AccuWeather speaks with the mayor of Asheville, North Carolina, Esther Manheimer, on the recovery process that continues six months after Hurricane Helene tore through the region with deadly flooding.
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00:00It's been six months since Helene made landfall,
00:03later bringing damage to your city.
00:05How is the recovery overall?
00:09Well, we've made great strides
00:11and we've hit a lot of milestones,
00:13reopening some areas of our damaged area of our city.
00:17We're seeing a lot of visitors come back.
00:19This is normally a big tourist town.
00:22You saw the Biltmore Estate in that picture.
00:24They're open for business.
00:25So we're glad to see people coming back into our community
00:29and we're really excited about the spring weather.
00:32But there is a lot of work still to be done.
00:34There are certain areas of the city along the river
00:37are so heavily damaged
00:39and it's gonna take months more to rebuild those areas.
00:45And what are some of the most urgent needs
00:49that are not yet being addressed?
00:53Well, I think we've seen a strong response
00:56from the federal government
00:58and from the Congress to provide funds to the state.
01:01And also we've seen incredible support from the state
01:04as well as I can't leave out all of the partners
01:08and faith-based community members,
01:10all the folks that have helped us out.
01:12But we need to see that work continue to move.
01:17There's some areas of rebuilding
01:18that are just gonna take time
01:20and we just need to methodically move through
01:25all of that work to repair all of that damage.
01:28So at this point in time,
01:31we need the continued focus
01:35from both the federal and state government
01:37to support our recovery.
01:38And so far that's working and moving along fine.
01:44And we know a lot about homes and businesses
01:46need to be rebuilt, but these are people's communities,
01:49things like playgrounds, like libraries.
01:51How is that process going?
01:54So, yeah, I think that's a really good point.
01:58I mean, some of the most heavily damaged areas of the city
02:00included, for example, the city zoo,
02:02which is near the river.
02:03And we just reopened that last week,
02:06but we have soccer fields and playgrounds and swimming pools
02:09and golf courses and greenways and parks
02:13that are all along the river that were affected.
02:15So things that people like to use
02:17and help them enjoy our community.
02:20But in addition, we also saw a lot of businesses
02:24in Asheville that were located along the river,
02:25whether it's a brewery or an art gallery,
02:29some of these were completely destroyed
02:31and it's just gonna be a long process to see the rebuilding.
02:35Now what you're seeing there is our famous drum circle
02:37and don't you worry that it's back in action.
02:39So you can come to Asheville and enjoy it anytime.
02:42I love it.
02:43Yeah, really quickly here in about 30 seconds,
02:45let's talk about the infrastructure, especially roads.
02:48A lot of them are slowly opening up.
02:51Yeah, I mean, hundreds of roads
02:53throughout Western North Carolina were damaged.
02:55You know, when this storm first hit this area
02:59in the immediate aftermath,
03:00we had three of our four highways coming into Asheville
03:03that were knocked out of commission.
03:05So we've made great strides.
03:07The department of transportation has been building,
03:09building, building and rebuilding.
03:11So a majority, I think it's fair to say
03:15of the roads are reopened,
03:16but we still have some major areas,
03:18major roadways that are gonna be,
03:20they're gonna take a lot longer to rebuild.
03:22For example, highway 40 West of Asheville
03:26is one lane in each direction.
03:28And, you know, just to rebuild that section of highway,
03:32which is to the West of the city,
03:34it was a billion dollar project,
03:36just to give you an example.
03:37So pretty significant work still needs to be done.