Why did Swannanoa become Helene's 'ground zero'? Deadly …
Oct 22, 2024 · The floodwaters rose so fast at Thanh Bui’s house the morning of Sept. 27, she had to swim to safety. Bui, 55, and her 30-year-old son, Quintin Ho, had been up much of the night, monitoring the howling winds and rainfall of Tropical Storm Helene. Ho periodically checked the yard of their home on Asheville […]
Asheville Watchdog
3 days ago · Exclusive Series The lives we lost to Helene. Asheville Watchdog is bringing you the stories behind the staggering loss of life from Helene, the children, parents, grandparents, multiple generations of a single family, all gone in one of the worst natural disasters to hit the mountains of western North Carolina.
City banking on quicker water restoration by first fixing North Fork ...
Oct 5, 2024 · Twice in two decades, enormous transmission lines have washed out at North Fork Reservoir after torrential, hurricane-induced rain events, leaving city residents without water for days on end. In September 2004, a historic rain event spawned by a hurricane pummeled the Black Mountain and Swannanoa areas, causing a catastrophic failure of the City of Asheville’s […]
Asheville’s main water source continues to clear; contract awarded …
Nov 8, 2024 · Asheville’s North Fork Reservoir will get another turbidity-reducing mineral treatment next week, as the lake’s murkiness continues to decline. At Friday’s daily Tropical Storm Helene briefing, Asheville Water Resources spokesperson Clay Chandler said the key turbidity level dropped again since Wednesday, falling below 17 Nephelometric Turbidity Units (NTUs) by Friday morning, about a 1 ...
FEMA to start working with homeowners in flood zones on …
Nov 9, 2024 · Local homeowners who lost their homes or sustained serious damage in Helene’s floodwaters can begin applying next week to a federal program that may buy the home outright, or pay to have it elevated or rebuilt at a higher level. Steve McGugan, the state of North Carolina’s Hazard Mitigations section chief, explained at the Buncombe […]
The lives we lost: Helene took entire families, couples, children
Oct 19, 2024 · They perished under the most harrowing circumstances: entire families swept away by raging floodwaters, couples tossed out of their homes or crushed as the land underneath gave way, people battling diseases unable to access the treatments that kept them alive. The devastating, heartbreaking picture of the lives lost in Buncombe to Tropical Storm Helene, a […]
It’s official: Helene’s rainfall, flooding broke all-time records
Oct 4, 2024 · In terms of rainfall, flooding, and, tragically, lives lost, Hurricane Helene is officially worse than the historic 1916 and 2004 floods that until last week stood as the most damaging natural disasters in recorded Buncombe County history, according to state climate data. “I just kind of assumed that … we wouldn’t ever actually see another […]
Helene’s floodwaters have abated, but the risk of more potentially ...
Oct 25, 2024 · Dozens of powerful, fast-moving landslides carved deep scars into the hills and valleys around Buncombe County amid the fury of Tropical Storm Helene, sweeping away lives, destroying or damaging buildings and roadways, and dumping vast amounts of soil, rocks, and organic matter into rivers and reservoirs. While record flooding caused much of Helene’s devastation last […]
‘Beyond grateful:’ Unprecedented donations pour in from every …
Dec 19, 2024 · Money has been pouring into western North Carolina in unprecedented amounts since Tropical Storm Helene from individual donors, corporations and foundations throughout the U.S. At least $205 million has been raised or made available through disaster relief funds, benefit concerts and fundraisers, Asheville Watchdog found. Nonprofits in the region have raised millions more to provide […]
The lives we lost: 'She didn't get to be a grandma or see me get ...
Dec 11, 2024 · Asheville Watchdog is bringing you the stories behind the staggering loss of life from Helene, the children, parents, grandparents, multiple generations of a single family, all gone in one of the worst natural disasters to hit the mountains of western North Carolina. This is the 10th installment. Makayla Russell remembers her mom, Cathy Jo Blackburn […]