Hurricane Helene dealt a devastating blow to the heartland of bluegrass and Appalachian mountain music last week. I grew up in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and I remember well the devastation Hurricane Camille caused in 1969 when it pounded the mountains of western North Carolina with unrelenting torrential rains. When a lot of rain hits one of those mountain valleys all at once there’s no room for it to pass by and everything in the way gets washed away very quickly:
Wasn’t that a mighty storm
Wasn’t that a mighty storm in the morning
Wasn’t that a mighty storm
It blew all the people away.
The North Carolina mountains is as beautiful a place as you can possibly imagine. When I was young, my family would often vacation there. Mountain laurel and rhododendron bloom in the spring and the riot of fall color is unmatched by anywhere else including Vermont.
But now the flooding has forced the closure of major interstate highways like I-40 and I-26. Some of the worst flooding recently has happened on the Nolichucky River, which feeds into the French Broad River near Asheville:
During our mountain vacations in North Carolina we would stay at the beautiful Grove Park Inn in Asheville. Nearby is Cornelius Vanderbilt’s Biltmore mansion. Asheville has been devastated by the recent flooding.
https://youtu.be/kVpBGhjVGj0?si=xURtblFtHBlON1Pa
Many traditional music fans are familiar with the Swannanoa Gathering. It takes place every year at Warren Wilson College. President Damian Fernandez in a written update Monday said the school is receiving food and water deliveries and working to restore internet connectivity. The university is continuing to conduct wellness checks on students and said several pigs residing on the on-campus farm died in flooding from Helene.
Galax, Virginia was hard hit too.
How can we help? Here’s a link with a list of charities. Take your pick:
https://www.charitynavigator.org/discover-charities/where-to-give/hurricane-helene-2024/