SPRUCE PINE, N.C.—A few weeks ago, a group of men and women from all around the country were strangers embarking on their daily routines. And then Hurricane Helene struck.
The storm that made landfall in Florida continued its long path of destruction into western North Carolina. A stalled weather front over the mountains had brought over a foot of rain in the days before, swelling creeks, streams, and rivers. Hurricane Helene then arrived when there was nowhere left for the excessive water to go but through people’s homes.
The raging water pushed homes off their foundations and carried them down mountains, floated cars and semi-trucks into treetops, and twisted train tracks. Swaths of debris collected around bridges, and some of those bridges snapped. Many villages and hamlets high in the mountains were mostly or fully destroyed….