YANCEY COUNTY, N.C. — For Kyle Brunette, fishing is an art form. He’s been practicing his entire life on the canvas of the rivers and streams of the Western North Carolina mountains, but one year ago, the pristine waterways that Kyle was so familiar with changed drastically.
“A year ago, it looked like a literal warzone,” he told Channel 9’s Hannah Goetz.
Before Hurricane Helene hit, Kyle helped tourists and sportsmen enjoy the beauty that Mother Nature provides in the High Country through his fishing business at Southern Drifters Outfitters.
He still remembers the devastation that Helene brought in September 2024.
“Around 9:30, me and my neighbors were hit by a landslide. Everybody was OK, but when I cut back and we carried them out after that, it was trying to get access back in here, where we are now,” Kyle recalled.
Once he was out safe, the fishing guide turned into a rescue guide navigating one of the hardest hit areas in Yancey County.
“You didn’t really know where you were because a lot of stuff was gone. Sections of river that had houses, boulders the size of houses, were completely gone,” Kyle said. “A lot of people swim in those areas, and it’s no longer there.”
Kyle used his knowledge of the land to take crucial medical personnel and rescue squads to people in need.
“So that was where we kind of pitched in and took rafts down remote sections of the county and floated nurses and cadaver dogs down through here. It was a very weird thing to do in your hometown,” he said.
To date, 11 deaths from Hurricane Helene have been verified in Yancey County. More than 100 people died in North Carolina.
During a time when even the first responders needed rescuing, Kyle says the community banded together.
“It kind of gives me cold chills, we all know each other around here. It was like we all had to process it very quick and get over it, like do what we could,” Kyle said.
After the storm, the community focused on rebuilding. But Helene left scars on the people and the land it tore through.
“Mother Nature is brutal,” Kyle said.
He sees it every day at work. It’s harder to find fish out here than it was before the hurricane, and he says the creeks have taken a beating from the storm and the cleanup effort.
“What they’ve done fix our rivers, in turn, hurt the fishing and habitat,” he said.
He says heavy machinery and cleanup efforts have disrupted the life that once thrived from the collage of ecosystems in the mountains.
“We’re not supposed to be in our rivers,” he said. “Before the storm, we couldn’t be in ... now, everybody’s kind of got a free pass to get in there and do what they think is right, and we can’t change the way the rivers flow.”
One thing Kyle says people can do is enjoy the beautiful streams that he grew up in.
“It changed a lot of things, it’s still beautiful. We still got a lot of fish left; they’re not all dead. It’s been different, but we are figuring it all out,” Kyle said.
(VIDEO: Asheville florist rebuilds bright spot after Helene’s devastation)
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