From devastation to determination

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, April 29th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Revisiting victims of Hurricane Helene.

REICHARD: The storm ripped through the Southeast last September, leaving a trail of wreckage.

Many communities have bounced back. But for others? They are looking at years of restoration work.

EICHER: And winter storms and wildfires since then have only made things worse. WORLD’s Mary Muncy met one man trying to keep his head above water and smoke out of his eyes.

MATTHEW ROGERS: The only thing you can recognize is like, where the water heater was.

MARY MUNCY: Matthew Rogers is walking around what's left of his house in Flat Rock, North Carolina. A construction worker is here, trying to figure out how much it will cost to rebuild.

ROGERS: I saw the policy. It ain't going to cover it, so they've got to work with us on that.

They’re not rebuilding from Hurricane Helene. The Rogers’ house and family survived that. But last month, a wildfire swept through and burned the Rogers’ home to the ground.

Rogers and his wife moved here 40 years ago, into a log cabin on a hill in the middle of the woods about an hour south of Asheville.

He spent decades planting azaleas, building a dock on the pond, putting in rock walls.

ROGERS: These steps here, you know, for years, before I had money, I just would myself cut down trees and put mulch in - I made it a project…

For some in Helene's path, the hurricane started what may be years of recover, compounded by further problems even as they rebuild.

When Rogers first moved to North Carolina, he opened a sandwich shop and bought the cabin nearby. Winter was about the only time they had a problem getting from their house to the sandwich shop… then Hurricane Helene hit.

ROGERS: Trees fell down all over the roads that we had to chainsaw out for Saturday and Sunday and we get to the main road, you know, it's news that the bridge, the big, Big Hungry River bridge, and it's gone. It was like metal was down the river.

That bridge connects Rogers and his neighbors to the main road. With it gone, they were trapped.

Three days after the hurricane hit, some rescuers delivered food and water by zipline… and airlifted some residents with health issues out, leaving Rogers and the remaining neighbors to figure out what to do.

ROGERS: I've been up there long enough to know that there's a way to go out the game lands at the end of Big Hungry through some trails. And I had a Jeep, and I thought if I could get to Deep Gap Road, I could get to Hendersonville.

So about a week after the hurricane, Rogers and his wife loaded up the Jeep and took off through the woods, trying to get to their sandwich shop.

ROGERS: The restaurant was fine. No loss of power. The basement's fine. So we went up and started helping people and serving and getting our employees back.

They put a bed in the basement of the sandwich shop and started living there.

ROGERS: I'm not late. We got coffee, we got food here. So we stayed. And there was no reason for us to go home, because we knew that if you went out the back way, you could get stuck on the muddy trail.

Eventually, they moved into a friend’s basement apartment. They thought the worst was over. They returned to the cabin in December to celebrate Christmas and grab some winter clothes… then went back to living in their apartment.

Then, in March, the state finished a temporary one-lane bridge to their neighborhood.

ROGERS: We all felt like our lives are back where you can take your groceries and if you needed a delivery of a new washing machine, you didn't have to say, well, when the bridge six months ago gets back, we all felt good.

They went back for a neighborhood potluck the following Saturday, but still weren’t living there that day they could see smoke in the distance. The next day, Rogers’ neighborhood evacuated. They watched the fire inch closer, and the next morning, Rogers woke to a video of a burning foundation. A firefighter had posted it online.

SOUND: [HELICOPTER OVER HOUSE]

ROGERS: and the instant reaction is, ‘that's that's our house, and it's gone.’ It's right there, there's, there's our life.

The Black Cove fire burned over 7,500 acres and was one of several major fires burning in the Carolinas in March.

The Rogers’ house was the only one in their neighborhood that burned.

ROGERS: And we cry, and then we we rejoice that we're alive and that no firefighters, we found out, were harmed. Our neighbors are fine.

The North Carolina Forest Service says there were twice as many wildfires this March compared with last year. Some blame a combination of dry conditions and downed trees after Helene. The double whammy has put a strain on people trying to help out.

ADRIAN MINES: There's always something happening, if it's not every week, it's every other week.

Adrian Mines works with the Red Cross for the North Carolina region.

MINES: So… how can we help build resiliency while we're having continuous response when people are overwhelmed and feel burnt out?

“Continuous response” is a disaster relief term for sustained, ongoing effort… and it’s what the Red Cross is facing in North Carolina right now. The agency expects to be working in the state for at least another two or three years… providing things like tent warmers and helping to rebuild homes.

MINES: I think we have to find our new normal. I don't think we're going to get back to our previous normal before Helene.

And he has firsthand knowledge.

MINES: From my home, we were able to see the smoke. 

In March, a wildfire started near his town too.

Helicopters hovered over their homes. Mines and his neighbors stayed glued to the news and monitored wildfire apps. Which way would the flames shift? How much would the fire consume?

MINES: It was scary, you know, I think it definitely triggered some trauma for the community members.

Mines’ and his neighbors' homes were fine.

Back at the restaurant, Rogers and his wife are making plans.

Rogers says they won’t rebuild their house, they want to turn the land into a small summer camp and buy a smaller house closer to the restaurant.

He says some days are harder than others. But he’s keeping his eyes on what he has, not on what he’s lost.

ROGERS: I can be like Job in a small way, and just realize that I'm still here, my wife and I still our family has their health, and we're going to be okay from this event.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy in Hendersonville and Flat Rock, North Carolina.

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