Stanchions of trees, embedded vehicles and mangled trailers line the only road through Pensacola, North Carolina, a week after Tropical Storm Helene crashed into the small Yancey County town. But the worst physical damage, locals say, isn’t as evident.
“There are a lot of homes where you wouldn’t know they were ever there if you hadn’t lived here your whole life,” said Noah Davis, a local handyman. “There’s going to be a before-the-storm and after-the-storm Pensacola.”
Consecutive days of heavy rains late last week overwhelmed the remote community of around 500 people in Pisgah National Forest — 22 miles and a world away from Asheville. Pensacola lays south of Burnsville in a holler between two hillsides. The Cattail Creek runs down one mountainside and the Cane River flows below.
Early Friday, the creek flooded and sent a torrent toward the town while at the same time, the river swelled and encroached. “We were surrounded by water,” said resident Joyce Maness. “Our floors were giving in.”
After three days, Christa Robinson felt the creek had receded enough to leave her house in the Cattail Creek community, which sits above Pensacola. With her 7-year-old daughter Lilly, she walked — and at times slid — into Pensacola where they spent the next night at the local fire station.
Robinson remembers the immense local flood of 1977. Unlike then, she felt the entire mountain move last week.
“The highway is gone,” said Mark Harrison, medical officer for the Pensacola Fire Department. “Most of the homes are gone.”
Rescue and recovery began over the weekend as volunteers drove four-wheelers along rutted, muddy passageways. Pensacola Road is the town’s only direct connection to the rest of Western North Carolina, and by Thursday, enough of the eroded blacktop had been cleared to allow trucks to narrowly inch through.
U.S. Army personnel arrived on the ground Thursday to hand out supplies as helicopters delivered medicine, appliances and food to hard-to-reach areas. Search-and-rescue teams from Charlotte, Pittsburgh, Kansas and elsewhere visited each standing home to document the destruction. Civilians pitched in further, offering neighbors their services as mechanics, movers and transporters.
“The lack of roads has been the biggest thing logistically,” said Davis, who estimated he has evacuated at least 30 people on his four-wheeler.
Another major hurdle is accounting for everyone affected. The Cattail Creek community in particular has a sizable number of vacation homes. Were their owners out of town during the storm? Or are they now missing?
These are the questions people want answered.
“After COVID hit, a lot of people came in here, and we have no idea how many are residents,” Harrison said. “We’ve evacuated all of the critical people that we could. Now, it’s more or less preventative.”
As for fatalities, Harrison declined to share a specific number but said “it’s obvious” people have been killed. Donations in recent days have poured into the fire station, the community’s makeshift recovery hub. Asked what Pensacola residents still need, Harrison listed medications, including antibiotics and methadone.
