In late September 2024, a hurricane tore through the southern mountain city of Asheville, North Carolina. With a creative economy that depends on tourism, the community is now rebuilding from the ground up. Journalist Megan DeMatteo returns to a city she knows well to see its grassroots recovery in action.
It’s not every day that tourists get to experience community revival in action. But in Asheville, North Carolina, an artsy, mid-size city cradled by misty, rolling hills, that’s exactly what visitors will see.
Last September, Hurricane Helene ripped through southern Appalachia, displacing hundreds of artists from Asheville’s riverside studios and dissolving swaths of neighboring towns like Bat Cave, Chimney Rock and Swannanoa into riverbeds. Nine months later, citizens are still picking up the pieces…