It’s hard to picture what Barnardsville looked like before Hurricane Helene converted the calm creek that meanders through this North Carolina mountain holler into a roaring river that engulfed the community.
More than 50 homes including an entire trailer park were destroyed when Ivy Creek flooded in late September after three days of unprecedented rainfall and hurricane-force winds uprooted thousands of trees – and this close-knit community’s sense of safety.
A few residents left after the creek subsided to reveal the scale of destruction, but most had nowhere else to go and didn’t want to leave this Bible belt town where many have generational ties. After several weeks sleeping in vehicles and tents, displaced families are now mostly living in donated RVs, sheds or tiny homes – insulated huts without plumbing constructed by volunteers who came in droves to southern Appalachia.
