CANTON — Community Kitchen has been dishing up meals in Canton for nearly 20 years. On Friday, the building was destroyed by Tropical Storm Helene.
But down does not mean out, the staff says.
They are not going to let the devastation stop serving meals and providing other services. They are just going to do them differently, board chair Chris Jennings said.
That seems to be the spirit of the Haywood County town, where residents are pulling themselves up by the bootstraps and working toward recovery — something they’ve experienced on more than one occasion.
As Tropical Storm Helene battered western North Carolina on Thursday and Friday, the Pigeon River reached 25.89 feet in Canton late Friday morning before receding to below flood stage Saturday, setting a new record. The previous record was 22.8 feet, set in September 2004, when Hurricane Ivan forged a path from the Gulf of Mexico to Georgia and North Carolina before continuing northward.
And in 2021, Tropical Depression Fred brought record rainfall of more than 14 inches to Haywood County, causing widespread destruction and killing six people in the county.