YANCEY COUNTY, N.C. — Nearly a year after Helene devastated western North Carolina, crews with the North Carolina Department of Transportation are still working to repair hundreds of roads and bridges, many in Yancey County, ahead of the next storm.
Much of Highway 19W, west of Burnsville has been rebuilt after the Cane River flooded during Helene.
Resident Dagan Bartholomew lost access to his home and lived in Pennsylvania for six months.
He was stunned by the work done by the NCDOT when he returned.
“I think they’ve done an excellent job in the sense of getting something done in an emergency,” Bartholomew said. “They were just nonstop down here dumping load after load. Honestly, the road is better than it used to be.”
Chris Deyton, the deputy division engineer for District 13, said 93 bridges were destroyed during Helene in the seven counties in the district, which also includes Burke and McDowell counties.
There has been $600 million spent on repairs there.
However, that number could rise to $2.5 billion once all the work is completed in two years.
Deyton said many of the NCDOT workers in Yancey County faced their own challenges while continuing to work.
“We had several people impacted personally at their homes by the storm. That was a hard thing. The long hours we were working with the physical toll and the emotional toll,” he said.
The state is using the bottom of old rail cars to build dozens of single-lane bridges, allowing crews to regain access to hard-hit areas.
Lynn Tester has a bridge near her home.
Her fiancé died during the storm but she said the work by the state has given her and others hope.
“Thank you all for being so diligent about getting us ways in and out,” Tester said.
Deyton said that the state will end up spending more on road repairs for Helene than all the damage statewide from storms since 2001.
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