It has already been one year since Hurricane Helene devastated the southern Appalachians, Asheville and many smaller towns in the Smokies.
While Hurricane Helene reached Category 4 status in the Gulf, the vast majority of its legacy will be the extreme rainfall flooding that it produced in the Appalachians near the end of September 2024.
Helene’s death toll was enormous — the highest in the mainland U.S. since Hurricane Katrina. The final death toll reported by the National Hurricane Center is 250 people.
Of the 176 deaths that occurred directly during the storm (vs. accidents during cleanup, heart attacks, etc.), 95 were attributed to rainfall flooding, which included floods triggered by landslides and debris flows. Most of those were in western North Carolina, well away from its point of landfall in Florida.
For Jacob Klein, a local artist who joined post-storm cleanup efforts, this year’s milestone brings up a lot of emotions.
“The one-year anniversary is feeling pretty heavy,” he admitted. “We’re still pulling people’s belongings out of the river.”
“It’s extremely emotional,” added business owner Charlie Stanley. “Thinking about the destruction and the suffering that people went through here.”
Helene was America’s seventh-costliest hurricane on record, according to an estimate from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, responsible for an estimated $78.7 billion in damage.
Despite the challenges, Klein remembers how quickly people stepped up for one another.
“One of the most beautiful things that came from the aftermath of the storm was seeing these mutual aid groups, friends and neighbors get to know each other better,” he said. “People coming together and finding ways to creatively address issues, save people, pull them out of the muck, provide for each other, cook for each other, comfort each other.”
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Up to 30 inches of rain fell in the Southern Appalachians. That was both from Helene and a band of heavy rain well ahead of the storm as moist air was lifted over an old stationary front and by the mountains and foothills themselves.
“We had received so much rain leading up to the hurricane that the river was actually starting to come out of its banks in some areas, and then the hurricane hit,” remembers Jon Stamper, River Cleanup Operations Manager for the Asheville-based non-profit MountainTrue. “At that point, it became pretty clear that we are in some serious trouble here.”
The flooding that resulted prompted the National Weather Service to issue 34 separate flash flood emergencies, their highest level of flood alert used only in cases of a severe threat to life and catastrophic damage.
Floodwaters coursed through parts of Asheville and Boone, North Carolina. They washed out at least one section of Interstate 40, flooded a Tennessee hospital, prompting rooftop helicopter evacuations, and compromised a dam, forcing the evacuation of Newport, Tennessee.
The U.S. Geological Survey mapped 2,015 landslides in the southern Appalachians during Helene, primarily in western North Carolina. Half of those slides affected buildings, roads or rivers.
“Sometimes you’ll be cleaning up and you’ll realize you’re essentially standing in what was maybe at some point someone’s kitchen that washed down the river,” explained Stamper from a cleanup site on Asheville’s Swannanoa River.
“There’s sinks, there’s clothing, there’s hats,” added Stanley. “We’ve been pulling out shower curtains and people’s suitcases. So it hits a little bit differently than if it were just tires.”
The ongoing cleanup efforts are proof that Helene’s scars are still visible. So, too, are signs of healing in the community.
“It’s been a year of learning. It’s been a year of reflection on what everybody in the region went through,” Stamper said. “I found pretty quickly that the folks that were getting out here to do cleanup on volunteer days were feeling good and they were finding something cathartic and taking back a little bit of control in what has been a pretty significant portion of some of our lives.”
Nearly 200 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway were damaged or destroyed by Helene, which caused 57 landslides along the Parkway in North Carolina alone. More than 48 miles of this stretch have been restored.
Reopening trails and sections of the Blue Ridge Parkway has been especially meaningful for residents and visitors alike.
“It really brings a lot of hope that we are making progress and moving forward,” explained Stanley.
The rest of the parkway is expected to be open during Fall 2026.
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This, after tourism — the lifeblood of Asheville’s economy — took a major hit following the storm. One year later, locals want to make sure everyone knows: They’re back open for business.
“The bars and the restaurants and the museums and the art galleries are all here, and the resounding message from everybody that lives here is, please come and visit us,” Stanley urged. “We are open, we are safe, and we’re looking forward to sharing our space again with everyone that wants to visit Asheville.”
From riverbanks to businesses, led by volunteers and neighbors, Asheville is still piecing itself back together. Though the memories are raw, what endures is a spirit of strength.
As Stamper put it: “We’re going to be at this until the last bag of trash comes off the river.”
Weather.com lead editor Jenn Jordan explores how weather and climate weave through our daily lives, shape our routines and leave lasting impacts on our communities.
Jonathan Belles has been a digital meteorologist for weather.com for 9 years and also assists in the production of videos for The Weather Channel en español. His favorite weather is tropical weather, but also enjoys covering high-impact weather and news stories and winter storms. He’s a two-time graduate of Florida State University and a proud graduate of St. Petersburg College.