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1-Year Helene Milestone Event Looks Back, Forward on N.C.’s Most Destructive Storm

State, federal and local officials held a 1-Year Hurricane Helene Milestone Event off Interstate 40 in Haywood County Friday. Seen here (l-to-r) are: Sean McMaster, administrator of the Federal Highway Administration; Daniel Johnson, NCDOT deputy secretary and general counsel; Joey Hopkins (podium), NCDOT secretary; Governor Josh Stein; James Melonas, the USDA Forest Service’s supervisor of National Forests in N.C.; and Tony Lathrop, N.C. Board of Transportation chairman. 

RALEIGH – Many of the roads and bridges closed by Hurricane Helene have reopened, and officials are committed to completing the recovery effort in western North Carolina.

That was one of the main messages from federal, state and local transportation officials at a 1-year Helene milestone event held Friday in Haywood County.

Helene, which struck western North Carolina Sept. 27, 2024, became the state’s most destructive storm and its deadliest. It claimed 108 lives and left behind billions of dollars in damage to homes, businesses, natural attractions, roads and bridges.

NCDOT produced a video for the 1-year Helene milestone.

“In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, heroes emerged – and the employees of the Department of Transportation are among the best,” said North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein. “I’ve watched as western North Carolinians have stepped up for their neighbors throughout their recovery from this storm. We must keep bringing that same urgency, grit, and heart to this work.”

Stein, State Transportation Secretary Joey Hopkins, Federal Highway Administration Administrator Sean McMaster and other leaders came together Friday to remember the storm’s massive toll and mark the milestones achieved toward recovery.

The event was one of several officials have been holding around the one-year anniversary of Helene. 

Friday’s event, which focused on transportation, was held off Interstate 40 in the Pigeon River Gorge. The event was near the site along the river where powerful floods from Helene washed away much of the highway and forced its full closure for about five months. I-40 was reopened to one lane in each direction in March, and crews are ramping up permanent repairs to I-40. 

Helene unleashed powerful winds and historic rainfall that triggered massive landslides across the Tar Heel State’s mountains and foothills.

Entire communities were cut off from the outside world as the storm damaged 9,400 sections of state-maintained roads, 846 public bridges and more than 1,700 pipes and culverts.

“The impacts to our transportation infrastructure have been enormous,” Hopkins said.  

The N.C. Department of Transportation estimates that repairing the roads and bridges damaged or destroyed by Helene will cost about $5 billion. That’s far greater than the $600 million in transportation repairs North Carolina has made after all named and declared storms combined since 2016.  

“Our No. 1 priority over the past year has been to restore transportation and help folks in western North Carolina recover,” Hopkins said.

NCDOT and its federal, state and local partners have devoted thousands of employees to help in the recovery. That includes the transportation workers who responded immediately after the storm to cut and remove downed trees from roads, pilots and other aviation specialists to photograph damage from the air to speed up the response, and numerous support staff to help guide the recovery. It also includes the NCDOT engineers, private contractors and others who have been designing and rebuilding roads and bridges.

Many of the efforts have been heroic. For example, NCDOT’s Safety Service Patrol drivers and other employees were praised for helping save lives along I-40 in the Pigeon River Gorge. The patrol, also known as the Incident Management Assistance Patrol, worked alongside other agency employees to quickly turn around traffic along I-40 and evacuate motorists before floodwaters destroyed the interstate and sent chunks of it into the raging Pigeon River.

“That is just one example of the efforts our crews and others have exerted over the last year,” Hopkins said. “I can’t thank everyone enough who has helped for your sacrifice, your dedication and your ingenuity.” 

The full recovery in western North Carolina is likely to take several years, but the hard work is paying off, Hopkins said. Hopkins and others credited the major financial assistance from the Federal Highway Administration. Earlier this week, McMaster and his leadership announced $1.15 billion in emergency relief funding for Hurricane Helene repairs in North Carolina.

“We know this allocation will help keep the recovery moving forward and avoid disruption to non-Helene related operations,” Hopkins said.   

As of this month, NCDOT and its partners have completed work on more than 6,500 damaged sites, reopened nearly 98% of all roads, and repaired more than 500 bridges and nearly all the pipes and culverts damaged by Helene.

“Thank you again for supporting this recovery over the past year and know that the department will see this effort through to the end,” Hopkins said.

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Flood Warning System Predicts Highway Flooding

NCDOT’s flood-alert tools averted crashes on I-40, potentially saving lives

By Saturday, Sept. 28, when this picture was taken from inside an NCDOT vehicle, the floodwaters topping I-40 near mile marker 47 outside Asheville had begun to recede.
ASHEVILLE – As Hurricane Helene barreled toward the Southeast, Chad Franklin received a warning from his colleagues who specialize in stormwater and flooding management for the N.C. Department of Transportation.

The NCDOT engineers with the agency’s Hydraulics Unit were poring over data, and they didn’t like what they saw. Their flood-warning system was predicting that a mile of Interstate 40 near the French Broad River in Buncombe County would flood by two feet. It was Wednesday, Sept. 25, a day before Helene would make landfall in Florida.

“I was shocked when they told me that,” recalled Franklin, who is NCDOT’s regional intelligent transportation systems engineer for the state’s 17 most-western counties. “It had never flooded before.”

As Helene approached Western North Carolina and the rainfall forecasts intensified, the flood tool predicted an even higher flood stage for I-40. Before daybreak on Friday, Sept. 27, Franklin dispatched the roadside assistance crews he supervises to I-40 near mile marker 47. They were told to close the road immediately if it started to flood.

Torrential rains pushed the water over the banks of the French Broad River. As soon the murky water reached the pavement later that Friday, Franklin’s crews, other NCDOT staff and the N.C. State Highway Patrol turned on their flashing lights and used their vehicles to close I-40. The floodwaters eventually reached about eight feet over I-40.

“That flooding was more than we’d ever seen before in that area,” Franklin. “Had we not closed it that soon, we might have had people driving onto a flooded highway, and the results could have been deadly.” 

Instead, NCDOT and State Highway Patrol troopers were able to safely detour traffic onto I-240 around Asheville. They would reopen I-40 on Saturday evening, Sept. 28, after the waters had receded.

During the storm, the tool was used to monitor and close a number of roads that quickly deteriorated as Helene swept through Western North Carolina. Just as important, though, was NCDOT employees were getting important information from first-responders, law enforcement and emergency management officials to better respond to the storm.

“The flood warning tool did its job, and we’re grateful it did,” Franklin said. 

Flood Warning System Proves Valuable
The storm was the largest test yet for the department’s nationally recognized flood warning system since becoming operational in 2022. The system provides critical, real-time information that helps NCDOT prepare for, respond to and recover from severe storms. With it, engineers are able to monitor more than 15,000 bridges and culverts and 2,000 miles of state-maintained roads, including Interstate 40. 

The flood warning system has proven instrumental in safeguarding North Carolina’s transportation infrastructure. During Tropical Storm Idalia, which led to significant flooding in eastern North Carolina, including downtown Whiteville, the system generated 109 alerts, enabling staff to proactively respond. During another event last summer in the mountains, an alert directed NCDOT’s bridge maintenance team in Polk County to inspect a bridge, which led to its immediate closure following the confirmation of storm damage.

During Hurricane Helene, the department’s Hydraulics Unit identified process improvements for the flood warning system. The large volume of alerts created an overwhelming influx of text messages for NCDOT employees, and some river gauges went offline due to disrupted cell service. To address these issues, the unit plans to implement a summary alert system during major storms to streamline communications. Additionally, the unit’s engineers are working on adding satellite communication capabilities to critical gauges to ensure reliable data transmission even during cell service outages.

“Our goal is to save lives,” State Hydraulics Engineer Matt Lauffer said. “So, we’re taking the lessons we learn from each storm and applying those to make this tool even better.”


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Many Partners Helping NCDOT with Massive Post-Helene Recovery in Western N.C.

More than 1,000 roads have been reopened and hundreds more are being repaired

NCDOT contractors used bridge materials from Florida this week to help construct a temporary bridge so large trucks can more easily access a McDowell County plant that makes much of the nation’s IV fluid.
RALEIGH – In the five weeks since Hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina, 1,005 roads have been reopened, hundreds more are being repaired, temporary bridges are being constructed, roadside debris sites are being cleaned, and contracts are being drafted for long-range repairs.

“Significant progress is being made because of the teamwork and long hours being put in by so many different organizations and individuals across North Carolina and beyond,” said Joey Hopkins, secretary of the N.C. Department of Transportation. “Restoring Western North Carolina will take a long time, but we’re grateful for all our partners who are helping get the region back on its feet.”   

The N.C. Department of Transportation still has more than 2,100 employees dedicated to the recovery effort and is regularly rotating in employees from central and eastern North Carolina to help. But state transportation officials say partnerships with municipalities and counties, utilities, businesses, the military and other states have been critical to the response.

Help from other states
Florida and Kentucky transportation agencies have sent crews, materials and equipment to North Carolina. Kentucky has had as many as 128 personnel assisting, and Florida responded just after Helene struck Sept. 26-27 by bringing temporary bridge materials to Western North Carolina.

Those Florida crews returned home earlier this month to help with their state’s response to Hurricane Milton. NCDOT used the bridge materials from Florida earlier this week to install a temporary bridge so large trucks can more easily access Baxter Healthcare Corp.’s McDowell County plant that produces 60% of the nation’s supply of IV fluid. Another temporary structure had been installed not long after the storm, but the bridge installed this week will provide trucks with better access to and from the facility.  

“This was a critical need for that community as well as patients and the medical community across the country,” Hopkins said.

NCDOT has also been working closely with Tennessee on ways to restore the Interstate 40 corridor near the state line.

Earlier this month, NCDOT awarded an $8.5 million contract to Wright Brothers Construction to stabilize the westbound lanes of I-40 in the Pigeon River Gorge. Contract crews are installing soil-nail walls on several thousand feet of the interstate damaged by the flooded river. The operation includes inserting long rods into bedrock below the road, filling those with grout so the rods adhere to the rock, and spraying concrete on the cut face to hold the rods in place and create a wall.This week, NCDOT selected Ames Construction as the contractor for the permanent repair of I-40 in the Pigeon River Gorge. The interstate is closed, and it is uncertain when it will reopen.

NCDOT staff are also grateful to the National Guard for helping with repairs and the state transportation agencies that have offered support from Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Mississippi, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia.

Businesses needed for the short- and long-term recovery
NCDOT has let dozens of emergency contracts to businesses to repair and reconstruct flood- and debris-damaged roads, repair shoulders and install temporary bridges. The agency is also drafting long-range contracts for more involved repairs. The agency has prioritized work on interstates, state and federal highways, and the restoration of smaller roads vital to accessing communities.

As of Friday morning, 1,005 roads had been reopened since the recovery effort began, according to the agency’s online dashboard. Numerous roads vital to the region’s economy have been reopened, including  many primary routes and secondary roads like those used to access Christmas tree farms in Avery County.   

Still, much work remains as NCDOT and its partners work to clear and assess roads that will need to be rebuilt.

As of Friday morning, there were 301 road closures and 52 of those were primary routes, 103 roads had partial access and 26 were closed to trucks. NCDOT has identified more than 8,100 damage sites to roads, bridges and culverts.

The agency expects at least 140 bridges will require replacement, and that number could climb as crews are sometimes finding significant damage as debris is removed.

Recovery will take a long time.

So NCDOT has been beefing up its efforts to secure help from more businesses with wide-ranging expertise in areas such as road and bridge design, construction, paving, traffic control and debris removal. The agency has hosted workshops aimed at educating businesses on the types of recovery work available and how businesses can meet the requirements to bid on state transportation contracts. Nearly 300 people participated in either the webinar hosted by NCDOT Oct. 22 or the six, in-person workshops held Oct. 29-30 at the NCDOT’s offices in Asheville.           

Utilities
Throughout Western North Carolina, NCDOT crews worked to reopen roads and create paths for utility workers to restore power, including a site in Bakersville. More than 1 million people were without electricity at the height of the response. Today, there are about 1,500 homes, businesses and facilities without power in the region.

Helping with Evacuations, Coordinating Air Drops, Damage Assessments and Removing Debris
In Helene’s initial aftermath, staff in NCDOT’s Integrated Mobility Division, which covers public transit and bicycle and pedestrian transportation, assisted 28 public transportation and emergency management agencies with over 2,000 evacuations, and the delivery of supplies and hot meals to displaced residents.  

For several weeks after the storm, NCDOT crews and contractors worked day and night to cut and shove trees and other debris so roads could be reopened and damage assessed.

In the many sites inaccessible to cars and trucks, however, aircraft have played an important role in deploying food, water and emergency supplies and assessing damage. NCDOT Aviation and Photogrammetry staff worked with the National Guard, the Civil Air Patrol and numerous airports to safely coordinate air traffic so much-needed supplies could be brought to people in need.

Staff in the state agency also worked with their aviation partners to gather aerial imagery that helped inform the first few weeks of the recovery effort.

As of Friday, NCDOT’s Aviation staff have helped coordinate 266 drone flights, seven flights of the Civil Air Patrol and 12 missions from the agency’s Photogrammetry unit. During its flights, the Photogrammetry unit has gathered aerial images covering 1.6 million acres of the damage in Western North Carolina.  

 “Working together, we were able to coordinate a massive aerial effort the likes of which Western North Carolina had never seen,” said Becca Gallas, director of the N.C. Division of Aviation. “All the missions flown by drones, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft really helped crews on the ground better understand the scope and nature of the damage so we could get help to the people that needed it most.”

Debris cleanup efforts, too, are being powered by partnerships.  

NCDOT has frequently worked with its contractors to remove roadside debris after major storms. After Helene, however, many counties and municipalities jumped in to help with this effort. To date, 29 municipalities and counties have signed agreements with NCDOT to collect roadside debris on state-maintained roads.  

“We’re grateful to our counties and municipal partners who really stepped up and agreed to remove this debris,” said Mark Gibbs, NCDOT’s deputy chief engineer for Western North Carolina. “This is another great example of how NCDOT is partnering with our counties and municipalities to expedite the recovery process.”

For real-time travel information, visit DriveNC.gov or follow NCDOT on social media.

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Towns, Cities Can Use Money from State Transportation Fund on Helene Recovery Costs

More than 130 mountain communities received Powell Bill funds this year

Municipalities that received Powell Bill funding before Hurricane Helene can use those funds to cover certain hurricane recovery-related costs, including road and bridge repairs and debris removal. In this photo, N.C. Department of Transportation contractors clear debris so a Helene-damaged road in Burnsville can be reconstructed. Burnsville received Powell Bill funds. 
RALEIGH – North Carolina municipalities recently received word they would be receiving a share of the state transportation fund primarily used to resurface streets.

Then, they received more good news – the money can be used to cover eligible transportation costs related to Hurricane Helene recovery.

On Sept. 25, the N.C. Department of Transportation distributed half of this year’s $186 million from the State Street Aid to Municipalities, known as Powell Bill funds, to 508 North Carolina municipalities. The other half of the money will be distributed by Jan. 1.
Of this year’s recipients, 134 municipalities are in the areas of Western North Carolina hit hardest by Helene on Sept. 26-27.

“We distribute the Powell Bill funds every year about this time to help cities and towns resurface streets and make other necessary transportation improvements,” said Joey Hopkins, secretary of the N.C. Department of Transportation. “But a lot of folks are surprised to learn they can use the Powell Bill money for road and bridge repairs and other recovery efforts associated with natural disasters like Helene.”

NCDOT staff sent an email earlier this month to inform this year’s Powell Bill recipients of the ways the money can be used on Helene-related costs. The email included a link to the Powell Bill expenditure guidance that can be found on the Powell Bill website. In addition to repairing municipal streets impacted by the storm, participating municipalities can use Powell Bill funds to remove Helene-related debris from municipally maintained, qualified Powell Bill program streets, said Molly Stevens, NCDOT Powell Bill Program coordinator. 

It’s likely to cost several billion dollars to rebuild transportation infrastructure damaged during Helene, according to the NCDOT’s initial estimates.

Powell Bill funds are used primarily to resurface municipal streets. They can also be used to maintain, repair, construct or widen streets, bridges and drainage areas within the corporate limits. Municipalities can also use the funds to plan, construct and maintain bike paths, greenways or sidewalks. The participating municipalities attest each year that they are qualified to participate in the Powell Bill program.

Funding for the Powell Bill comes from revenues generated by the gas tax and other highway user fees.  

The amount each municipality receives is based on a formula set by the N.C. General Assembly, with 75 percent of the funds based on population, and 25 percent based on the number of locally maintained street miles. 

The fund is named for Junius K. Powell, a former state senator and mayor of Whiteville. Powell was the primary sponsor of the 1951 bill that helped the state’s cities with urban road problems.
The first allocation of Powell Bill funds was for $4.5 million and was distributed to 386 cities and towns.

The complete list of towns, villages and cities that qualify for and participate in the Powell Bill program can be found on the NCDOT website.   

***NCDOT***

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NCDOT Making Steady Progress But Faces Long Road to Recovery after Hurricane Helene

N.C. Department of Transportation crews worked on Oct. 9, 2024, to clear U.S. 74A in Gerton, a small community in Henderson County impacted by Hurricane Helene. NCDOT has reopened more than 600 roads in Western North Carolina since the storm.  
RALEIGH – The N.C. Department of Transportation crews and contractors have reopened more than 600 North Carolina roads as workers continue to make steady progress to help communities impacted by Hurricane Helene.

Transportation crews have nearly completed operations using chainsaws to cut and move debris to the shoulders to reopen roads. Those “cut-and-shove” crews have created more than 4,100 debris sites on roadsides.

Helene left unprecedented damage in Western North Carolina when it hit the state Sept. 26-27.
“Damage estimates from what we have been able to assess to this point are up to several billion dollars and we’re not done,” said state Transportation Secretary Joey Hopkins. “The damage to our roads and bridges is like nothing we’ve ever seen after any storm, and this will be a long-term recovery operation. But we will be here until Western North Carolina can get back on its feet.”

Progress continues on several fronts
Since Helene exited North Carolina, NCDOT has reopened 600 roads, mostly in Western North Carolina. The roads that have been reopened include Interstate 40 near Old Fort and in downtown Asheville, I-26 in Henderson and Polk counties, as well as U.S. 221, U.S. 321 and U.S. 421 in the Boone area, and U.S. 70 and U.S. 25 in Asheville.   

NCDOT has identified more than 6,900 sites where roads and bridges are damaged. The agency reported Monday there are nearly 600 road closures, with 100 of those on interstates, and state and federal highways. The agency is reporting closures on thoroughfares including Interstate 40, U.S. 64, U.S. 19, N.C. 215, N.C. 226 and N.C. 197. The number of road closures could rise as the state agency continues its assessment, Hopkins said.

But the state agency is making headway on its busiest road, Interstate 40. NCDOT has awarded a $10 million contract to Wright Brothers Construction to stabilize the westbound lanes of I-40 in the Pigeon River Gorge. The contract includes incentives to be completed by Jan. 4. NCDOT is working with Tennessee transportation officials and the Federal Highway Administration on the long-term plan for reconstruction of I-40 in the gorge.

Getting power restored remains a priority. As of Monday, there were more than 19,000 places – down from over 1 million after the storm — without power in Western North Carolina. NCDOT crews are being intentional in their work with utilities to get roads open so power can be restored.      

Some transportation crews are transitioning from “cut-and-shove” to reconstruction, but progress varies by county due to the amount of damage. Some areas in Mitchell and Yancey counties, for instance, continue to have limited access to the state road system.

Many transportation employees responding
NCDOT employees from across North Carolina have been responding since Helene came through North Carolina. As of Monday, more than 2,000 NCDOT employees are working on the recovery operations. This includes 375 central support staff and 1,700 employees working on recovery operations, such as using dump trucks, backhoes and graders to clear roads. More than 230 of the employees working on recovery operations were deployed from eastern and central North Carolina. The N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles has 50 employees in its License and Theft Unit providing security in seven mountain communities.

The agency is still calling on people to not travel in Western North Carolina, unless they are local, responding to the recovery effort or have essential travel needs.

“Non-essential traffic continues to hinder our efforts to reopen roads,” Hopkins said. “Many of our crews are having to stop work to allow traffic through damaged areas. We’re working as hard as we can, but we need most of these travelers to use alternate routes outside of the impacted areas to get through and around Western North Carolina.”

Also, NCDOT is urging truckers not to use routes that are restricted near the Tennessee border because those roads are not equipped to handle trucks longer than 30 feet. Instead, the agency is directing truckers to use detour routes and using tools to inform truckers of the road conditions such as sending wireless emergency alerts to cellular devices and changing overhead digital signs to notify trucks of appropriate routes.   

Aerial Technology Helping Response
NCDOT’s Division of Aviation has coordinated many flight missions to air drop emergency supplies to affected areas and gather aerial imagery that can be used to photograph difficult-to-access areas. NCDOT’s drone teams and Photogrammetry unit, the Civil Air Patrol and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have flown about 250 missions to capture images that are being used to inform the massive disaster response effort.

For other galleries of select images captured by NCDOT staff, please visit our Flickr site.

The division has supported the N.C. National Guard’s 517 search and rescue operations, and the guard’s air delivery of more than 3 million pounds of food, water and supplies to Western North Carolina communities inaccessible because of damaged roads and bridges. The division is also working with emergency management partners, airports, and private pilots to ensure safe air operations by putting in place safety strategies and ensuring public airports have sufficient supplies and staff to operate. As of Monday, NCDOT’s Aviation Division had supported the mobilization of 30 qualified staff to impacted general aviation airports to help airports managing significant increases in air traffic.

For real-time travel information, visit DriveNC.gov or follow NCDOT on social media.

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