BAT CAVE – Nicole Ozmina was at home with her two children and partner on Endey Inn Road Sept. 27 when Tropical Storm Helene hit, trapping the family there for three days before being air-lifted out. The sounds of rain terrify her now, she said.
What was once a good sign this time of year since the ground is usually dry, Ozmina said, now reminds her of the days when she and her family watched their little community of Bat Cave crumble around them.
More than a month after the worst natural disaster in Western North Carolina history devastated the region, Bat Cave, a small unincorporated town in Henderson County along the banks of the Broad River, continues to work at building back the life and home they once knew.
On the morning of Nov. 10, roughly six weeks after the storm, Ozmina was helping her partner clean up some of their yard, trying to keep herself busy before they had to leave for a funeral, she said. They have a lot of work to do. Landslides and fallen trees now surround their little mountain town.