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 and partner organizations have distributed emergency funds and grants. Mountain BizWorks and Asheville Buncombe Rebuilding Together awarded more than $1.5 million to 137 small businesses; the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina distributed $34 million; the American Red Cross provided nearly $3 million in financial assistance; the U.S. Small Business Administration issued about $153 million in loans and aid; FEMA distributed more than $1.8 million in individual assistance; the State of North Carolina provided over $2 million in disaster energy assistance and $156,000 in disaster rental assistance; and Dogwood Health Trust invested more than $70 million in regional relief, according to the county presentation.

Recovery programs remain active. At the Helene Resource Center, survivors can get one-on-one support from FEMA, North Carolina disaster case management and county staff. County staff identified 325 potential applicants for an emergency watershed protection program that could stabilize more than 11 miles of stream banks. About 900 residents applied for help with private roads and bridges, and 329 survivors applied for the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program; of those, 216 were for acquisition, 74 for structural elevation and 24 for slope stabilization, officials said.

Because of the unprecedented number and scale of landslides, county engineers and staff are developing a pilot program with geologists, North Carolina Emergency Management and FEMA to assess threats from 145 unique slides affecting 246 residential properties; 55 slides affect two or more properties. Speaker 2 said staff are working to identify funding and resources for Buncombe County and for other counties in Western North Carolina impacted by landslides.

Public facilities and planning steps are underway. All county pools and seven county parks have reopened for the summer. Damage at Swannanoa's Owen Park is "estimated in the millions of dollars," Speaker 2 said; the county closed a request for qualifications for design services for the park's redevelopment and will select a designer with community input and resilience planning. Work on a Swannanoa Small Area Plan has begun: staff are forming a steering committee of survivors, business owners and supporters and plan a community design charrette in winter. Officials said input from more than 2,600 participants in the Envision Buncombe process will help guide the small area plan, the Parks Master Plan and the county strategic plan.

On June 4, Buncombe County stood down its emergency operations center and formally moved from emergency response into recovery, county staff said. Moving forward, county staff and federal, state and local partners are prioritizing economic revitalization, housing, infrastructure, debris management, health and social services, and natural and cultural resources.

"Our hearts can be both broken and hopeful at the same time, and our collective experiences are at the center of our path of recovery in Buncombe County," Speaker 2 said, closing the update.

Ending: The county presentation emphasized continuing needs for funding and technical assistance — particularly to address landslides and private-road repairs — and outlined near-term steps including the landslide pilot assessment, the Owen Park design selection, and community-driven planning in Swannanoa.