() Significant progress in recovery efforts from Hurricane Helene have been made at Lake Lure and in Chimney Rock, according to an interview shared publicly by North Carolina Congressman Tim Moore.
The lake is hopeful of being open by the summer season. In Chimney Rock, Mayor Peter O’Leary said reopening the state park on a temporary basis is one goal in a riverbank town devastated by Hurricane Helene.
“Seven businesses were all completely washed away,” O’Leary told Moore, the 1st Congressional District representative and former record-setting speaker in the state House of Representatives. “Everything on the river from here to Lake Lure was pretty severely damaged.”
It’s a little over 1 mile from the village to where the Broad gets wider, and about 3 miles to the larger body of the lake. Docks, boats and more were damaged there.
The two stood amid a temporary roadway carved out, with damaged structures very visible and no water of the Broad River seen in the video. Chimney Rock is a village in Rutherford County, population less than 200, that attracts tourists either from the lake, Chimney Rock State Park or both.
“Water was flowing, about 5 or 6 feet deep, just tons of debris were flowing right down Main Street,” O’Leary said of the last weekend in September when Helene arrived. “Virtually every business in town was damaged.”
They visited one business that had been cleaned from 1-2 feet of mud and a water level that once reached about waist deep. They said, and it looks close, to reopening.
O’Leary said the Chimney Rock park bridge washed out, closing the park. Temporary opening is hoped for soon.
At Lake Lure, Moore said stacked debris has been removed. The water is still in need of silt removal.
“It’s amazing to see the work that’s been done here locally, and also with government assets,” Moore said.
Hurricane Helene caused an estimated $53 billion damage in North Carolina, wiping out homes and communities and killing 104. The storm is responsible for 233 deaths in seven states. Recovery is in the 19th week.
The storm made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in Dekle Beach, Fla., on Sept. 26. It dissipated over the mountains of the state and Tennessee, dropping more than 30 inches in some places and over 24 consistently across more.
Shortly after being inaugurated, President Donald Trump made a return trip to the area, where he reupped his promise from the campaign trail to prioritize western North Carolina’s recovery, even floating the idea that he was open to abolishing the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
