Buncombe County reviews recovery progress and ongoing needs nearly nine months after Helene

Buncombe County officials summarized recovery progress and ongoing needs nearly nine months after Hurricane Helene, noting 43 deaths, extensive property and infrastructure damage and millions of dollars in relief distributed by governments and nonprofits.

Speaker 2, County official (role not specified), said the county declared a local state of emergency on Sept. 25, 2024, after a storm that destroyed 372 houses, damaged about 12,000 more and triggered more than 2,000 landslides across the county. "Helene claimed our homes, destroying 372 houses and damaging another 12,000," Speaker 2 said, and added that landslides damaged or destroyed much of the North Carolina mountains outside Asheville.

The county described support services and relief volumes that followed the storm. Community care stations provided more than 48,000 showers and 62,000 loads of laundry, and the Owen Pool care station operated 24 hours during freezing winter weather. County staff reported more than 3,000,000 cubic yards of debris removed from roadsides and rivers and 1,500 Helene-related building-permit applications filed.

Officials…