Helene's debris still lingers

Two years after Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina in late September 2024, debris piles remain in yards and riverbeds. Jeannine Robertson's front yard in Yancey County still holds mangled sheet metal, motor oil jugs and pieces of decking with rusty nails.

A river transformed

Robertson points to a tributary of the Cane River near her home where generations of her family swam. Now it is cluttered with parts of people's homes. She says it is heartbreaking to see something that was a safe haven become so polluted.

“It is so heartbreaking. To see something that you've watched for so many years be a safe haven, and it's just cluttered with parts of people's homes.”

The scale of destruction

In late September 2024, Hurricane Helene dumped more than thirty inches of rain in some parts of western North Carolina, triggering massive flash floods and landslides. The storm killed at least two hundred fifty people across multiple states and damaged or destroyed tens of thousands of buildings.

Millions of tons scattered

Millions of tons of debris were strewn over thousands of square miles. The cleanup has been costly, emotionally painful and logistically challenging. Western North Carolina's jagged and mountainous terrain makes the work even more difficult.

Helicopters haul away wreckage

After two years and more than six hundred million dollars in public spending, crews still regularly pull scrap metal, PVC pipes and other trash from waterways. In one section of the Toe River, crews relied on helicopters to haul away golf carts and trailer frames from the riverbed.

A costly national pattern

Such massive cleanup efforts are increasingly common across the US as climate change drives more intense weather disasters. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has spent more than thirty seven billion dollars on debris removal in the last twenty five years, according to publicly available FEMA records analyzed by NPR.

A growing network of recovery

As debris cleanup becomes a troubling reality for more disaster survivors, a growing network of people reunites people with lost objects in places like California, Texas and Arkansas. Across the country, people dig through rubble, mud and ash to find photographs, jewelry, stuffed animals, quilts and old yard signs.

Humanity in the wreckage

Dondi Persyn runs FOUND on the Guadalupe River, a volunteer network that treats debris recovery as a sacred act. She says when debris is boxed up and contained, it becomes discardable. But she maintains there is a space for humanity in the midst of disaster.

“When we call it debris, we box it up; we contain it in this idea that it's discardable. And some of it is. But there is a space for humanity in the midst of disaster.”

Texas floods claim lives and treasures

Persyn lives near the Guadalupe River in Texas, where in twenty twenty five, flash floods claimed one hundred thirty six lives and countless possessions. This summer, the river flooded again, bringing another wave of death and loss to the region.

A heirloom returned

FOUND on the Guadalupe River has collected more than ten thousand items and returned around eight thousand, including an heirloom ring that belonged to someone's great grandmother. Persyn says the fact that it survived changes the story of the person who received it back.

“The fact that it even survived changes the story of the person who received it back. Because it survived and she survived. And it becomes symbolic. It becomes something more than just a ring.”

MountainTrue's massive effort

In western North Carolina, the nonprofit MountainTrue runs the largest ongoing cleanup effort with nearly one hundred employees pulling debris from rivers every day. Since the twenty twenty four storm, the group has cleaned up more than five point seven million pounds from hundreds of miles of waterways.

Former guides become cleanup workers

Many MountainTrue workers are former professional river guides who turned to cleanup after Hurricane Helene devastated the local recreation economy. Their experience working in boats in remote watersheds and their ability to work while wet and cold make them effective at debris removal work.

Ocean debris cannot be recovered

Coastal homes destroyed by flooding send large debris into the ocean, where it is impossible to clean up. David Hallac, National Park Service superintendent for Cape Hatteras National Seashore, says if debris sinks to the ocean floor or floats away from shore, it is not removed and stays in the ocean.

“You're talking about very large and, in some cases, hazardous building debris. Pilings, washers, dryers, jacuzzis. If it sinks, it's on the ocean floor, and it does not get removed.”

A new job: artifact recovery

In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, MountainTrue elevated the pursuit of reuniting items with owners to a salaried position: artifact recovery technician. Mandy Wallace runs a lost and found program for MountainTrue, believed to be the first state funded program of its kind.

Wallace's detective work

Wallace's office near Asheville holds evocative objects the crew found: a silk kimono, a unicycle, a bedazzled children's shoe and a multi page love letter still legible. She uses special solutions to clean items, restores moldy photos, runs stuffed animals through washers and uses public records and Facebook to track people down.

A vinyl record reunites a family

In early June, Wallace reconnected one of the first objects she pulled from the river: a vinyl record produced by Moon Caravan Records, a former indie label in Marshall, North Carolina. After finding the muddy album, Wallace spent months of detective work to find its owner, JoLeigh Bowden, who ran the label with her husband.

Bowden finds meaning in recovery

When Helene swept away Moon Caravan Records' building, Bowden lost nearly everything, including hundreds of copies of Deerfrance albums she had just produced. When Wallace returned the mud stained album on a sunny afternoon in Marshall, Bowden hugged her as emotions from Helene sank in.

“I'm so thrilled to get it. There's layers of meaning behind this.”

Loss becomes renewal

Bowden said she is taking the record's return as a sign to produce more music and as a reminder that for all Helene has taken away, it has also given something back. Bowden and her husband are planning to open another recording studio in Marshall this year.

“We've lost a lot. Emotionally, monetarily and all that, but we've also gained a lot. What we've gained from this whole experience is priceless.”