As the executive director of the Asheville Downtown Association , Hayden Plemmons’ job is to promote business and tourism for that western North Carolina city — not provide it hurricane relief.
But that’s what this Harris County High School graduate has been doing this week in Columbus.
Plemmons, whose last name was Harrison when she attended HCHS, evacuated from Asheville with her husband, Tim, and drove approximately 300 miles to her childhood home in Ellerslie on Friday night after Hurricane Helene hit.
When the storm made landfall at 11:10 p.m. Thursday in the Big Bend area of Florida, it was a Category 4 hurricane with 140 mph winds , and the forecast called for Columbus to be in its path of severe impact .
But by the time Helene crossed into Georgia early Friday morning as a Category 2 hurricane with 100 mph winds , its path had shifted eastward . Although the storm caused some damage and brief power outages in the Columbus area, it was spared devastation . Instead, Helene produced widespread destruction and flooding, with more than 160 reported deaths , elsewhere in the Southeast, including Asheville, where it dumped 14 inches of rain .