Hurricane Helene's destruction from Florida to western North Carolina

Western North Carolina was hit hardest. Floodwaters left Asheville, the state's largest mountain city, largely cut off by washed-out roads and without power or cellphone service,^[3] and supplies arrived by plane and by mule.^[14] Crews paddled canoes and rode horses past mudslides to reach the stranded as the death toll passed 200,^[2][15] and weeks later at least 92 people were still unaccounted for in the state.^[16] The flooding shut two quartz plants in Spruce Pine that supply ultra-pure quartz for semiconductors and solar panels,^[17] and the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Biltmore Estate were closed.^[18][19]

The storm hit weeks before the presidential election. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris toured the damage,^[20] and Donald Trump falsely claimed that Democrats were not helping people in Republican areas.^[21] The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said false claims and conspiracy theories, spread most prominently by Trump, were demoralizing aid workers,^[22] and Harris called them "incredibly irresponsible."^[23] Many homeowners faced rebuilding without flood insurance,^[24] and in November Biden asked Congress for nearly $100 billion in disaster aid after Helene and Hurricane Milton.^[25]

Recovery has been slow. A stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway reopened nearly a year after the storm,^[26] and in September 2026 the remains of the last missing Tennessee victim, Nancy Tucker, were found.^[27] Two years on, nearly all state roads in western North Carolina had reopened and drinking water had largely been restored, but housing and infrastructure gaps slowed the recovery,^[6] and crews were still pulling PVC pipe swept away by the floods out of the region's rivers.^[28]