Growing up in eastern North Carolina along the Neuse River, hurricanes and subsequent flooding were a familiar part of life every late summer and early fall. Large parts of my hometown of Kinston have been submerged by the river’s waters on three occasions in my lifetime in what were so-called “100-year floods.”
I never thought I would see what happened last weekend when Hurricane Helene left a torrent of destruction hundreds of miles inland in western North Carolina, a region where I spent years of my adult life.
In Boone, where I graduated at Appalachian State University, waters gushed down the town’s small downtown streets.
The worst of the storm hit farther south in Asheville, a city I visited many weekends during college — to attend concerts, to drink at the city’s breweries and most importantly, to see family and friends.
Landslides and flooding destroyed vast portions of the city, including the historic Biltmore Village.