It was a time and a place, and now that place is gone.

Or is it?

I came across some version of that idiom about time and place a few months ago, just as we at The Smoky Mountain News were beginning to discuss how to cover the one-year anniversary of Helene’s historic and deadly impact on this place we call home.

Last September, my family was gearing up for our first “leaf season” (and apple season, and hayride season, and football season) in Haywood County. As recent transplants from another state, we had heard about how beautiful the mountains are in early fall, and we were looking forward to experiencing it.

As you enter Chimney Rock, you will see bulldozers and construction workers and other visceral reminders of Hurricane Helene’s catastrophic impact. But as you absorb the village’s incredible landscape and people, you’ll notice shops newly reconstructed and others half-filled with merchandise, a proud proclamation of their survival. 

The American Flood Coalition's Recovery and Resilience Partnership is barely six months old, but it’s already helping to deliver results in the form of a $20 million mitigation grant program aimed at helping communities in Western North Carolina recover from Hurricane Helene and prepare for the next storm.

To the Editor:

Sadly, the U.S. doesn’t seem to be making much progress in saving our democracy and way of life. Humans have a great gift for resilience, which helps us go through some very tough times and come out stronger. The flip side of that is we can get used to anything if it goes on long enough.