One Year Hurricane Helene Milestone Event Looks At Remembrance, Recovery

HAYWOOD COUNTY – Many of the roads and bridges closed by Hurricane Helene have reopened, and officials are committed to completing the recovery effort in western North Carolina.

That was one of the main messages from federal, state and local transportation officials at a 1-year Helene milestone event held Friday in Haywood County.

Helene, which struck western North Carolina Sept. 27, 2024, became the state’s most destructive storm and its deadliest. It claimed 108 lives and left behind billions of dollars in damage to homes, businesses, natural attractions, roads and bridges.

“In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, heroes emerged – and the employees of the Department of Transportation are among the best,” said North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein. “I’ve watched as western North Carolinians have stepped up for their neighbors throughout their recovery from this storm. We must keep bringing that same urgency, grit, and heart to this work.”

Stein, State Transportation Secretary Joey Hopkins, Federal Highway Administration Administrator Sean McMaster and other leaders came together Friday to remember the storm’s massive toll and mark the milestones achieved toward recovery.

The event was one of several officials have been holding around the one-year anniversary of Helene.

Friday’s event, which focused on transportation, was held off Interstate 40 in the Pigeon River Gorge. The event was near the site along the river where powerful floods from Helene washed away much of the highway and forced its full closure for about five months. I-40 was reopened to one lane in each direction in March, and crews are ramping up permanent repairs to I-40.

Helene unleashed powerful winds and historic rainfall that triggered massive landslides across the Tar Heel State’s mountains and foothills.

Entire communities were cut off from the outside world as the storm damaged 9,400 sections of state-maintained roads, 846 public bridges and more than 1,700 pipes and culverts.

“The impacts to our transportation infrastructure have been enormous,” Hopkins said.

The N.C. Department of Transportation estimates that repairing the roads and bridges damaged or destroyed by Helene will cost about $5 billion. That’s far greater than the $600 million in transportation repairs North Carolina has made after all named and declared storms combined since 2016.

“Our No. 1 priority over the past year has been to restore transportation and help folks in western North Carolina recover,” Hopkins said.

NCDOT and its federal, state and local partners have devoted thousands of employees to help in the recovery. That includes the transportation workers who responded immediately after the storm to cut and remove downed trees from roads, pilots and other aviation specialists to photograph damage from the air to speed up the response, and numerous support staff to help guide the recovery. It also includes the NCDOT engineers, private contractors and others who have been designing and rebuilding roads and bridges.

Many of the efforts have been heroic. For example, NCDOT’s Safety Service Patrol drivers and other employees were praised for helping save lives along I-40 in the Pigeon River Gorge. The patrol, also known as the Incident Management Assistance Patrol, worked alongside other agency employees to quickly turn around traffic along I-40 and evacuate motorists before floodwaters destroyed the interstate and sent chunks of it into the raging Pigeon River.

“That is just one example of the efforts our crews and others have exerted over the last year,” Hopkins said. “I can’t thank everyone enough who has helped for your sacrifice, your dedication and your ingenuity.”

The full recovery in western North Carolina is likely to take several years, but the hard work is paying off, Hopkins said. Hopkins and others credited the major financial assistance from the Federal Highway Administration. Earlier this week, McMaster and his leadership announced $1.15 billion in emergency relief funding for Hurricane Helene repairs in North Carolina.

“We know this allocation will help keep the recovery moving forward and avoid disruption to non-Helene related operations,” Hopkins said.

As of this month, NCDOT and its partners have completed work on more than 6,500 damaged sites, reopened nearly 98% of all roads, and repaired more than 500 bridges and nearly all the pipes and culverts damaged by Helene.

“Thank you again for supporting this recovery over the past year and know that the department will see this effort through to the end,” Hopkins said.