change, you know, maybe in the coming year
or so, you might see it go up. So we
did hear from officials too that the state was approved
(23:33):
or residents rather were approved for about five hundred and
seventeen million in FEMA assistance, but the states only received
a little over ten percent in federal funding. To cover
the damage from the storm after requesting about forty eight percent,
and normally states receive about forty to fifty percent. Hurricane
Helene has been the fifth costliest of any hurricane since
(23:54):
two thousand and five, so that that's remarkable in itself
as well, and to know that the state really hasn't
gotten a lot of federal funding, which is just not great.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Well, fortunately some of the funding has come in from
the General Assembly. They have passed a variety of either
mini budgets or bills specifically allocating money for Hurricane Helen
billions of dollars. Fortunately, theresa out of the state's Rainy
Day Fund and other funding programs that are available in
North Carolina, and obviously things there's still a lot of
work that needs to be done. Families still need to
(24:26):
be back in their homes. But as our coverage has
continued over the last couple of weeks, businesses are reopening,
Tourism is heading back out to the western half of
North Carolina. There is still some good progress that has Ongoone, yes.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Most definitely, you know, you've got the roads opened up
as well, and I believe it's Mitchell that reopen of
all the state parks so over in Western North Carolina
have reopened for recreation. And now we're talking about fall,
but seeing the leaves leaf peeping and all of that.
So yeah, it's a great time, as you say, to
go out and support those businesses, support those people trying
(25:01):
to put food on the table, pay their mortgages and
their bills, all their families, go out and support them.
And you know, as they say, Western North Carolina is
definitely open for business. So that is a good good
thing that has come out of all of this.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Wrapping up on the federal discussion. Inside of this, we
saw that the governor was in Washington, d C. Last week.
Photos posted on his social media indicated that he met
with both of our United States Senators Ted Budd and
Tom Tillis, a very lengthy meeting with the congressional delegation
as well in the House of Representatives. I was assuming
that those meetings went well to recent Hopefully some more
(25:38):
pressure from state officials like Governor Stein can get some
more of this money flowing out of the Feds.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Yes, and that's what they've all been saying, even General
Assembly said yesterday at that hearing. Rather that they said
they were definitely keeping the pressure, keeping the pressure on
the congressional contingent from North Carolina to get those funds
because they are so desperately needed. So yeah, I'm hopefully
that the meeting did go well and hopefully we see
(26:06):
more more federal dollars flowing in and less red tape
for people to deal with here in North Carolina.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Teresa, We've got some additional quotes from this meeting, including
some of the video clips that you talked about from
this this lengthy committee meeting that happened in the General Assembly.
Where can folks go and find those details this morning?
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Sure they can head on over to Carolina Journal dot com.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
We appreciate the update. Teresopeca from Carolina Journal dot com
joins us Son the Carolina Journal News Hour. Good morning again.
It's five point fifty three. Welcome back to the Carolina
Journal News Hour, News Talk eleven ten ninety nine three WBT.
As we hit the one year mark. It was Friday,
(26:49):
September twenty seventh, twenty twenty four, Carolina Journal News Hours,
just a couple of weeks old, when we were tracking
Hurricane Helene, the center of that storm across the North
South Carolina border around eight am back on the twenty
seventh of September last year, bringing unimaginable widespread destruction to
(27:09):
portions of upstate South Carolina and western North Carolina. Flooding, landslides,
and hurricane force winds caused an unimaginable amount of destruction,
more particularly here in the western half of our state.
One of the reasons that the destruction was as bad
as it was was due to the fact that heavy
rain had already fallen across western North Carolina in the
(27:31):
days before the storm, another low pressure system in the area,
causing some moderate rainfall. Nothing that is should in itself
have been too remarkable, but you add that on top
of twenty twenty five thirty inches of rain from Hurricane Helene,
the ground became absolutely so saturated that the tree roots
would really didn't have anything to hold onto, which caused
(27:54):
so many trees to fall, falling through homes and businesses
in the western half of the state. Hurricane Helene was
the deadliest Atlantic hurricane since Maria in twenty seventeen, and
is the deadliest to strike the United States mainland since
Hurricane Katrina back in two thousand and five, and the
numbers of they are very sombered North carol The National
(28:15):
Hurricane Center reports one hundred and seven deaths in the
state of North Carolina from Helene, eighty six directly from
the storm, twenty one indirectly from things like medical emergencies
in the immediate aftermath and the damage. It was widespread
and it was everywhere. Homes, businesses, hospitals, schools. It was
(28:37):
absolutely remarkable, landslides and historic flooding, completely washed away roads, highways,
Interstate forty literally fell into a gorge, bridges, and even
the electrical infrastructure cell phones, water treatment plants, and wastewater
treatment systems in some cases literally washed off the map.
(28:58):
Helene now ranks as the fifth cause Ustius Atlantic hurricane
on record, behind Katrina, Harvey, Ian, and Maria, those storms
affecting both portions of Florida and Texas. The North Carolina
impact has estimated to be around sixty billion dollars. Bunkhom County,
which hosts the city of Ashville, was hit especially hard
(29:20):
by the storm, and because Ashville is such a major
US city and many folks, even not from North Carolina,
have either visited or have heard of the Asheville area,
there was a lot of the national spotlight on Bunkhom
County and Ashville. Flash flooding, river flooding, and landslides killed
the dozens of people in and around Bunkham County. Sixteen
(29:42):
died in landslides around the Fairview area and in Swananoa
in Black Mountain. Nine drowned in raging floodwaters from the
Swananoa River as it took absolutely no mercy on anything
in its path. More than five hundred water rescues took
place just in Bunkhom County alone, as historic river flooding
(30:02):
devastated the low lying areas around Asheville. The Biltmore Village
was submerged or in some cases completely swept away. The
very popular River Arts District was largely destroyed, and flooding
also struck Bernardsville along the Ivy River and areas near
the Broad River in the southeastern portion of the county.
(30:23):
In total, there were hundreds, if not thousands, of landslides
in western North Carolina, which only added to the amount
of devastation and destruction. Tens of thousands of trees were
knocked down, many crashing onto homes, causing even more destruction
from that storm, and some of these rainfall totals, even
looking back one year ago, remarkable in Yancey County thirty
(30:46):
point seven eight inches of rain, Transylvania County twenty nine
point nine inches of rain as well, there as in
the days prior to that seeing five six inches of
rain from a different low pressure system. It is remarkable
to look back on what a year it has been
across western North Carolina. Will have continued coverage of the
(31:09):
one year mark of Hurricane Helen over on our website,
Carolina Journal dot com. That's gonna do it for a
Friday edition. WBT News is next, followed by Good morning BT.
We're back with you Monday morning, five to six right
here on News Talk eleven, ten and ninety nine three
WBT
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