Nine months after Hurricane Helene tore through the Southeast, the recovery process is just beginning. As communities rebuild their lives and towns, the Carolina Journal revisits some of the state’s hardest-hit areas to assess what recovery looks like, what’s still missing, and how far there is to go.
While one of the smaller towns outside Asheville that was hardest hit, Chimney Rock, has made significant progress since Hurricane Helene. Town officials told the Carolina Journal they are about a month away from opening multiple downtown businesses.
Chimney Rock State Park reopened on June 27. During the reopening ceremony, Gov. Josh Stein signed the Disaster Recovery Act of 2025-Part II, which allocates $700 million for Hurricane Helene relief.
The DamAge
“We lost everything, we couldn’t even communicate with the outside world, and it took a day or two to even get into the village after the storm,” Stephen, Duncan, village administrator for Chimney Rock Village, told the Carolina Journal…