Hurricane Helene Archive

Stories

The Hurricane Helene Archive brings together a collection of media contributed by community members, researchers, and historians. Use this page to explore firsthand accounts, images, and documents that offer insight into the storm, its impacts, and recovery efforts.

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  Resilient Remnants

  A Climate Story collage of my partner, his love for the natural world, and mementos. The media was created with second-hand and found items, including litter from Winklers Creek.
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  Spatial Disparities in Disaster Recovery: Assessing Flood Risk, Resilience, and Federal Aid Distribution in Western North Carolina After Tropical Storm Helene

  This is a poster created for my research on Hurricane Helene. It discusses FEMA's response in terms of assistance and those who applied for FEMA's Individual and Household Program. The focus in on rural communities and vulnerabilities that made the storm even harder for those individuals. This work will help to understand what to do if a natural disaster like this takes place again in Western North Carolina and how we can help those isolated communities and individuals who have more vulnerabilities.
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  First look out the window

  My story is short but the memory will never leave me. I woke up at my girlfriend’s house and looked out the window to see the window screen floating 3 feet off the ground. At first I thought I was dreaming, so I jumped up and pressed my face against the window and then it all became real.
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  Sinkhole at Legends Parking Lot

  My boyfriend and I walked out after the hurricane to assess the aftermath. We walked by Legends and saw a large sinkhole in their parking lot. It was shocking.
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  Stuck in Place

  I was in Hendersonville, North Carolina during Hurricane Helene watching others witness their homes and belongings get swept away.
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  Helene at the ASU ballfields

  The total flooding of the ASU ballfields behind the County Rec Center
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  Community Resilience Forum: 4 months after the storm

  Four months after Hurricane Helene on January 27, 2025, App State's Pathways to Resilience initiative held a Community Resilience Forum where ~275 people learned from community leaders (speakers listed below) about disaster response and resilience from the perspectives of working on key areas of well-being: food, water, housing and the local economy. We also watched a short film by Beth Davison documenting the incredible post-Helene recovery work led and organized via River Girl Fishing Company (owned by Kelly McCoy and Renata Dos Santos) in Todd. FOOD: Liz Whiteman, Executive Director, Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture WATER: Andy Hill, High Country Regional Director and Watauga Riverkeeper, Mountain True HOUSING: Kellie Reed Ashcraft, Executive Director, Watauga Housing Council ECONOMY: David Jackson, President/CEO, Boone Area Chamber of Commerce
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  Remember to love your Neighbor

  An acrostic poem that I wrote as we witnessed neighbors, strangers and other states come to help.
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  Green Mountain , NC

  These are photos from our home and local area on the North Toe in Green Mountain NC just after the storm
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  Farewell, tree

  A very large and old cherry tree fell on our house and had to get it sawed up and craned out so it wouldn't do too much damage.
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  Bridge Goes Out Off 421 Near 105 Bypass

  The bridge on our neighbor got completely obliterated. An unfortunate car fell in. Unbelievable. I got one photo of the car and some drone images of the bridge. Hope this helps.
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  Scenes from the donation center at Summit Pickeball

  Summit Pickleball's facility became an incredible confluence of many streams of generosity, including the generosity of Summit's owners for making the space available, the many volunteers who contribute time and sweat, and the many people from near and far who donated food, supplies, clean up equipment and more.
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  High Tide in Sugar Grove

  Cove Creek crests on September 27, 2024 at 12:18pm. Rebecca Witter took the image standing on her back porch overlooking the Old Cove Creek School in Sugar Grove. A few minutes later, the roots of an upside down sycamore tree crippled the porch.
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  River Girl Recovery

  River Girl Fishing company led the way in recovery efforts in Todd, NC. Images are stills from the documentary "We Begin at 9:30" that tells the story of the River Girl Recovery efforts.
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  Dog Rescue

  National Guard Swift Water Rescue Team evacuating Tug on a "Tug Boat." Dogs boarding at a kennel during the storm were rescued by the national guard swift water rescue team, across a washed-out bridge area at Pet Prairie in Vilas . Tug was one of 12 dogs initially moved from flooding kennels to the owner's house, which also later flooded with water reaching the basement ceiling. This photo documents Tug's final rescue and journey home after the storm destroyed the property's bridge access.
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  Helene aftermath in Valle Crucis

  Photos taken in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Valle Crucis, NC