The morning is cold and clear when I meet Gina Elrod and Chloe Lieberman in an empty parking lot in Barnardsville, an unincorporated community about 30 minutes north of Asheville. They are the first of several local residents who’ve agreed to show me around the ongoing recovery efforts in this small rural section of Buncombe County, which like many areas in Western North Carolina was devastated by Tropical Storm Helene.
Elrod looks down at my muddy boots and says, “Good, you’re wearing the right thing.”
She then leads us on a meandering walk through muck and grass, heading in the direction of the Big Ivy Community Center, which Elrod manages. Despite being several months out from Tropical Storm Helene, the debris in Barnardsville is relentless — crushed cars, piles of insulation, a white wooden house set askew beside the road where there clearly hadn’t been a house before…