Murfreesboro, TN – It’s hard to believe it’s been a year. One year since Hurricane Helene tore through the Southeast, leaving behind a landscape so altered, so battered, that even lifelong residents struggled to recognize their own towns. For East Tennessee and parts of Western North Carolina, September 27, 2024, is a date etched in memory when the skies opened, the rivers rose, and the mountains themselves seemed to give way.
Helene made landfall in Florida the day before, but it was Tennessee that felt her wrath as she moved inland. Torrential rains triggered flash floods and mudslides that swallowed homes, businesses, and entire stretches of highway. Interstate 40, the lifeline between Newport and Asheville, was ripped apart. Not just damaged–it was gone. Washed away like sandcastles in a tide. For months, crews battled unstable terrain and relentless weather to rebuild what had been lost. The road only reopened recently, but the scars remain.
The human toll was heartbreaking. Fifteen lives lost in East Tennessee alone. In Erwin, floodwaters overwhelmed the Impact Plastics facility, claiming five employees. Gatlinburg saw nearly nine inches of rain. Elizabethton wasn’t far behind. Rivers breached their banks, homes were swept off foundations, and historic buildings crumbled. Some neighborhoods still sit empty, their residents displaced, their futures uncertain…