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Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida on Sept. 26, 2024. Weakened to a tropical depression, the massive storm moved across the Carolinas dumping rain. The catastrophic flooding caused by Helene has devastated much of western South Carolina and North Carolina.

Bat Cave residents haul supplies by foot

Jose Sandoval
/
BPR
A sign damaged by Hurricane Helene on the side of the road.

Off of U.S. 64/Chimney Rock Road lies the town of Bat Cave, called a place “hit hardest in (Henderson) county by the storm" by one official.

NCDOT Assistant Division Construction Engineer Nathan Tanner said miles of primary routes were “completely decimated, gone, and unpassable.”

Chelsea Hughes and her partner Brennan Bridge
Jose Sandoval
Chelsea Hughes and her partner Brennan Bridge

But the devastation did not keep Bat Cave residents Chelsea Hughes and her partner, Brennan Bridges, from their home.

With her one-year old son Luke on her back, Hughes climbed down rocks on a steep side of the now closed highway. Her spirits were high as the family prepared to make a multiple hour trip to Walmart.

“We're doing a little hike and a little shopping today,” Hughes said. “This is the new norm for us. And then when we get back, we'll carry everything back over here and probably won't leave for a few days because it's a lot just to leave out for a few hours.”

The “little hike” involves carefully stepping down the craggy bank and crossing a makeshift metal bridge to get from one side of the Broad River to the other.

Wide enough for single-file foot traffic, the makeshift metal bridge, is a temporary replacement for the original bridge, built in 1958, that connected U.S. 64 into Bat Cave.

“What happens with a lot of bridges is the amount of debris coming down the river will catch on any columns, and the water got so high in many places it started catching on the bridge itself,” Patton explained. “That forces the water around the bridge, not under it ….you've got a really bad situation.”

Bridge that connects U.S. 64 into Bat Cave
Jose Sandoval
Bridge that connects U.S. 64 into Bat Cave

Half of the original bridge is still standing, but at a slant which is monitored every day by crews working on it.

“It found its happy spot right now and what we're doing is we're building up very carefully underneath it," Patton said.

He said he expects it will take another week or two to temporarily fix the bridge so crews with heavy equipment can get across to help with clean up efforts in the area.

In the meantime, remaining residents like Hughes must make the trek on foot to get supplies.

Volunteers cart food, water and tools back and forth on the metal bridge in a wheelbarrow, navigating the tricky terrain up the side of the hill.

“I was here for 2004," Patton said. "2004 was bad. It doesn't hold a candle to this.”

Jose Sandoval is the afternoon host and reporter for Blue Ridge Public Radio.