After the storm ripped through communities across the South, some are still picking up the pieces. Here are some of their stories.Show Caption
One year ago, Helene tore a path of destruction throughout the southern United States, as a hurricane and tropical storm that sent floodwaters crashing into communities. It devastated small mountain towns and historic estates, beachfront communities and a beloved National Park.Many of the communities affected are in areas where USA TODAY Network journalists live and work. Those journalists took stock of their communities, chronicling the recovery and talking to people whose lives and livelihoods were upended.Here are some of their stories.Two sisters rebuild a business in AshevilleA year ago, Asheville Tea Company's original tea blends were scattered in North Carolina, where the business had been headquartered until Helene wiped out the facility. It could have been the end of the woman-founded and -operated family business, which launched in 2016.Sisters Jessie (the CEO and founder) and Melissa Dean (sales/marketing director) tracked the path of the 5,800-square-foot leased building after floodwaters receded. It was lifted from its foundation and crashed through a utility pole, eventually embedding itself in a nearby restaurant. Office furniture and bags of tea were strewn along the Swannanoa River and left tangled in trees.Now Asheville Tea Company occupies a temporary headquarters at Asheville Buncombe Technical Community College's Small Business Center. Boxes of tea stacked high on shelves await distribution to regional wholesale retailers and online customers nationwide. While helping her sister pick up the pieces of the shattered business, Melissa Dean also dealt with storm-related damage at her home and a totaled vehicle."It was overwhelming to have everything in your life that you've built over time, having to see it damaged and figure out ways to replace it," Melissa Dean said.The Dean sisters said there was no question about whether they would rebuild the company, which sources botanicals from local farms. Thanks to the local community and friends across the United States and over the northern border, they were able to pivot and get back to business within several weeks of the catastrophic storm, in time for the holiday season.The sisters said having each other and their family, friends and neighbors' support ― which sometimes included hands-on help packing and hauling boxes ― gave them the motivation and push they needed to keep going, especially on the more difficult days.Melissa Dean said she couldn't imagine going through it all without her sister: "If one of us is feeling down, the other one steps in and picks each other up."— Tiana Kennell, Asheville Citizen-TimesIn Tennessee, strangers helped them get a new homeKriston Hicks' mobile home in Hampton, Tennessee, was damaged beyond repair during flooding brought on by Hurricane Helene. Through the generosity of strangers, she and her grandfather, David Hicks, have moved into a brand new home on the property. Courtney Dailey, a local author, connected the Hickses with a church in Louisa, Kentucky, that offered help after the hurricane. By the end of October, a plan was in place to build the Hickses a new place to live.In August, nearly a year after flooding struck their community, the Hickses moved into their new house. "It's kind of strange, but I mean, we wake up every day, and we feel so blessed," Kriston said.When the Knoxville News Sentinel, part of the USA TODAY Network, spoke with Kriston in January, she said her one request for the home was that it be accessible for her disabled grandfather, for whom she is the primary caregiver. Now, David can use a ramp to enter and exit the house and is able to access each of its rooms.Shortly after the Hickses moved in, heavy rain caused the yard to flood. It was far less severe than last year's, but Kriston was hyper-vigilant watching the water rise, she said. Even so, it was a relief to know David could easily evacuate the new house if he needed to.— Hayden Dunbar, Knoxville News SentinelFrom fearing for their toddler to building a new homeJoey and Brooke McNeely, displaced a year ago from their Hendersonville, North Carolina apartment, are settling into a new house that they started moving into just a few weeks ago. Lilah, 22 months old, was laughing, babbling and running across the yard, where she bumped her head on a picnic table on a recent September afternoon when the Hendersonville Times-News, part of the USA TODAY Network, visited.By many accounts, recovery in Western North Carolina has been brutal. But for some, like the McNeelys, life feels like it's returning to normal. On Sept. 27, 2024, Joey, 42, had to dangle then-10-month-old Lilah out the second-story window of their flooded townhouse, where the family was trapped by rising floodwaters from nearby Clear Creek. A Henderson County Sheriff’s deputy paddled below the window in a canoe, waiting to take hold of the baby and ferry her across to Brooke, 34, watching from the closest relatively dry, higher land."(Joey) wanted me to go first, and I didn't want to leave without (Lilah). That was hard,” Brooke McNeely, 34, told the Times-News.Expecting heavy rain, Joey, a general contractor and project manager, decided to work from home. Brooke, a jewelry and textile artist, grew up in Florida and remembers getting days off from school for hurricanes. As the rain grew worse, Joey checked online and found that their apartment complex was in a floodplain. By then, water was already quickly approaching their door. Water soon started spraying out of the toilet and through the cracks around the door.“We knew at that point we couldn’t evacuate” without several feet of standing water outside rushing in all at once, Joey said. Neighbors and Henderson County Sheriff’s deputies came to the McNeelys' rescue in canoes, kayaks and paddle boards.“If we talk about the flood, we don't talk about the day it happened. We talk about the month after,” Brooke said. The slog of recovery is what's stuck with her even more than the frantic and frightening hours of the storm.Their apartment was looted while they were gone, they said. One of the things that hurt the most for Brooke was a box of keepsakes from her grandmother broken by the looters. “The mold took over fast” in the apartment, Joey said.The McNeelys were in a FEMA-reimbursed hotel in Greenville, with Joey commuting to Hendersonville for work for around a month before returning to Hendersonville to live in a rental for close to a year. That lease ended Sept. 17. One of the most upsetting parts for Brooke was feeling like the family was missing out on the baby’s first fall season while they dealt with the aftermath of the storm.“We'll make up for it this year,” she said.'We're so lucky, all things considered ... (some) people lost their kids," Joey said.— George Fabe Russell, Hendersonville Times-NewsRead more:USA TODAY Network papers along Helene's path followed up with some of the communities that suffered most under Helene's terrifying winds and water. Read their stories here:Keaton Beach residents feel forgotten, rely on each other one year after Hurricane HeleneWhat can you do to help children still coping with weather anxiety?It's fall in Western N.C. Here are the parks and attractions that have reopenedHelene by the numbers: A year after the storm, here's the data on Western NC's recoveryA year later, revisiting the people and places of eastern TennesseeContributing: Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA TODAY
