'We're still struggling': North Carolina families coping with weather anxiety, long recovery months after Helene
Six months have passed since Hurricane Helene devastated western North Carolina, and survivors are still picking up the pieces while also dealing with symptoms of PTSD.
AccuWeather speaks with the mayor of Asheville, North Carolina, Esther Manheimer, on the recovery process that continues six months after Hurricane Helene tore through the region with deadly flooding.
“There are some places that are not coming back and some people that are not coming back, but that’s just part of the new normal," Pastor Michael Long said amid the devastation from Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina.
It has been six months since Helene unleashed biblical flooding and tree-snapping winds across the Southeast, and Grove Stone Baptist Church in hard-hit Black Mountain, North Carolina, is still serving free meals to families in the Black Mountain community every Monday. This regular ritual is one of many simple acts of kindness that has fueled folks who are struggling amid the long-term recovery.
People serve a hot meal to those in need in Black Mountain, North Carolina. (AccuWeather/Bill Wadell)
"Here we are six months later after the storm. There's still a lot of [people in] need and a lot of people still willing to pitch in and help out these families," Long told AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell.
Torrential rain from Hurricane Helene, falling on top of days of rain from a separate storm, caused devastating floods that washed away buildings and cars in western North Carolina.
The church is a beacon of hope amid the destruction, with some towns still strewn with debris, a constant reminder of what was the deadliest hurricane since Katrina in 2004.
But the scars left by Helene run deep, well beyond the physical damage from the wind and rain.
Survivors struggling with PTSD, weather anxiety
“We want to let people know that we’re still struggling," Brandon Johnson told Wadell. Johnson is the Executive Director of Madison County Arts Council and has been hard at work to clean and repair the flood damage left by the storm.
But his words also have another meaning that resurfaces anytime the weather takes a turn.
"My 11-year-old can't go to sleep when it's windy. My 3-year-old draws pictures and says there’s a hurricane. It's hit everybody in different ways," Johnson recalled.
"The other night, we had some severe weather come through, and I talked to a bunch of people and was like, I didn’t sleep at all. I woke up 10 or 11 times, literally jumped out of bed at one point thinking I heard a tree that was coming down since we had a tree fall on our house.”
Pastor Long echoed the sentiment, adding that "when the wind starts coming and the rain, there are a lot of people that get PTSD."
He is encouraging those struggling with the mental aspect of recovery to ask for help, as they are not the only ones navigating through the challenging recovery efforts.
People in Asheville, North Carolina pull together with donations by pickup truck and helicopter after destructive flash flooding from Helene.
With so much damage still evident, western North Carolina has become a site for "disaster tourism."
This can be dangerous as people unfamiliar with the region may find themselves on roads that are still compromised due to Helene, or they may get in the way of ongoing cleanup efforts. However, Johnson said visitors can provide some help to the communities.
"We are very sensitive to disaster tourism. Don’t come just to look around, come here and buy lunch, come here and do something to support folks," Johnson said, "Just be curious about it, understand that this place has gone through an incredibly traumatic six months."
Additional reporting by AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell.
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