SWANNANOA, N.C. — One year after Hurricane Helene, remarkable stories of survival are still emerging, and Paula Hennon’s is one of them.
Hurricane Helene ravaged and ripped apart Paula Hennon’s riverfront community east of Asheville.
“The ironic thing is that I’m a hurricane researcher, I have a PhD in tropical meteorology, and my most cited paper is about the maximum precipitation of hurricane rainfall,” Hennon told Channel 9’s Jonathan Lowe. “It’s like putting a target on your house.”
Hennon’s home on Trout Lily Glen in Swannanoa was one of 14 houses on the bank of the Swannanoa River before Helene. Today, hers is the only one left standing.
She and her home were lucky, if you want to call it that.
Hennon said even though her house sits two football fields away from the river the water rose 16 feet into her house, reaching the second floor.
“Miraculously, my house didn’t move on its foundation,” she said.
The community also saw a large portion of the 43 deaths attributed to Helene in Buncombe County.
“I personally know about 35, not just out of this neighborhood, but in this area,” she said.
She said her neighbor directly across from her was swept away in the floodwaters.
“He floated away on his roof with his dog, and the house hit a bridge,” she said. “He was a John Doe for quite a few days until they found him.”
Hennon said she and her neighbors who survived were helpless against the severe and steady surge of floodwaters that took out everything in their path.
“We were standing on the street going, ‘oh, Marjorie, there’s your house,’” she said. “It was literally like watching a house boat float by.”
Now, a year after the storm all but wiped out her community, she says she really doesn’t want to be called “resilient” or “strong” anymore. Instead, Hennon just wants to be called “happy.”
“You know, just going with the flow, literally,” she said.
That means defying Helene’s onslaught and rebuilding the home she’s owned for the past 20 years.
“My house is my biggest asset, and like many divorced, single moms, we stay in the house for our kids, and I didn’t have the cash to move anywhere else,” she said.
While Hennon says all of her neighbors who survived the storm are eligible for a FEMA buyout, and likely will never rebuild here, she says she was actually cornered into staying.
“If I were to actually take the buyout, they rip my house down,” Hennon said.
She said her reasons to give up have been plenty. For instance, Hennon says homeowners in her neighborhood were financially responsible for removing debris that washed up onto their property.
“My friend whose house was here, whose house floated to my front yard, I had to pay to remove her house,” she said.
There’s also been frustration about the long road to recovery for her greater Buncombe County community.
“I’m in shock that I still don’t have power or water, but all the utilities has to be re-run down this road,” she said.
Despite the heartache, the frustration, and the still-looming uncertainty, she’s managed to turn her pain into something positive.
“There are people worse off,” she said. “I volunteer through church helping people.”
Hennon is turning the focus from her own suffering to others and paying it forward.
“We spent a lot of time taking food and blankets and heaters to people during the winter, but, just trying to put it all into perspective that I’m still here,” she said.
As for the home she’s loved for the last two decades, she says the rebuild is going strong.
“We’re getting really close,” she said. “It’s been a long road.”
VIDEO: Remembering Helene: Experts discuss communication problems as anniversary approaches
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