In the Wake of Hurricane Helene, Climbers are Rallying

On Thursday, September 26, the category 4 hurricane Helene made landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast, generating waves over 15 feet high and winds above 140 miles per hour. By that evening, it had traveled north through Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Kentucky, dumping over 40 trillion gallons of rain across the six-state region. This resulted in catastrophic flooding and landslides, particularly in the mountainous regions of western North Carolina.

A week has passed and the death toll has climbed above 215, and continues to rise. Communities across western North Carolina are cut off, with little or no access to water, food, cell reception. Over 700,000 people remain without power in the region. Helene is already the deadliest hurricane since Katrina to hit the mainland United States. Some experts estimate that—once the hundreds missing are accounted for—Helene will be among the deadliest natural disasters in U.S. history.

In terms of sheer precipitation, it may already be the most significant storm event in U.S. history. Using NOAA data, hydrologist and water resource engineer Brad Brewer estimated that by precipitation, Helene was a 30,000-year storm event, a staggering jump compared to Hurricane Katrina (400-year storm event) and Hurricane Harvey (2000-year storm event). “Water resource and civil engineers typically utilize the 100-year storm event to design roads, bridges, and structures elevated at or above this elevation,” Brewer explained. “The fact that Hurricane Helene was so many orders of magnitude above this design storm … highlights why there is so much devastation and destruction.”

Western North Carolina is home to some of the highest quantity and diversity of rock in the United States, from long trad routes on the eyebrows of Looking Glass Rock to stiff bouldering and single pitch at Rumbling Bald. Over a dozen crags across the state are inaccessible after the storm. Some are merely out of commission due to washouts or downed bridges, but it’s possible that some, including Rumbling Bald—outside the hard-hit town of Chimney Rock—could be permanently damaged by the landslides.

But in the aftermath of this devastation, the local climbing community is proving that it’s not rock that brings them together, but each other. On Monday evening, local access group Carolina Climbers Coalition (CCC) posted a relief fund to purchase water, nonperishable food, toiletries, gasoline, and other supplies for those impacted by the storm. By Friday, that fund had already raised nearly $23,000. “The response has been insane,” said Greensboro-based CCC president AJ Jackson. “The amount of money that’s come in has given us an enormous amount of flexibility with what we can purchase and deliver.”

In coordination with the CCC, all remaining climbing gyms in Western North Carolina have signed on as collection hubs for donated supplies. These truckloads of supplies are currently being distributed at drop zones in the most affected communities, including Lake Lure, Black Mountain, Hendersonville, Asheville, Boone, and in eastern Tennessee. The CCC has also routed donations to fund daily helicopter evacuations and supply missions to heavily hit regions still cut-off from land access.

“It’s mind-blowing, the small communities coming together to make things happen,” said CCC executive director Mike Reardon, who spoke with Climbing amid on-ground relief efforts in Asheville. “People that don’t know each other, who are themselves in hard situations, are coming out to help others. And it’s not just people in our neighborhood. It’s across the state.”

Admittedly the CCC is a climbing access group, not a disaster relief organization. “We’re new to all this,” said Jackson. But for him, Reardon, and other employees, putting their network of coalition partners, employees, and volunteers into action in the wake of Helene was a no-brainer. The CCC has relied on and benefitted from the goodwill of the small communities bordering popular crags for years. “These hard-hit communities, like the town of Lake Lure, and what people are sadly calling the ‘former’ town of Chimney Rock, have been enormously helpful and welcoming to us in the past,” he said. “It was our turn to give back.”

The morning after the storm, Jackson woke up and emailed his board and employees, trying to brainstorm a response. So the CCC began putting feelers out on social media, connecting with local partners. By the next day, the CCC had organized their first drop zone in Lake Lure. “When I sent that first email out, I knew other people would be thinking the same thing, ‘How can we help?’” Jackson said. “And I was right. Climbers are problem solvers by nature. That’s what climbing is all about.”

CCC marketing and events director Alycia Andrade said shifting the CCC’s focus to relief was a natural progression. “I’m the events director, right? Well, none of our planned events will be happening now,” she said. “Most of the communications and logistics on my priority list don’t matter now.”

Knowing that she had official permission to pivot her bandwidth to help “was a huge salve to my soul,” she said. “So many of my other friends here have been going to their jobs, texting me ‘Is there anything I can do?’ This is all anyone is thinking about. But I’m lucky enough to be able to channel my workflow energy into this. I feel so much gratitude for that.”

Former Rock and Ice owner and Climbing editor-in-chief Duane Raleigh, who lives in Black Mountain, had his antique lighting restoration business washed away by the storm. The business was located amid the now-decimated Asheville River Arts District, which Raleigh estimated housed the studios, storefronts, galleries, and workshops of over 1,000 creatives. “Most, if not everyone there, lost everything,” he said.

Though his home was spared from flooding, the rising Swannanoa River destroyed many homes nearby, and the entirety of the eponymous downriver town. “We received numerous warnings during the hurricane, but too late,” Raleigh said. “The water was already high and most people had nowhere to go.” He added that for many longtime residents, the warnings weren’t just unprecedented, they were almost fantastical. “Someone equated it to being told to prepare for a blizzard in Miami.”

Raleigh and his wife had the forethought to fill their bathtubs with water before the water went out, enabling them to survive in the coming days. After over four days at home, without power, cell reception, or additional water, they evacuated to Charlotte. “The scale of the disaster is worse than what you can glean from the news,” he said. “These towns just look like landfills. Cars, trees, pieces of mobile homes, industrial buildings, all swept together piled on top of each other. Many people remain missing. There is so much debris it will be a long time before everyone is found, if they ever are found.”

Alycia Andrade noted that, although the tragic aftermath of Helene is currently the top headline for media outlets around the country, the impacts will stretch far beyond this news cycle. “In some aspects, this will be a yearslong recovery process,” she said. “We have so many partners in western North Carolina that have made our land acquisitions and other conservation initiatives possible, so we’re thinking how each of those partners have been impacted, and what we can do for the long term, not just with immediate relief efforts, but to benefit them as they rebuild.”

One message stressed by the CCC and other on-the-ground outfits is that—although dropping off supplies and donating funds is greatly appreciated—independent volunteers attempting to deploy directly into disaster zones will do more harm than good, as efforts at this time are still focused on rescue and recovery. In a Wednesday press release, the Town of Lake Lure said that “Although we greatly appreciate all offers to volunteer, Town Officials are working to decongest the area to ensure the highest degree of safety in this rescue phase of recovery.”

Some relief organizations, including Samaritan’s Purse, VolunteerNC, and Baptists on a Mission are coordinating boots-on-ground volunteers, but independent volunteering outside of these organized, authorized efforts is discouraged.

“Eventually, we will be in a place where volunteers will be needed to help clean and re-establish trails, the lake and public infrastructure,” said Rick Carpenter, aLake Lure-based climber and search and rescue professional. For now, Carpenter suggested donating funds and—for those in the area—bringing supplies like nonperishables and bottled water to drop-off hubs, such as those set up by the CCC. “As soon as we get the green light from land managers, partners, and authorities, when it’s time to clear those trails and restore access, our cavalry will be there,” Andrade said.

Readers are encouraged to donate to the CCC’s Helene Relief Fund. The CCC also shared a list of other potential local donors with a high on-ground impact:

• Community Fund of Western North Carolina
• United Way Asheville Buncombe
• BeLovedAsheville
• High Country United Way
• Samaritan’s Purse 
• Chimney Rock Relief Efforts 
• Hendersonville Relief Efforts

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