Hurricane Helene: How Did We Do?

Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina on September 27, 2024. There is a LOT of damage which you are seeing on the news. Friends and family have a lot of damage, are still without power and water and may be for a while. It was days before we saw the news to find out how very bad the storm affected others in the area. This post is about what happened to us. We are all fine.

We have been asked why we did not evacuate and a lot of other questions. If the explanations you are seeing on the news don’t satisfy you, perhaps this explanation will.

Before the storm even hit, we had flooding from another storm. Druid Hills flooding made the news.

We had heavy rain before the hurricane hit. The brook was high, but not over the banks by our house. There was some flooding in our field, but not too high. When it stopped raining, the water went down, but the ground was saturated.

We got a text alert that linked to a map to show us who was in a flood zone. We are in a flood zone, which we knew when we bought the land. We brought in fill so we are now above the 100 year flood elevation. It doesn’t show that on the map, though.

City of Hendersonville – Potential Flooding Map
The map shows the 1% Annual Chance Flood (100 Year Flood) area, the 0.2% Annual Chance Flood (500 Year Flood) area and the Floodway.

Someone from the city went from door to door telling people in the flood zone to leave. They talked to us, but they did not tell us to leave.

This house was recently built following a lot of more recent rules that make it safer if there is flooding. We have a generator. We have storm supplies and go bags just in case. We have backup batteries for the important things like the coffee maker. We always have a lot of bottled water and we filled the saved bottles and a large container that fits in the tub with more water. We are both preparers.

We got a lot of text alerts on the phone to consider all roads closed and to reduce water use. We got an alert that there was a State of Emergency with a curfew from 8 PM to 8 AM.

The brook was way out of the banks and rushing higher and higher.

We heard a lot of cracks as trees came down. Then the flood water picked them up and carried them away. Eventually we were surrounded by rushing water with water rushing through under the house as well.

My friend sent me this photo from her front door. This is the house across from the log cabin.

We lost power, water, phone, and internet. Regular radio and TV got nothing but static. The weather radio told us the facts, but not what they mean. Texts were iffy. Texts would occasionally come through with links to find out what was going on, but because we had no internet, we couldn’t find out. (So… in future, put the important points into the text!)

When the rain let up we went out to see how much damage there was. It seemed like it wasn’t too bad.

There were sink holes in my neighbor’s yard.

The retaining wall on the other side of the road had collapsed. That black culvert used to only stick out maybe 6-inches.

The water level went down about as fast as it had gone up. I recaptured a wheel barrow and our compost bin from where they had floated down the road. The houses on Somerset Drive, where police had gone door-to-door telling them to evacuate were all fine. The water had barely if at all come into the houses. It was higher than they had ever seen before, but not dangerous.

We pulled the trees and brush out of the road where they were blocking it and started cleaning up the yard. Phone and internet were still down, but I got a text from my friend saying she was going to evacuate if she could. I realized the text must have been sent hours before, but I walked the two blocks over to her house. With no communication, we had no idea of the damage.

Someone sent me this photo of US-25. The log cabin where we used to live is directly behind this restaurant. Our house where we live now is three blocks or so away.

There were trees down everywhere. Neighbors had cut them enough to drive through.

On the way to Debbie’s house I saw cars and house after house with trees through them.

Debbie had an enormous tree resting on her house.

The tree is so big it blocks any light from the windows on that side of the house.

The tree is from the neighbor’s yard and WAY bigger than it looks.

This is looking toward the log cabin from Arlington Road by Debbie’s driveway. This is the location Swift Water Rescue was operating from.

This is the same house Debbie sent me a photo of during the storm. The family had to be rescued by Swift Water Rescue.

This house is just across the road and on the other side of the brook from the cabin. It had never flooded in all the time I lived in the log cabin. They had a really scary time trying to get out as the water was rising. The house is only partly in the blue marked flood zone.

This little house is behind the white one. They were already busy pulling all of the wet contents out of the house.

This house is just over the brook from the back of the log cabin. You can see how high the water got.

A rocking chair was caught on the fence.

I walked back on a different road and saw the size of trees that had been dragged along by the flood waters. These might have been some of the trees that came down in our back yard.

By the next day trucks from the city of Hendersonville were out clearing trees off the road and picking up the trees we had stacked on the side of the road.

They picked up our first pile of trees and debris.

My sister-in-law had just spent thousands having trees removed. But there were still enough left to hit her home and crush her car.

We heard a lot of chainsaws and saw truck after truck coming from Skyline Drive, the road on the ridge behind our house. We walked up there to see what is going on.

I think every single house on the top of the ridge had trees down and tarps over roofs.

Some of the trees are just absolutely enormous.

I was surprised to get a text reminder of a doctor visit. I couldn’t get through to anybody at the number, so we just drove over to see if by some miracle they really were open. Nope. They will not be open for a long time. There is a thick layer of mud over all of the parking.

Through the front window you could see how high water got inside.

It was easier to see through the windows than to take photos. Everything inside was wet and tossed around.

There are already a lot of workers, though.

Volunteers came to help Debbie get the tree off her roof. First they documented everything to make sure that she has what she needs for insurance and FEMA. The first day they cut the limbs off the tree and we dragged them over to the side of the road for the city to pick up. But the tree was just too big for the chainsaws there.

The next day a volunteer with logging equipment came and lifted the tree off the roof onto a logging truck with a crane.

There were powerlines down everywhere. My daughter had no power for 9 days.

I know most of you are more interested in the log cabin, the 2-story shed turned into a little farmhouse/office, the modular Westwood Cabin and how our Schumacher Home did. I am working on it.

Hurricane Helene vs. the Classic Manor New Day Cabin