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.
Gas prices have surpassed the $4 mark across North Carolina due to
global oil supply disruptions tied to the war in Iran, and local
rideshare drivers struggling to make up for the increased costs are
changing how they operate.
Joel Bender, an Uber driver from
Buncombe County, said he has been turning down more trips than he
accepts to offset heightened fuel costs.
“Right now, I’m at a 10% acceptance rate, and I’m at about a 20% cancel rate,” Bender said.
AAA
reports prices across the state are averaging out around $4.17 for a
gallon of regular as of May 13, 2026. Meanwhile, the national average is
spilling above $4.50 — about $1.50 more since the war started.
>>Economist says higher gas prices likely to continue into summer travel despite U.S. oil production
Bender
said he is questioning whether or not he is getting back how much he
spends to pump gas into his tank. Bender, a nearly decade-long rideshare
driver, said he is not alone in this.
“There’s still some drivers who just say, ‘Listen, I’m going to make sure that I’m not screwed on this ride,’” Bender said.
Bender created a Facebook group with almost 700 members — a place where rideshare drivers can connect and support one another.
He
said drivers part of this group have opened up to him about how they
are dealing with these rising costs. Bender said the gas hike is
especially burdensome on people whose primary income comes from
rideshare driving.
“There are a number of drivers who do this to put food on the table and to make their monthly obligations,” Bender said.
He
said more drivers — even ones who’ve been driving for years — are
choosing to steer clear from the business altogether, no longer helping
some pay their bills.
AAA said gas prices are averaging out to be
the highest they have been since 2022 with other states, like
California, exceeding $6 for a gallon.
While Uber said it is
expanding its fuel discount program for drivers and couriers through May
26, Bender said this is still not enough to help him make up for
losses.
North Carolina
Eric Church delivers ‘greatest commencement speech ever’ in viral address to University of North Carolina graduates
Country music star Eric Church earned praise for delivering the “greatest” commencement speech with his now-viral address to University of North Carolina graduates — after working on the piece for nearly a year.
Church – armed with a Tar Heel-emblazoned guitar – invoked family and faith as he dedicated his oration by giving a lesson on the instrument, explaining what each of the “six strings” means at Kenan Memorial Stadium in Chapel Hill on May 9.
“Six strings. When all six are in tune, the chords they make can stop a conversation cold, carry a broken person through the worst night of their life, or make a room full of strangers feel for three minutes like they’ve known each other forever,” Church told the crowd. “And if even one is off, the whole chord unravels. Not gradually, not politely, the moment you strike it, you know.”
The 49-year-old Grammy-nominated singer started with the “low E” string of the guitar, the thickest, lowest note on the instrument.
“Your faith is the low E of your life. The thing that sits at the very bottom of you,” he said. “The people who tend to their faith in ordinary seasons do not come undone in extraordinary ones.”
“The world will try to untune this string. Through busyness, through slow accumulation of a full schedule, a full inbox, a full life. Listen to me. Tend to your faith. Not just when you’re broken, but when you’re whole,” he said.
Church turned to the “A” string, comparing it to family and pointing the Class of 2026 to the stands and their loved ones, who “loved you longer than you’ve been easy to love.”
“And the A string is where the music starts to get warm. It gives a chord its body, its richness. It’s the string that makes you feel like you’re not alone in a room,”
The North Carolina native cautioned attendees not to let their soon-to-be-busy schedules get in the way of their families.
“Call your people. Not when there’s news. Not when there’s nothing. Show up when it costs you something. Let them see you when things are hard. The A string is not a holiday string. It’s an everyday string. Protect it,” he said.
Church, a lifelong Tar Heels fan who graduated from Appalachian State, referred to the “D” string as the “heart of the chord,” likening it to a soul mate.
“To rock a full chord in a D string is what you feel in the center of your chest. That is not an accident,” he said. “That is exactly what the right spouse and partner will do for your life. The person you choose to share your life with is the most important decision you will ever make outside of your faith.
“The right partner is the string that makes the whole chord ring fuller and warmer and truer than anything you could ever play alone. Choose them wisely, and then love them fiercely,” he added.
Church earned a good chuckle from the crowd when he introduced the fourth string, “the G-string.”
The risque-sounding note often drifts faster than its counterparts because “ambition and resilience” pull at it in different directions, Church revealed.
“When you fail, and you will fail, Hemingway wrote it plainly right in his sternum. ‘The world breaks everyone. Afterward, the best of us are stronger at the broken places.’ Get back up. Tune the string, keep playing,” Church said.
Church urged the graduates to take note of the “B” string and its standing for community.
“Your generation faces the temptation no generation before has ever faced. The temptation to perform for everyone and belong to no one. To be globally visible and locally invisible. To have thousands of followers and no one actually knows where you live. Resist this,” he said.
“Plant yourself somewhere. Put down roots with the full intention of growing there. Learn the actual names, not usernames, of the people around you. Volunteer. Coach the team. Build the thing your community needs, even if the internet will never see it, Church advised.
The final string, the “high E,” the thinnest on the guitar, carries the melody against all the pressure.
“Someone’s comment, someone’s criticism, someone’s cold opinion is going to try to convince you to retune yourself to match what they think you should sound like. Do not let them touch your string,” he said.
Church’s speech, which he shared on YouTube, garnered highly positive feedback with many calling it the “best” and “greatest” graduation addresses in history.
“This is one of the best commencement speeches I’ve ever heard. Bravo, Mr. Church!!” one comment read.
“Wow, an absolutely incredible speech, so profound . Amazing job Mr. Church. God Bless You,” another commenter wrote.
“Might be the greatest commencement speech ever. ‘Play your six strings!’” said a third.
Church revealed that he had been working on the speech for nine months and only came up with the guitar delivery after a “fit of frustration.”
“I just couldn’t figure out how to do it and one night I grabbed a guitar to kinda soothe my soul and I just strummed the “G” chord,” he told CNN. “And it dawned on me, who am I kidding, I should do the speech just like this.”
Church said he was determined to build out the six pillars to replicate the strings and to deliver a “foundational message” that had been around for many generations.
The back story of how the 249-year-old sketch was discovered could be as interesting as the piece itself.
The rectangular drawing of a revolutionary war
brigade out of North Carolina was created in Pennsylvania.
Looking at it now, the sketch looks significant
sitting behind museum glass. But just three years ago, it was considered a
novel antique store find, hanging on a collector’s wall.
Historian Matthew Skic said he was in collector, Judith Hernstadt’s New York home when she happened to show him a sketch she’d picked up at an antique store in the 1970s.
“I look on the wall, she points it out, and my jaw is on the floor with what I was seeing, and this small sketch on paper. The ink and the paper struck me as this looks like it’s from the 18th century, from the 1700s. I was looking at the scene, seeing soldiers, a wagon, horses, and it looked like a military scene, and an army on the move,” Skic said.
Skic oversees collections at the Museum of the
American Revolution and immediately noticed the figure in a fringed hunting
shirt, commonly worn by soldiers in George Washington’s Army. He got permission to remove the framed sketch from the wall and saw a faint inscription.
“It said, ‘An exact representation of a wagon belonging to
the North Carolina brigade of Continental troops, which passed through Phila,’ and then the mat had cut off the rest of the inscription,” he recalled.
What he had discovered was one of only a dozen known eye-witness accounts of George Washington’s Army. An eye-witness account is considered something captured in the moment, not commissioned or created after an event.
“We didn’t have a camera. There’s no record of what, what they looked like, action scenes,” said Ansley Herring Wegner, who runs the state’s historical
research and publications.
She spoke to the rarity of finding an eye-witness account of Washington’s troops.
“Well, George Washington had just recently said, ‘Do not
allow camp followers on the carts, because it really slows everything down. It gums up the works.’ Well, North Carolina, ‘You can’t tell us what to do,’ so they’re there on the cart, and there’s wounded soldiers on the back,” Herring Wegner said.
Immediately after the discovery, Skic went to work. He found headlines from August 1777 when
the brigade marched through Philadelphia and traced the route they took. Then, he
researched skilled artists in town at the time and landed on Pierre Eugene du
Simitiere.
“So I studied his handwriting among his papers at the
Library Company in Philadelphia, and [found it] matches his handwriting,” he said.
Whether many Americans know it or not, we are familiar with du Simitiere’s work. It was his idea in an application to design the U.S. Seal that gave us our national motto.
“His design was ultimately rejected, but one of the
elements of his design for that seal, which he submitted in 1776 was the motto, e pluribus unum, which we still use today. That’s the motto of the United
States; Out of many, one.
The sketch was on display at the Capitol for
one day. However, the conditions were not favorable for a long-term stay. Visitors can see it when it goes to the North Carolina Museum of Art from
May 20 to Aug. 1.
The original owner, Judith Hernstadt, has donated the sketch to the Museum of the American Revolution. The presentation of the sketch at the Capitol building is part of North Carolina’s celebration of America’s 250th. Learn more about the sketch at the state’s website for the country’s milestone.
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