ASHEVILLE, N.C.– As hurricane season approaches, people in the mountain communities of Western North Carolina are bracing for any impacts nearly two years after Hurricane Helene unleashed its wrath on the region.Residents say they're "traumatized" after Hurricane Helene's brutal attack, which claimed over one hundred lives and tore thousands of homes and businesses to pieces. "We still have nightmares, flashbacks," said Jackie Fenstermacher, while sitting next to her sister Cynthia Dunn in Fairview, North Carolina.
The small town sits in a valley beneath the mountains just outside of Asheville. Fenstermacher moved to the mountains thirty years ago.Before Helene hit, she was still moving into her new home with her sister, Cynthia.HOW BUSINESSES IN SPRUCE PINE, NC ARE BOUNCING BACK AFTER HELENETwo sisters who lost their home during Helene are now trying to raise funds for a new home. (Chelsea Torres/Fox News Digital)Unfortunately, there's nothing left of the sister's home. On the morning of Sept.
27, 2024, the water from the creek nearby was rising rapidly, Fenstermacher said, and before she knew it, logs from a nearby sawmill began pummeling her new home. "It was like the house was being bombed," she said, "and then the whole - the bedroom just ripped apart."LAKE LURE REFILLS AFTER HELENE DESTRUCTIONFenstermacher immediately put her sister and their dog on a bed.Their home was torn to pieces and the three of them floated for miles downstream.
The bed eventually broke and they were crammed into a pile of debris. Sisters Jackie and Cynthia share a picture of their new home after Helene tore it apart.(Chelsea Torres/Fox News Digital)"All you could hear is giant trees snapping, glass breaking, cars going by," Fenstermacher said.Volunteers found them two days later stuck in the pile of debris. Over the last twenty months, the sisters have lived in FEMA housing, campers, and sheds.
On their property is a shed-turned-temporary-home, but it has no insulation. ...