September 27, 2024 – Hurricane Helene hit the Gulf Coast in Florida as a category 4 storm the day before. At 9 am, it battered Western North Carolina and tore across other parts of Appalachia in South Carolina, Georgia, and Eastern Tennessee.
Towns in WNC were decimated. Some are now gone, and others are still reeling a month later (10/30/24). Landscapes are permanently altered; water systems are broken; people are dead and displaced. Mountain towns are not built to withstand hurricanes and tropical storms.
Living through a natural disaster is mind-boggling. It’s like being tossed into an angry sea. A torrent combination of noise and silence. Grappling for air but swimming deeper into the depths for solace.
In the days after the storm, we wandered to the places we haunt to confirm they were still there, and to feel something other than the unease of uncertainty.
Bridget Herbig 