Anyone in the Mid-Atlantic Region looking to capture scrapbook memories of Autumn can pick up I-81 south out of Roanoke, Virginia and be rewarded with an explosion of reds, yellows, and browns as the lust verdant landscapes of Summer make way for Winter’s starkness. The more adventurous might decided to take a detour and explore the many boroughs nestled between the ancient peaks of the Appalachians. Perhaps those who are hardier still may fall in love with the natural beauty and the small town atmosphere prevalent throughout the region.
Mo is one such an individual. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Mo hiked the Appalachian Trail and fell in love with the what he saw. He decided to put down roots back in 2003. “So I live, as a crow flies, just on the Tennessee side of the Tri-State corner, that’s between Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia. Just a few miles south of Damascus, Virginia.”
Here there are four distinct seasons, each can be breathtaking one moment and deadly the next. 4×4 trucks are the vehicles of choice and even sedans will sport all-wheel-drive drivetrains. One never knows what you’ll encounter around the next mountainous bend in the road.
A construction worker and handyman by trade, Mo’s jobs have taken him into the many nooks and crannies of the area. He knows this region well enough that GPS aided maps on phones are an afterthought, but he always keeps a wary eye on the weather.
“I was trying to find a 3-day window because my van was in desperate need of a paint job.”
After checking the ten day forecast for his area on Friday, September 20, 2024, Mo thought he had found the window in the weather he needed to get the paint job done. But by Monday the forecast had changed and it started raining. At that time the system that was forming thousands of miles to the south in the Gulf of Mexico still didn’t seem like much of a threat to those living so far inland and in the mountains. But that system had started pumping moisture out of the Gulf that pipelined rain from the the Big Bend region of Florida, up through Georgia and South Carolina and into the Tri-State region where Mo now calls home.
Then, late in the evening on September, 26, 2024, Hurricane Helene made landfall.
The storm struck the Big Bend area of north Florida with the full force of a devastating Category 4 (sustained winds: 130-156mph) hurricane, laying waste to entire towns with 5 to 10 foot storm surges, torrential rains and tornadoes. While the storm’s strength quickly diminished as it tracked further inland, it was still pumping moisture from the Gulf inundating the already moisture ladened regions of western Georgia and North Carolina with still more water. Coupled with wind gusts of over 60mph, the southern Appalachians had been lined up for a deadly 1-2 punch.
Mo woke to still more rain and increasing winds on Thursday, September 27. The branch of Beaver Dam Creek, normally a lazy trickle of water that flows about 20 feet from Mo’s back door, had become a fast moving stream. The wind had picked up a bit, but power and other utilities were still functioning, but conditions were worsening. Mo’s concern was heightening.
“Everything was maxed, the ground was entirely saturated,” Mo said. “I’ve watched this creek behind my house for 20 years and it’s only been this high maybe one time before.”
By Thursday afternoon the creek behind Mo’s house had overflowed its banks. Water now rushed by within a few feet of his back steps, and it was still raining. News reports spoke of the devastation in areas well south of the Virginia-Tennessee border. But with the branch behind his home was of a more immediate concern as it was rapidly becoming a river. Mo began to wonder if he should have been better prepared. He’s lived in the area long enough to have seen all sorts of other nasty weather, but he had never been as concerned about the weather as he was at that moment. By Friday evening the still powerful remnants of Hurricane Helene had devastated the western regions of Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. By evening the once lazy creek behind Mo’s home was now a fast moving torrent mere inches from his back door. It was still raining and storm force winds were beginning to blow when Mo finally fell into an uneasy sleep.
By Friday morning the situation in Mo’s corner of the world had started to become desperate. He still had water, but he’d lost power sometime during the night. “I went to sleep Thursday night, but it was not very restful. I woke up Friday morning around four o’clock, the smoke detectors were beeping because the power was out.”
Mo was surprised to find that he still had phone service through an all but obsolete landline. The situation outside, however, was becoming a hellscape as trees behind Mo’s house began to topple.
“I watched a pretty substantial tree fall out of the creek,” Mo said. “It almost hit my neighbor’s house. I knew this was gonna get really hairy really quick.”
Mo’s neighbor, Joss, whose wife, Cass, was pregnant and was due to deliver soon, was concerned about how long the power would stay out and if the storm would cut off access in and, more importantly, out of their small community. He needed to make sure that, when the time came, he could get his wife to the hospital. After witnessing the tree fall Mo decided to make his way to Abingdon, VA to pick up a gas powered generator, but that venture came to a halt a line of stopped cars foretold road problems ahead.
“I got stopped in a small line of traffic because a limb or a small tree was in the road. I should have grabbed my own chainsaw before I left, but in my hastiness, I didn’t even think to do that,” Mo recalls.
Further down the road he got stopped again. “I got less than a half mile down the road when I got stuck in traffic again, another tree had fallen across the road.”
The road he was on ran along side another creek and it was rising rapidly. “I watched two more trees fall out of the creek across the road. I don’t know if they hit vehicles in front of me or not. But at that point I thought, “No, I’m done. I’m done!””
He decided to turn around and go back home to wait out the storm. As he was doing so he watched trees along the roadside fall, narrowly missing cars stuck in traffic. As he drove he saw more trees fall. By then, the wind blowing harder and still more rain fell.
In his van, Mo picked his way around downed trees, power lines lying across the road and rockslides only to find the path ahead unpassable. Avenues he had traverse only moments before were now under a foot or more of water. He came upon a pickup that had stalled in the middle of a river that was once a road. After attempting to help he and the driver were forced to abandon the pickup. Mo knew his own vehicle wouldn’t make it across those fast moving waters, so parked it on a bit of high ground and decided to make his way home on foot.
By the time he got home the waters that was rushing past his back step were now rushing under those steps. And still it rained.
Mo checked in on Joss and Cass. Cass had started having contractions. Mo and other neighbors decided it would be prudent to try to clear a path to State Route 91, the main highway that would get the expectant family to a hospital in Mountain City. With chainsaws and heavy tackle in hand, the makeshift crew started cutting up and clearing downed trees along the most expedient route, but a washed out area forced them to choose an alternative route to clear.
And it continued to rain.
The contractions where coming at regular intervals by the time Mo and his neighbors had finished opening the road on Friday evening and the family was able to get to the hospital. A good thing too, because there were complications and the mother and father were airlifted to a better equipped facility in Johnson City.
In the aftermath, Mo and his neighbors began picking up after the storm. At its height the rushing waters from the creek behind his house had risen high enough to clean out the crawl space under his home before receding. Downed trees were everywhere, taking out power and communication lines. Once flooded roads are now passable if you drive a 4×4 or AWD vehicle. Some roads remain closed, the damage being too extensive even for 4x4s. Mo was able to retrieve his undamaged van. The pickup Mo tried to help was nearly washed away, but was saved and hauled away for repairs. Joss and Cass welcomed a new addition to their family, a healthy baby girl they named Hillie Ann. Mother and daughter are fine.
Mo’s experiences pale in comparison to other stories from that area. “An elderly couple, in their 80s, was swept away in their house during the storm. Somehow they got separated. Miraculously they both survived and were eventually reunited.”
Many in the area have lost everything. No words can adequately describe the complete chaos and damage the storm wrought. This video is just a small glimpse of what Mo and his neighbors are facing in the aftermath of Helene.
Power and other services are slowly being restored to the area. There has been a lot of misinformation about the federal and state response to the storm ravaged areas including where Mo lives. What outsiders don’t understand is that, even in the best of times, the mountainous regions of western Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and eastern Tennessee are not easily navigated. People living in tiny boroughs tucked deep in the hills and valleys of Southern Appalachia are there because they are of a hardier cut, and they gladly trade some conveniences for calloused hands, a 4WD truck, a more natural environment, and neighbors one can count on. In the rare occasions when disasters of the magnitude of Hurricane Helene strikes they rely on each other to get through. It’s how it’s always been. It’s how it is. It’s how it will be.
Stay tuned.
Vern
GoGeezer 