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Helene’s Long Trail of Destruction: Rural Virginia Also Suffers from the Storm’s Heavy Winds and Rain [1]
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Date: 2024-10-10
We live in Galax, Virginia, and my husband is a manager for a stone fabrication shop in Burlington, North Carolina. Every morning, he leaves Galax at 6 a.m. to drive an hour and 45 minutes down the mountains and into the flat area of North Carolina’s Piedmont region. Friday, September 27, was the same as any other day.
But as the morning progressed in Galax, I became increasingly concerned with the weather. High winds were taking down trees and power lines. Water began flowing underneath our house and seeping in through the ceiling. Every hour that passed, I believed that the storm would end soon. But it didn’t. It battered our mountain town for seven hours.
Here’s the text exchange I had with my husband that day while he was two hours away in Burlington.
9:20 a.m. “We’re getting a ton of weather here”
9:31 a.m. “Hopefully all is well. It looks like it should be done by about 1:00”
9:34 a.m. “Pretty sure the crawl space will need bailing out”
9:35 a.m. “I will check it out tonight”
9:41 a.m. “We just lost power”
9:46 a.m. “Bummer. I’ll check on the status updates for restoring it”
9:48 a.m. “Rivers of water are pouring over the stone wall in the back yard”
9:51 a.m. “I’ll check everything out tonight”
10:00 a.m. “Water is coming in through the sunroom ceiling”
10:03 a.m. “I’m going to ask to come home…”
10:04 a.m. “…I’m on my way home”
10:05 a.m. “(Rain) Coming in through front bedroom window. So glad you’re on your way. Be really careful Jason it’s really flooding”
10:05 a.m. “Will be there as soon as possible”
10:07 a.m. “Lisa says I should evacuate because we’re in the river basin”
…
10:29 a.m. “Should I move the truck? The water is almost to the bottom of the hubcaps.”
10: 30 a.m. “Sure. I can do it when I get home too. In Greensboro (North Carolina) now.”
…
Me: 12:10 p.m. “Galax has declared a state of emergency”
Jason: 12:16 p.m. “Heading to 77 (highway). 89 (county road) blocked for two hours.
A map from the National Hurricane Center shows how heavy rains from Helene fell on Western North Carolina but trailed into Southwest Virginia, as well. (Map from the National Hurricane Center)
Jason made it back to Galax by 3:30 p.m. when the storm was finally moving out of the area. In the quiet hours that followed, we did an assessment of our home. A foot of water had settled around us like a lake; it was emptying quickly. Even though our house was still standing, it became apparent that work would need to be done to insure that the foundation hadn’t been compromised.
Flood debris covers the surface of Claytor Lake, which lies about 50 miles northeast of Galax, Virginia. (Photo submitted)
For the most part, houses in our neighborhood were just fine. But the damage to our region is undeniable. The New River, which begins in North Carolina and flows northward through Virginia and into West Virginia, is a 360 mile stretch of water that’s part of the Ohio River watershed. In our little corner of Southwest Virginia, homes along the river were badly damaged or gone. Their debris is now filling Claytor Lake.
One thing that has been apparent in the days following the storm is that national news media coverage neglected to mention damage and losses occurring in Southwest Virginia and West Virginia. The images and reports coming out of Asheville, North Carolina, eclipsed the experiences in places where our tragedies are fewer.
Lisa Jolly has a background in counseling and years of experience in social work. She’s also survived scores of hurricanes growing up in coastal South Carolina. Now a resident of Galax, Jolly talked about the impact national media has when tragedy strikes and a region is left out of the picture.
“It’s sad because the people can feel forgotten,” she said. “When we overlook a region that’s been hit by calamity like this, the folks living in the area can experience heightened anxiety levels because their circumstances are not represented.”
Media have struggled through difficult conditions to tell important stories in North Carolina. But limits on media resources and the nation’s short attention span mean the storm’s impact in Virginia is getting less attention than it might have otherwise. And hurricane Milton will pull media to an entirely different storm, as well.
“When a community is left out of the big picture, people can become vulnerable to false news stories. When their lived experiences are absent from big journalism, there’s a potential to think that news is a lie. Especially in rural places where journalism is drying up, you don’t see your experiences reflected in the national dialogue and so there’s nothing to anchor to your reality. So when reporting doesn’t cover the tragedy happening around you, you lose confidence in journalism.”
Jolly also points to economic disadvantages in and around Galax.
“There’s a lot of poverty in the city of Galax and surrounding areas. There’s food insecurity and housing issues and they are all going to be exacerbated by this hurricane. Galax is in the New River Valley Trail State Park system, so we’re a place that people like to visit but who don’t necessarily call this place home. And so this area in Southwest Virginia is often overlooked as a place where people live and work.
“It surprised me that, even though our region is on the list for FEMA aid, most of the national journalism about hurricane Helene didn’t even mention our state. We’re an economically poorer region in Virginia and so we’re overlooked.”
As the minutes ticked by throughout the day of the storm, Galax’s volunteer emergency teams responded to over 50 calls, and crews were out clearing roadways blocked by fallen trees. Neighbors were on hand everywhere with trucks and chainsaws, clearing driveways and powering up generators. In Pulaski County, over 100 homes along the New River were damaged, but homeowners were busy clearing debris and starting to repair property.
The initial response to the storm has drawn heavily on local resources. Longer term, public investment will be necessary to help cover losses. Local fundraising can’t produce the capital necessary to rebuild homes and repair infrastructure. That raises interesting political questions, according to Nancy Liebrecht, a retired environmental scientist and Grayson County resident.
Liebrecht wonders whether residents of Grayson County, who are predominantly Republican, will take aid from FEMA, which is one of the programs slated for major cuts in Project 2025, a plan produced by the conservative Heritage Foundation in preparation for a second term for Donald Trump. Trump has distanced himself from the document since its release.
Liebrecht also said the region should rebuild based on science that shows storms like Helene are increasing in frequency and force – something some residents may not want to believe.
“Our infrastructure has been built based on rainfall data that is basically obsolete,” she says. “This includes swales, roads, culverts, bridges, and storm sewers. When reconstruction happens, this needs to be taken into consideration. But will we rebuild based on changed standards?”
More storms are likely in the future, she said.
“It is possible that this storm will be viewed [by people] here as a once-in-a-lifetime anomaly. But it’s not.”
It’s been a week since the storm hit and residents feel lucky if they have homes to sleep in. But public services are slow in returning to some areas. Many still don’t have electricity. Potable water is slowly being restored. Internet is unreliable. And folks still have to go to work.
Most people here are rural, and you need a car to get to a job. But some have lost vehicles to floodwater, falling trees, or mudslides. And those who still have a car are learning that their five-mile drive into town for work is now filled with detours.
Route 21 links small towns in Virginia and North Carolina. A portion of the road slid down a mountain just north of Independence in Grayson County. This means that families who work or shop in town have to drive an extra 25-30 miles.
Grayson resident Kathy Cole normally drives only a few miles and about 10 minutes to get to town. Now, with all the detours, Cole says, “I drove to the Free Market (a Grayson County non-profit that Cole started a few years ago), and it was 28 miles and took 45 minutes.”
Kathy showed me a photo of the damage on Route 21. “As you can see, this is a major engineering job and VDOT (Virginia DOT) started on it right away. But it will take a few weeks, at best, to open the road.”
VDOT has since announced that the road will be closed for at least a month.
Another main roadway that area residents depend on involves the Low Water Bridge outside Fries, Virginia. Low Water Bridge spans the New River and offers residents quicker access to bigger towns like Galax. But the bridge has been heavily damaged by the storm and VDOT isn’t sure they’ll be able to open it until January. This has an immediate economic impact on the area. Frequent commuters who stop by the little gas stations near the bridge for groceries or a chat with neighbors will no longer travel that route. With less traffic, business has slowed to a trickle.
While Southwest Virginia was spared some of the enormous losses that North Carolina is experiencing right now, a single day of heavy rain and high winds will have a long-term effect on our region. We like to be self-reliant but, without a doubt, there will be a persistent need for assistance as some neighbors’ access to work and opportunity diminish for now. FEMA resources might not be needed by everyone here, but some will find in FEMA a necessary lifeline.
The day after the storm, long lines of utility trucks began arriving in Galax. It’s become a staging ground for crews coming from around the country to help out. Here in town, English and Spanish fill the air from crews repairing power and internet lines. Parking lots are lined with bucket trucks and utility vehicles from Alabama, Maine, Texas, and Pennsylvania. Last night, I went to the grocery store for a few things and felt assured to see a convoy rolling up Stuart Drive toward highway 77. At 77 this group from Pennsylvania will veer west towards Wytheville and then break south toward North Carolina where they’re needed. With their amber lights flashing and exhaust pipes coughing diesel, the trucks seemed like a comfort in the dark of night in Galax, Virginia. They’ll be an even greater comfort to those in North Carolina.
To help people in Southwest Virginia hurt by Hurricane Helene, go to Southwest Virginia’s United Way to donate:
https://unitedwayswva.charityproud.org/Donate
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