Hurricane Helene Update : Our Road & Pigah Inn

Finally! Workers working! Although it still would be another day before power was on.

As.i drove by, they were replacing the snapped pole & I thanked them. They were Canadian and spoke to me in broken French. 

They were also working on the wreckage by Cocula.

And I went online today to try to make a reservation during the fall foliage at Pisgah Inn, and found it was too damaged to reopen those year. That means they lost their entire season.

A Birthday Deferred : Annie's Fudge from Kilwins

Hurricane Helene Update : East Hendersonville 10/2

I finally made it to Oma's in time for her to have her medicine before heading to Georgia with Joe, and we noticed that whole roads were washed away!

But a more common site is small sink holes on the side of most roads where the water wore away the side and the asphalt caved in. But none was bigger than the sink hole in front of Dixie Diner which took up half the parking lot! (I don't have a picture of that one, but it was still there in January.)

Annie's 18th Birthday Muted by Hurricane Helene

Poor Annie! She turned eighteen with no power or any pomp & circumstance. She wanted a fancy cake from McFarlands, but it would have to wait. We also had a plan for a meal out with friends and even a possible bonfire ... all nixed by the hurricane. BUT we were able to find an Ingles open and bought a small cake. (I couldn't even bake one.No power.)

AND The Bohemian (a VERY fancy restaurant in Brevard) was open! So we had a fancy dinner for my sweet 18-year-old. So funny athat places like Stone Bowl & the Bohemian were open when no homes had power!

And the big present was just what Annie wanted:  a huge Lego set of a Legend of Zelda Deku Tree!

Hurricane Helene Update : Oct. 1

Walmart is now open, but only between 10 & 6, and only for 40 people at a time. We weren't required to come back to work until we were safe, and the company would payout for the entire first week even if we didn't work at all.

Another super-sad image from the aftermath:  Lake Lure. All of the debris flowed to the lowest point. Lake Lure was ruined by all of the debris, even whole homes ... and bodies.

Downtown Asheville after the floods receded.

And parts of the poor Blue Ridge Parkway would be closed until next spring.

The Short Story of Hurricane Helene 

On the night of September 26 , 2024 Hurricane Helene hit North Carolina as a true representation of global warming and climate change. Asheville, Lake Lure & Chimney Rock were completely destroyed while all surrounding areas, including ours, were ravaged, and Helene would fight with Katrina as as deadliest Hurricane in modern US history with 238 officially dead, and probably many more deceased homeless. Water is the true killer of any hurricane, and we had both wind AND water. Our diciduous trees were not designed for this wind, and many of them came down, ruining countless homes. The biggest problem was the water reservoir and watershed located just north of Asheville. We had many days of rain, pre-storm. This had already filled the reservoir. Helene made it overflow and the resulting flood flowed into the valleys destroying everything in its path. This flood converged in Chimney Rock destroying the entire town and ended at Lake Lure which became a literal graveyard of homes, debris, ... and bodies. We would spend 1 week without power and 2.5 weeks without phone and internet. Our entire yard would be littered with fallen trees, our driveway blocked (our chainsaw owning neighbors would free us), and our outbuilding (a hopeful stables for my future goats) was destroyed, but our home was untouched!