North Carolina
Here’s how Hurricane Helene brought “biblical devastation” to western North Carolina in a near “worst-case scenario”
Hurricane Helene has proved to be disastrous for Appalachia, as massive amounts of precipitation from the storm caused rampant flooding that has devastated several towns and killed dozens of people. On Monday, the North Carolina State Climate Office provided a picture of how the “monster storm” was nearly a “worst-case scenario for western North Carolina.”
“Torrential rainfall from the remnants of Hurricane Helene capped off three days of extreme, unrelenting precipitation, which left catastrophic flooding and unimaginable damage in our Mountains and southern Foothills,” a post from the office says. “… the full extent of this event will take years to document – not to mention, to recover from.”
Here’s how the climatologists said it happened.
North Carolina was saturated with rain before Helene hit
As Helene became a Category 1 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico — more than 500 miles and 30 hours away from where it would eventually make landfall in Florida — western North Carolina was already seeing rain. The climate office says that Helene’s outskirts were feeding tropical moisture to slow-moving storms that had formed along a stalled cold front.
By midnight on Thursday — roughly an hour after Helene’s landfall 10 miles north of Steinhatchee, Florida — Asheville Airport in North Carolina had already seen more than 4 inches of rain. That downpour continued before Helene’s outerbands even moved in. By Thursday night, Yancey County, which sits just south of Erwin, Tennessee, where floodwaters became so bad that people were trapped on the roof of a hospital, had seen more than 9 inches of rain.
Water was already beginning to inundate cities, “all while the heaviest rain from Helene was just beginning to fall,” the climate office said. The more than 300 miles of tropical storm-force winds Helene produced only amplified the situation, pushing more moisture up mountains.
“The storm’s impacts were especially long-lasting because of its massive size. It developed in a high-humidity environment over the warm Gulf of Mexico, which let it grow and strengthen unimpeded,” the office said. “…From the start of the precursor frontal showers on Wednesday evening to the heart of Helene moving through on Friday morning, it was one of the most incredible and impactful weather events our state has ever seen.”
Record rain brings reports of “biblical devastation”
From Wednesday to Friday, the office said that there were more than 8 inches of rain across the western North Carolina mountains, with some areas seeing a foot or more. The highest rainfall total was in Busick, with a three-day total of 31.33 inches — more than 2.5 feet.
At least a dozen weather stations recorded their wettest three-day periods on record, the office said. Asheville Regional Airport lost communications on Friday morning after Helene’s landfall, but had already reported just under 14 inches of rain. That amount, the office said, was “nearly three months’ worth of precipitation … in less than three days.”
All of that rain caused rivers to flood, landslides and mudslides, leading to rescues across several counties.
In Buncombe County, home to Asheville, Emergency Services Assistant Director Ryan Cole told the Citizen-Times that “catastrophic devastation” didn’t accurately describe the impact the deluge had.
“It would go a little bit further and say we have biblical devastation through the county,” Cole said. “We’ve had biblical flooding here and it has been extremely significant.”
The newspaper quoted county manager Avril Pinder as saying, “this is looking to be Buncombe County’s own Hurricane Katrina.”
Rare mountain tornado as Helene’s winds move in
“Helene brought the full suite of hurricane impacts to North Carolina,” the climate office said, “and in full force just hours after its landfall at Category-4 strength.”
The winds from Helene were felt across western North Carolina, with the Charlotte Airport recording the strongest wind gusts it’s seen since a thunderstorm microburst in August 2019. The winds, which surpassed hurricane speeds in some places, contributed to widespread power outages. Millions were left without power across several states because of Helene, and as of Tuesday morning, hundreds of thousands remain without electricity in North Carolina alone.
On Wednesday evening, as the state battled existing storms ahead of Helene, a rare mountain tornado formed in Watauga County, the first it had seen since 1998. The day after Helene made landfall, at least six tornadoes were confirmed, including an EF3 in Rocky Mount that destroyed several buildings.
A historic and deadly storm
CBS News has confirmed that at least 131 people across several states were killed by Helene. Buncombe County alone has reported at least 40 deaths, including a 7-year-old who was swept away by floodwaters with his grandparents.
While hundreds of people were able to be rescued, there have been even more requests for welfare checks. And given the severity of the damage, the climate office said that suggests “the death toll is likely to climb as hard-hit areas are finally accessed in the coming days.”
“Sadly, our state’s long-running benchmark for deaths during a tropical event – approximately 80 during the mountain region’s July 1916 flood – could be in jeopardy from this storm that has already broken plenty of other records,” the climate office said, adding that the 1916 event was the area’s flood of record for more than a century — a title that “now belongs to Helene instead.”
Several rivers surpassed their highest-ever crests by several feet, including the Swannanoa River, which saw “the worst flood along the river since North Carolina became a state,” the office said.
As unprecedented as Helene’s impact on the region was, there is a chance it won’t be the last.
“The rapid intensification of Helene over the Gulf, the amount of moisture available in its surrounding environment, and its manifestation as locally heavy – and in some cases, historically unheard of – rainfall amounts are all known side effects of a warmer atmosphere,” the office said.
Last year was already the warmest humans had ever recorded and 2024 has seen countless heat records. The continued use of fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases that are trapping heat within the atmosphere, increasing average temperatures that fuel extreme weather events like Helene.
It’s unclear when an event like Helene would downpour on Appalachia again, but the climate office is near-certain about one thing: “We won’t see another Helene in the Atlantic.”
Officials often retire hurricane names when they are particularly devastating, and while such action has yet to be announced, the climatologists suggest it may only be a matter of time.
A resident raffle and nonprofit auction will fund conservation, while opponents warn even a limited hunt could endanger the restored herd.
NC to issue 2 elk hunting permits as herd reaches about 250
Elk were reintroduced to Western North Carolina in 2001. With the herd now estimated at 250, the state will issue two 2027 hunting permits.
ASHEVILLE – For the first time since elk were reintroduced to the Great Smoky Mountains 25 years ago, North Carolina will issue two hunting permits under a new state law creating a tightly controlled hunt in 2027, managed by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.
Gov. Josh Stein signed House Bill 747 into law July 7. The broader wildlife bill, which had bipartisan sponsorship, requires the commission to award one elk permit through a raffle limited to North Carolina residents and another permit through an auction. Both permits will be nontransferable and cannot be resold or reassigned. Any elk killed must be reported and presented to Wildlife Resources Commission.
Raffle tickets will cost $20 each, with hunters able to purchase as many as 30 tickets. Participants must have a valid North Carolina hunting license or qualify for a license exemption when purchasing tickets. The season, established in 2016, runs from Oct. 1 to Nov. 1.
The commission can retain up to $25,000 in raffle administration costs, with the remainder deposited into the state Wildlife Resources Fund.
The auction will be conducted by a nonprofit wildlife conservation organization that participated in the reintroduction of elk to North Carolina and may retain no more than 25% of the auction proceeds. Anna Gurley, spokesperson for the NCWRC, told the Citizen Times July 16 that eligible organizations that may be chosen by the commission include the Montana-based Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, the North Carolina Wildlife Federation and Friends of the Smokies.
RMEF Chief Conservation Officer Blake Henning, 61, told the Citizen Times July 17 that he’s not been notified that his organization will receive the permit, but if it does, it’s likely they would hold an online auction to maximize exposure. Henning believes that $100,000 to $300,000 for the permit is “not out of the ballpark.”
Remaining revenue from the permits will also be dedicated to elk conservation and management with the caveat that it should supplement, rather than replace, other funding budgeted for elk management.
The law does not guarantee additional permits after 2027. Instead, the NCWRC will decide whether to continue the program based on its elk management goals.
By March 1, 2028 the agency must submit its first report on the program detailing how much money was raised, whether the permit program should continue and any legislative changes the commission recommends.
Lessons from the past
Herds of eastern elk once roamed much of the eastern United States, but as Europeans began to settle, rapid depopulation ensued due to habitat loss and unrestricted hunting. By 1800, there were no elk in North Carolina. By 1877, the last known wild elk east of the Mississippi River was killed in Pennsylvania.
The National Park Service, in collaboration with nonprofits, began reintroduction of Manitoban elk in 2001 with 25 individuals released in the Cataloochee Valley section of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Now, herds are thought to number about 250, mostly in Haywood, Jackson and Swain counties.
A December 2014 report prepared for the NCWRC by Durham-based consultancy RTI International said that a herd of 55 could support the culling of approximately six male elk annually but cautions that most other eastern elk herds had exceeded 200 before hunting began.
During public hearings in 2016 on the establishment of an elk hunt, 74% of more than 280 public comments received by the NCWRC were reported as “positive,” according to commission records.
There are, however, a number of concerns about the hunt, many of them encapsulated by Old Fort resident Tori McKinney. McKinney, 28, opposes the hunt on ethical, ecological and animal welfare grounds and also fears that the two permits will fuel demand for more, eventually threatening a herd only recently restored. McKinney also said expanded hunting could diminish nature-based tourism and remove the strongest animals from the population, disrupting the ecosystem.
“And as it gets normalized, and more and more people want to do it, and it’s legal for them to do so, I really think that that could devastate future generations of elk,” McKinney told the Citizen Times July 16.
Rep. Brian Turner, D-Buncombe, a co-sponsor of the bill and formerly the Audubon Society’s policy director, said he didn’t hear much from his constituents on the bill and doesn’t think the elk hunts will expand to the point of jeopardizing the herd’s sustainability.
“Hunters are conservationists,” Turner told the Citizen Times July 17, reiterating that most of the funds generated by the permit sales would further conservation efforts. “I think that we would continue to lean on the Wildlife Resource Commission to see what an appropriate number is. Does that become you know two, three, four in the future? Perhaps, but I don’t ever see it being the kind of thing like we see with deer.”
Cory Vaillancourt is the Helene Recovery/Investigations Reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times. Find him on X at @The_CoryV or on Signal, via email at cvaillancourt@citizentimes.com or at 912-508-5640.
North Carolina
As cyclosporiasis cases rise, western NC shoppers take extra precautions with produce
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services released new information about cyclosporiasis, an intestinal illness caused by a parasite.
According to NCDHHS, the rise in North Carolina cases is not associated with the outbreak in five other states involving iceberg lettuce distributed by Taylor Farms to some of the Taco Bell locations there.
Instead, commonly reported foods connected to cyclosporiasis cases in North Carolina include lettuce, cilantro and parsley, according to an NCDHHS press release.
According to an NCDHHS update on Friday, July 17, 307 cases of cyclosporiasis and 13 hospitalizations were reported in N.C. from May 1 to July 14.
HEALTH OFFICIALS MONITOR CYCLOSPORIASIS AS CASES RISE ACROSS NATION: WHAT TO KNOW
“I think people realize, with that being a nationwide outbreak to start with, that it was something that was being distributed nationwide. It wasn’t something that a local farmer 10 or 15 miles down the road was growing,” said Coates & Sons Produce owner Michael Coates.
Coates is warning shoppers to wash produce well before eating.
Shoppers at the food market say they’re being extra careful right now.
JULY 18, 2026 – The WNC Farmers Market in Asheville. (Photo credit: WLOS Staff)
“I’m just making sure that I’m washing my vegetables and produce very carefully with baking soda, which kills some of the parasites, but that’s why I’ve come to the farmers market because I know that’s home grown and not hothoused,” said Fletcher resident Shirley Pennell.
“Buy fresh local produce more and supermarket produce less and then the other thing we decided was to just kind of lay off some of the fruits and vegetables that are harder to clean, like broccoli and lettuce and just buy things that has a thick skin and eat more seafood,” said David Shaheen, another shopper at the WNC Farmers Market.
Last year, the federally run Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network, known as FoodNet, cut the requirement to surveil infections caused by six different germs, cyclospora being one of them.
Locals have also shared concerns that federal programs like the CDC and FDA are underfunded.
READ MORE: 4 CASES OF CYCLOSPORIASIS CONFIRMED IN BUNCOMBE COUNTY, 7 IN HENDERSON COUNTY
As for this outbreak, Shaheen says it’s important for people to be aware of what’s going on.
“If enough people know about it and just make a few minor tweaks, everyone will get through it and it will be no big deal,” said Shaheen.
Coates & Sons Produce is located at the WNC Farmers Market at 570 Brevard Road in Asheville.
You can also search for farm stands and farmers’ markets in the region in Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project’s online Local Food Guide.
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — Downtown Raleigh restaurants were busy with diners this week as concerns continue about a growing Cyclospora outbreak in North Carolina.
Josh and Shaelynn Wade of Wendell said they have become more deliberate about where and what they eat after a friend became sick with what they believed was linked to the outbreak.
“I definitely said let’s have sushi tonight,” Shaelynn Wade said.
The couple said they have adjusted some of their dining habits as reports of illnesses have increased.
“When it comes to fast food, I am taking a pause. I have no interest. I think the reputation of the restaurant changes how I’m going to feel about it,” the Wades said.
Cyclosporiasis is an intestinal illness caused by the parasite Cyclospora. People become sick after consuming food or water contaminated with the parasite.
According to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, many people who reported becoming sick linked their illness to either lettuce, cilantro or parsley.
RELATED | Cyclosporiasis cases surge in NC are not linked to Taco Bell lettuce outbreak, DHHS says
Vanessa Sanchez said she recently changed her shopping habits after learning more about the outbreak.
“Lettuce is a regular part of our diet. But recently I just found out that it’s from Taylor Farms out of California. So, um, pretty much just staying away from lettuce until they figure out where that source batch came from,” Sanchez said.
Other residents said they are taking additional precautions when preparing food at home.
“We’ve really just started washing our vegetables with vinegar and water and just trying to be a little bit more cognizant,” Maggie Sparling said.
Since May, the number of cases in North Carolina has increased from 13 to 307.
As Raleigh Restaurant Week gets underway, local chefs said food safety remains a top priority.
“All produce comes out, and we triple wash everything, and then it gets put away. And we’re making sure that any of the products that are flagged-blueberries, spinach, asparagus, all that stuff, we’re cooking thoroughly too, so we’re not serving any of that stuff raw, at all,” said Adam Masters, head chef at Irregardless Café.
The precautions are welcome news for the Wades, who said they want to continue enjoying their weekly dinner dates.
“I think the biggest thing that I’m thinking about is how long are we going to have to think about it and avoid lettuce and avoid parsley and cilantro and all the things that we’d like to eat,” the couple said.
Many local restaurants are also working with vendors that are conducting additional checks to ensure food is not contaminated.
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