News

One year later, ‘talking isn’t getting it done’ for victims

Robert Nathan Parris stands on narrow footbridge that provides the only access to his home off Felmet Road in Henderson County. A section of the private road washed away when Hurricane Helene hit Henderson County. [AMY MCCRAW/Hendersonville Lightning]

By AMY MCCRAW, Associate Editor, Published: September 24, 2025

When 77-year-old Robert Nathan Parris suffered a stroke a few months ago, the ambulance that arrived to help could not reach him.

First responders parked on one side of a deep gully as Parris crossed a narrow footbridge built in the days shortly after Hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina.

Parris, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who suffers from diabetes, and his neighbors have been parking their vehicles on the side of Felmet Road and then using the footbridge to reach their homes for a year now as they wait for help fixing their road.

Floodwaters from Beck Creek during Helene washed away a section of the private road and left the 30-foot gully now spanned by the makeshift footbridge Parris uses to reach his home.

“All the stuff I buy, food and stuff, I have to tote across that bridge. I doubt I’ll ever see it fixed,” Parris said recently. “I’m going to name that road ‘The Land of the Forgotten.’”

To the casual observer, Henderson County might seem to have bounced back in the year after Helene tore through the mountains. Main roads are now intact, businesses have reopened and many homes have been repaired.

But in some areas, including where Parris lives near Crest Road, people continue to wait for repairs to roads, bridges, dams and homes.

Jim Barnette, the owner of Hendersonville Mobile Home Estates, stands next to one of several mobile homes in the park off Spartanburg Highway that were damaged in Hurricane Helene. One woman who lived in the park died when the park flooded during the storm.At Hendersonville Mobile Home Estates located just off Spartanburg Highway in Hendersonville, much of the park appears untouched by the storm.

But at the lower end — where 63-year-old Vicki Lynn Allen lost her life when raging flood waters rushed through her trailer and several others next to Chick-fil-A and Harris Teeter — Helene’s destruction is readily apparent.

Several trailers on that side of the park were damaged beyond repair and hauled away while a few others stand gutted with insulation and wall studs visible from the highway.

“I lost all those mobile homes. It’s difficult to repair because of the floodplain,” park owner Jim Barnette said, adding that the park flooded for the first time in 55 years when Helene struck.

Barnette said he wants to rebuild the damaged mobile homes that remain in his park, but he recently learned he needs to hire a surveyor and find a way to elevate the homes above the flood plain. He said he has also encountered red tape from the government and insurance that has slowed his plans to fix the damaged homes.

His tenants found other places in the area to live but all would like to eventually come back to his park, Barnette said.

Roads, bridges are still wrecked

On Lake Summit in Tuxedo, water continues to pour freely over the lake’s damaged dam made inoperable when Helene destroyed the power plant that allowed operators to raise and lower the dam, which was built in the 1920s.

A no-wake zone required because lake levels remain too high continues and high water spilling over docks and into boathouses has created problems for homeowners and others who use the lake.

In Edneyville, recent visitors looking for apples and fall fun at the businesses many orchards operate along U.S. 64 found traffic moving smoothly in and out of the community.

But not too far off the main highway, bridges remain out on Townsend Road, Water Road and South Mills Gap Road among others. One lane of Bald Rock Road is still washed away, with some drivers using the shoulder of the road to make their way up the mountain.

Don Justus, whose family owns Justus Orchard on Garren Road, said recently that damage to roads near his orchard made it a little more challenging for customers to reach the farm. Replacement of the bridge at South Mills Gap Road near the orchard was not related to Helene. But the storm delayed work on the bridge replacement, he said.

Justus said he was thankful customers found their way through road closures and detours to reach the farm.

“They found a way,” he said. “The crowds this season are nothing short of answered prayers.”

Homes remain inaccessible

While Edneyville Fire and Rescue Chief Josh Walton said the department’s second station allows first responders to reach many areas where roads and bridges are out without slowing their response time, damage on Bald Rock Road is challenging for emergency responders.

“We usually take a smaller truck first and just go slow,” he said. “It slows us down more than anything.”

The damage off Felmet Road where Parris lives also makes emergency response a challenge for first responders, Blue Ridge Fire Department Chief Will Sheehan said.

While Parris chose to walk across the footbridge to reach an ambulance when he needed help, Sheehan said the department is able to use all-terrain vehicles to reach and carry out people suffering medical emergencies in the area.

But he said it would be almost impossible to get a fire truck in if a home or other structure caught on fire.

“It’s definitely a major challenge getting into that area,” Sheehan said.

Just a few days before the one-year anniversary of the day Hurricane Helene hit Western North Carolina, Parris looked into the gully where the road to his home once ran.

He has talked to so many officials from various government agencies from the local to the federal level that it is hard to keep them all straight. None has offered any real solutions for fixing the road.

“Everybody comes down there, takes a look at it and turns their back,” he said. “They keep putting it off and off. Talking isn’t getting it done.”