BARNARDSVILLE - Standing on her porch, fearing she had lost everything, Tammy Hensley spoke on the phone with an accountant, trying to navigate the tangle of federal aid available to her and her neighbors after Tropical Storm Helene tore through the region, bringing devastation to the small, Buncombe County community.
Right now, it feels insurmountable.
"We're making it, but it's hard," she said Oct. 3. She lives off Barnardsville Highway and manages Big Ivy Mobile Home Park, next to the house.
Ivy Creek curls around the northern edge of the property. Its base flow of around three feet spiked to a staggering 15.4 feet, per the National Weather Service, as Helene surged through, bringing historic flooding to Western North Carolina and mass devastation in its wake.
Where Ivy Creek met the highway, near its intersection with Sugar Creek Road, water was still flowing hard. A tangle of trees was swept up against the bridge, debris piled against the metal curve of the guardrail, whole appliances caught in the tangle. A shed was half dangling over the creek.
Upon closer review, it seemed the building hadn't moved — the earth and its concrete platform had just collapsed beneath it.
Hensley, 58, has lived in Barnardsville her entire life, and never had she imagined the water could get so high. Her brick 1970s one-story house was destroyed. Some mobile homes had jumped their foundations. Stray porches splintered across her front yard. She said everything inside was coated in layers of mud.
Four trailers, a barn and a shed were gone, she said — swept down the creek.
"None of these trailers are livable," she said. Of the property's 14 trailers, all residents had gotten out safely, but two were still living there, despite the wreckage. There's "nowhere else to go."
'Just trying to survive'
Barnardsville is a small unincorporated community in Buncombe County, with a population of about 600, near Pisgah National Forest and the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Moving through the community, along newly traversable roads, many of the stories of loss were echoed in the experiences of others — families who had lost everything, standing among wreckage, trying to imagine what it might look like to rebuild.
Like Dena Banks, 41, lingering near the steps of her home on Dillingham Road Oct. 3, which was impassable for several days, she said, until people forged a way through. Mud-caked belongings scattered the porch and ground. Furniture had been shunted out of the house; the yard was stripped of grass.
“It’s just super devastating, we lost everything," Banks said. "The house has got to be knocked down because it was waist deep. And just start from scratch again. Forty years invested, washed down the stream.”
When the storm came, she and her fiance? barely got her 80-year-old father out, she said, ushered through a back door and up the hill to a small building they have there. She pointed to a faint waterline, halfway up the siding of the house. Still, there's no water, no power. Cell service is spotty.
It's been the longest five days of her life, Banks said. "They've been horrible to say the least. I'm just trying to survive really. That's all you can do."
Family friend Harvie Coates arrived as she talked, carrying a plastic bag of groceries. He was making the rounds to check on folks and had been doing so for days — from Pensacola to Burnsville and Marshall. After he left Barnardsville, he was headed back for Marshall to help clean up. Coates described it as a "wasteland."
There were still nearby areas that were cut off entirely, he said. In places, Ivy Creek had redrawn its banks, carving fresh lines through the landscape. Paved roads abruptly ended in overhangs of asphalt, new roads of dirt and gravel created to circumvent the scenes of disaster.
He described trying to go wherever he could to lend a hand, the words caught in his throat.
Community-led response
As Banks said, it was amazing to see the way community pulled together, distributing food and water. She had even gotten a hot meal at the old firehouse on Barnardsville Highway, where volunteers had organized a massive response.
A billboard, built out on plywood, compiled information gathered over the last six days. The work began, said volunteer Chloe Lieberman, almost as soon as disaster struck.
“The thing that speaks to, to me, is that we are the local community," Lieberman said. "We have the capacity to care for ourselves immediately because we are here. And part of the reason why this is working as well as it is, is because of existing relationships and existing skillsets.”
Food, water and supplies were distributed from the firehouse, a hub of activity the morning of Oct. 3. A semi-circle of metal chairs was set out for the morning's community meeting, and volunteers were quick to step forward any time a need was voiced. There was a whiteboard to note down needed tree removal, carpentry, cleanup or road repair. Numbers to call to apply for disaster relief, to report someone missing or if "stressed out" and looking for someone to talk to.
Short of delivering a baby, which Lieberman said they likely also had capacity for, the response has been wide ranging. Teams of volunteers had rebuilt bridges, offered first aid care, cleared roads and made welfare checks, at times connecting to people who had been cut off for days.
“Pretty much 100% of what we’ve seen here is human kindness, generosity and cooperation," Lieberman said.
Also on the ground was Brock Mountain Land Co., whose owner is from the town, and used company equipment to bust holes through the debris and clear roads.
Banks expects to apply for federal aid, but what comes next is uncertain.
"This is home and it's not anymore. It's hard to swallow," she said. In the immediate, she is concerned with getting a roof over her head. She's just looking for a way to recover, she said. "Trying to pull the pieces together."
Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email [email protected] or message on Twitter at @slhonosky. Please support local, daily journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.