Artists Maria Andrade Troya and Alice Scott are happy to be in Louisville this weekend for the St. James Court Art Show , away from Asheville, North Carolina, where the reminders of the destruction caused by Hurricane Helene’s remnants are still fresh.
Andrade Troya, a potter, and Scott, a jeweler, both use studio space in Curve Studios , which sits on the bank of the French Broad River in Asheville’s River Arts District and was submerged by flooding from the storm.
Asheville, in western North Carolina, is situated in the region most devastated by the storm. As of Friday, the death toll in the southeastern U.S. had ticked above 200, according to USA TODAY .
The River Arts District is known as a bustling riverside community where more than 300 artists convene and work. Several art studios, gallery spaces, coffee shops, restaurants and other small businesses reside in the area. In many ways, it was an artist’s paradise. But in the aftermath of Helene, only a handful of buildings remain unscathed, Andrade Troya said.