ASHEVILLE (September 26, 2025) – The one word people repeated over and over was ‘community.’

A three-day symposium last week organized by UNC Asheville faculty to mark the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene’s devastation of Western North Carolina covered a vast array of topics, with nearly 80 events and discussion sessions.

And over and over, people recounted stories of neighbors who ferried water and food to neighbors they’d never met. About farmers in Pennsylvania who hauled tractor-trailers of hay to farmers in Western North Carolina. About downtown businesses that had generators sharing power with businesses that didn’t. And complete strangers showing up to muck out homes and businesses.

“To see the generosity of people … was amazing,” said farmer and former state legislator Nathan Ramsey. “They were out helping others, and they didn’t know what happened to their own home.”

“The love and the care got me through,” said a woman from the Riverknoll community along the Swannanoa River in East Asheville, where some residents had to dive out of their windows to escape the rushing brown water.

HELENE TOOK a tremendous toll:

•107 lives lost in North Carolina (43 in Buncombe County alone);

•$60 billion in damage;

•More than 73,000 homes damaged;

•Schools closed for weeks, if not longer, and school buses that simply floated away. Old Fort Elementary only reopened in August; its students and teachers went nearly a year without convening.

Many are still dealing with the sorrow.

Ramsey said he grew a beard to remind himself of the people he lost each time he looks in the mirror. Other panelists teared up as they recalled the days during and immediately after the storm and efforts to mount a recovery.

The consensus? The region has made tremendous progress, but it still has a long way to go.

THE SYMPOSIUM showed a university supporting its community in a broad way, though.

“This symposium has been a great chance to connect with our community,” said David Gillette, professor and chair of Environmental Science at UNCA.

The sessions broached an incredible expanse of subjects – some clinical, some emotional:

•Dependence on an old standby – radio – in the absence of cell and Internet service.

•Impact and trauma for K-12 students, whose schools were closed for weeks. “Parents and students were lost,” said Leslie Blalock, owner of a mini-golf operation. “They had no Internet – oh my gosh!”

•Impacts on the Hispanic community – particularly agricultural workers the region depends on to grow and harvest its apples and other products.

•The mental health of first responders who witnessed horrific events – counselors came to fire departments.

•Discussion by a UNCA psychologist about why we tend to forget the last disaster, whether in Rapid City, New Orleans or yes – Asheville.

”When it fell out of the news, everybody forgot about it,” said Old Fort native Katie Hawkins, who said some of her friends asked two weeks after the storm, “Haven’t they rebuilt?” Many survivors, meanwhile, were still living in tents at the time.

•Response by faith-based organizations, as well as volunteers from non-profit mutual-aid organizations.

•Efforts to help citizens vote five weeks after the floods. One determined election worker drove an ATV up a mountain to take ballots to survivors who couldn’t make it to a polling place. Yet the region had a higher voter-turnout rate than the rest of the state.

•And a memorial exhibit and scholarship to honor Sami Zoobi, a UNCA alumna and artist who died in the flooding.

ONE SESSION also featured discussion of a documentary in development called “Small Town Mountain Strong” by Katie Hawkins and Corey Locatelli of Here For Good Films, who have filmed in multiple small communities across the region.

“This is just another way of coming together and demonstrating how far we’ve come,” said Hawkins.

ECONOMIC IMPACT, DEPARTED WORKERS

The unemployment rate in Buncombe County was 10.8% after Helene, and it declined to 4.1% by July.

But those numbers would have been higher if so many workers – especially in the hospitality industry – hadn’t left town after the floods in search of work. Many didn’t come back, creating a persistent labor shortage.

“The unemployment number would have been higher had they stayed,” said Robert Tatum, professor of economics and director of the Honors Program at UNCA.

“You get damage to a tourist town, people are going to say, ‘Yeah, I gotta get out of here.’”

There can also be delayed impact for some businesses in Buncombe’s $3 billion tourism industry, Tatum said. He cited FEMA findings that 43% of small businesses impacted by a disaster never reopen, and 29% close within two years.

Tatum shared the story of Vivian, a successful restaurant in Asheville’s River Arts District whose owner was nominated for a regional James Beard Award, but that suffered roof damage in the storm.

The owners couldn’t prove the damage was due to the storm, though, so their insurance claims were denied and they didn’t qualify for Small Business Administration loans.

Many of the restaurant’s workers moved away or had to stay home with their children because their schools were closed for weeks.

So two months after the storm, the acclaimed restaurant announced it would close.

Muhammad  Nawaz, an assistant professor of economics at UNCA, said businesses lost $584 million in Asheville alone. Some 51% of businesses surveyed said they saw revenue decline, and 53% said they had received no government assistance yet.

Corner Kitchen, a popular high-end restaurant in low-lying Biltmore Village, near the confluence of the Swannanoa and French Broad rivers, reopened only a month ago.

A survey found that 13% of businesses that closed managed to re-open, but 23% could not. Labor, capital, interest and insurance costs all increased.

“That’s an important component of why they are still struggling to survive,” Nawaz said.

‘THOUSAND-YEAR FLOOD’

The last tropical cyclone to hit Western North Carolina was in July 1916, said Caitlin Crossett, an assistant professor of atmospheric science at UNCA.

Paige Ambord, an assistant professor of sociology at UNCA, said that in a survey of storm victims that UNCA researchers conducted, “‘No, no, no,’ they said, ‘the 1916 flood would never happen again.’” Or “‘Not (again) in my lifetime.’”

That’s because many misunderstand the term “thousand-year flood,” said Crossett.

It is simply a statistical probability, she said.

“Just because it rains … doesn’t mean it can’t happen next year,” Crossett said. On average, she said, Western North Carolina sees damaging floods every 20 years.

And despite updates to landslide maps after landslides in the region in 2004, said Ambord, many continue to live in family homes in beautiful locations.

“These beautiful locations often come with a risk,” she said.

The people of Western North Carolina are strong, resilient and caring. Their home is on the mend, but it’s not there yet.

Credit for the header image of this post goes to McDowell County Schools. Images of Sami Zoobi and her artwork have been provided by UNC Asheville.