AVERY COUNTY, N.C. — There are renewed calls for change in honor of the lives lost during Hurricane Helene nearly two years ago, when 107 people lost their lives in the devastating storm in North Carolina.
[ READ MORE: How Avery County is rebuilding, remembering lives lost two years after Hurricane Helene ]
Channel 9’s Dave Faherty went back to one of the hardest-hit communities on Thursday, where a mother is hoping her daughter’s death will lead to better safety measures for the future.
That mother is hoping her daughter’s death will lead to better safety measures for the future.
Bernice Hensley said her daughter and her family lived on a hillside near the small town of Minneapolis. She said her daughter’s body was found four days after a landslide.
“We were in a Walmart buying water when I found out my child was missing,” she said.
It took six hours to get from Hickory to Avery County, Hensley said.
Her daughter, Melissa Guinn, was a mother of four boys. Two years after the tragedy, Hensley believes more needs to be done to keep families in western North Carolina safe from landslides.
“They need to let people know that their homes may be in a potentially dangerous spot,” she said. “If Jamie and Melissa had known, they would not have bought that house.”
Faherty spoke with U.S. Rep. Tim Moore, R-N.C., by phone on Thursday. Congress is working on legislation that would reauthorize and enhance the National Landslide Preparedness Act, Moore said. The bill would focus on mapping areas, and that information would be put in a public database.
“When someone is buying property, they will know that property is subject to that,” Moore said. “And when it comes to building permits, there may be an area that’s just too dangerous to build on.”
Hensley showed Faherty the scarf her daughter asked her to make weeks before Helene. It is finished now, but Hensley said she won’t stop working to prevent another tragedy.
“People need to know where they’re living is possibly a dangerous area,” she said. “Because if I had known, I’d still have my daughter.”
Moore said the bill passed the Senate. He believes it will be taken up in November when Congress reconvenes.
Avery County roads near full repair
In Avery County, one of the hardest-hit areas in western North Carolina, state officials say 97% of damaged roads have now been repaired after a multi-million-dollar recovery effort.
The North Carolina Department of Transportation says 97% of the roads damaged in Avery County have been repaired.
At the height of the recovery effort, NCDOT employees worked 14-hour shifts, seven days a week for months. Some workers didn’t get to go home and slept in their trucks as crews worked to restore access and rebuild damaged infrastructure.
NCDOT officials say $121 million has been spent in Avery County to repair roads damaged by Helene.