Many people spent a cold, snowy winter in the mountains of North Carolina inside campers and temporary housing as towns remained devastated by Hurricane Helene. AccuWeather takes a look at how the recovery is going now.
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00:00The long and complicated cleanup continues six months after Helene brought catastrophic flooding to the mountains of western North Carolina.
00:08Many businesses in Nashville's historic Biltmore Village still closed, while a few others have reopened.
00:14AccuWeather's Bill Waddell is live in nearby Swannanoa.
00:18Bill, this has been a very costly cleanup. We understand that it's very far from over.
00:24Absolutely, Jeff. Yeah, some of the people we've been talking with, they've been frustrated by the speed of the recovery.
00:31But many of the others we've been talking with are really proud of everything they've accomplished in the past six months
00:36when it comes to recovery, the cleanup, and trying to get people back into homes.
00:41But you can see behind us, there are still a lot of scars left behind from Helene here, right along the main stretch of Swannanoa.
00:46The power of the water ripping apart these buildings. You can see a car still buried in feet of mud and rocks.
00:53And there's not much water in the Swannanoa River right now. This is what it typically looks like.
00:58So we're talking about tremendous amounts of water from Helene.
01:01And on the other side of the river, there are still people that are living in campers and temporary housing after losing their home to this storm.
01:10Now, the economic effects from not just Helene, but last year's hurricane season, they were felt across the country.
01:17AccuWeather experts estimate that the combined total damage and economic loss from the six storms that impacted the U.S. last year reached $500 billion.
01:29So it's taken a tremendous toll economically. Hurricane Helene, of course, at the top of that list.
01:35With all of the damage here in the Carolinas, but of course those estimates include the storm surge and wind damage down in Florida.
01:42The cleanup here will continue well into the summer months and beyond.
01:47It can be emotional seeing what it looked like in the beginning, but it's also emotional in a positive way now.
01:52Seeing all the improvements and seeing North Carolina recover.
01:55We have picked up over 3 million cubic yards of debris.
01:59We are projected to pick up an additional 2.9 million cubic yards of debris.
02:04We fully understand that tourism is a huge part of this local area.
02:07We have been in full sprint mode to get them back to normal operating conditions as soon as possible.
02:14And we will continue until the mission is complete.
02:16We are very motivated to be here. We care about North Carolina and we will not stop until it's done.
02:23Major Brittany Hind with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says crews and volunteers have been working nonstop at Lake Lure and Chimney Rock.
02:31They're trying to get that region ready in hopes that more families and visitors will return this spring and summer for their trips and vacations.
02:38Tourism here, of course, is a top industry in western North Carolina.
02:43Housing is also a top priority right now, with some families still in campers after spending a cold and snowy winter here in the mountains in temporary housing.
02:55We have to recover smartly in order to recover resiliently.
02:59Whether that's raising houses, getting foundations out of the flood plain, even if it's relocating communities or village districts to safer ground.
03:08We know that when the next storm comes and we know that storms are happening more and more frequently, we've got to be sure that the way we rebuild now takes that into account.
03:18There's so much more to do. In six months is the blink of an eye.
03:23You can see the feet of mud and rock that were left behind in that neighborhood in Swannanoa six months ago.
03:31Much of it has been hauled out. Repairs have started in some of those homes, but others look like they haven't been touched yet.
03:39Jordan Wichert is the Chief Deputy Secretary of North Carolina's Department of Commerce and says they are working with state and federal leaders to secure more funding and more resources to help these families and businesses.
03:52The goal is to get as many people out of temporary housing as soon as possible.
03:57Jeff, we're being told they don't want to see any families having to stay in campers facing another cold and snowy winter.
04:04Thank you for your reporting.