Swannanoa’s recovery is far from over

Good morning! Today is Tuesday, September 29, 2026. You’re reading a special Tuesday edition of The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with local business-y news and insights for Charlotte, N.C. Today, we continue to check in with our western neighbors, two years since Hurricane Helene devastated the region.

Editor’s note: Two years after Hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina, recovery is still unfolding across the region. In “Helene: Road to Recovery,” a five-part series, The Charlotte Ledger examines where that recovery stands today — from rebuilding communities, roads and forests to the storm’s lasting effects on healthcare and wildlife — and the work that remains. So far, we’ve taken a look at:

by Lindsey Banks

Two years after Hurricane Helene tore through the Swannanoa Valley, scars from the disaster are impossible to miss across the small community east of Asheville — widely described as the storm’s Ground Zero. 

New homes are rising where others were washed away. Businesses have opened to fill service holes left by the storm’s destruction. And just last week, on one property near the Swannanoa River, a family moved into a newly constructed three-bedroom home, built through the state’s relief funding. 

But drive a few minutes through Swannanoa, and the reminders of Sept. 27, 2024, linger, a source of frustration and an unwelcome memory of the worst day of most residents’ lives. 

Empty lots have replaced neighborhoods, now overgrown with two years of unkempt weeds and leftover debris. RVs sit on properties where some residents are still living temporarily. Storm-damaged commercial buildings remain along U.S. 70. And the community’s Ingles — once its primary store — remains closed, with no signs of life inside. 

It’s a work in progress, and everyone knew recovery would take years. But some of the most difficult problems remain two years later: finding permanent housing, accessing affordable food and dealing with the emotional toll of living through two years of instability. 

For Swannanoa Communities Together, a nonprofit that grew out of the immediate response to Helene, the work has shifted from meeting emergency needs to confronting those longer-term problems. 

“Most people who are displaced don't have a permanent housing solution still after two years,” said Beth Trigg, co-founder of Swannanoa Communities Together. “A lot of people are still in temporary housing solutions.”

On a recent Friday afternoon, state recovery officials gathered inside a newly built home along the Swannanoa River, an area that was virtually washed away in the flooding. The owners, who declined to speak to the media, were preparing to get the key to their new home later that day. 

Their former mobile home on the property was destroyed by Helene. Through Renew NC, North Carolina’s long-term disaster recovery effort, the state replaced it with an elevated, three-bedroom, two-bathroom house designed to better withstand future flooding. 

Construction took roughly 70 days once work began. Getting projects to that point, however, can take much longer. 

Renew NC’s Single-Family Housing Program, which is for low- to moderate-income families affected by Helene with seniors, children or disabled individuals across 28 counties, is funded through $807M of the $1.4B North Carolina received through the federal Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program. 

The program can repair homes, replace manufactured homes or rebuild houses. But it is primarily aimed at income-qualified homeowners who occupied their properties when Helene hit. 

According to the program’s dashboard, 159 total projects have been completed, another 164 homes are under construction and 640 households are gearing up for construction. In Buncombe County, Renew NC received 2,151 applications from residents who reported damage to their homes; 661 applications have been approved. 

Scott Elliott, deputy director of the Governor’s Recovery Office for Western North Carolina (GROW NC), acknowledged that those numbers represent only part of the region's recovery.

“There's still significant unmet needs in terms of housing,” Elliott told The Ledger.

Nonprofits like Samaritan's Purse and Habitat for Humanity, and efforts like the Better Together Coalition, a group of local and international nonprofits that have teamed up to support the Swannanoa Valley, have done significant work in repairing and rebuilding homes across the region. 

Most rebuilt homes can be identified by the fresh paint job and sign posted out front, by whichever organization funded the construction. 

Buncombe County Commissioner Jennifer Horton, who serves the Swannanoa area, said that some homeowners accepted buyouts from the state through the FEMA-funded Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, which purchases flood-damaged property and turns it into public spaces, like greenways and nature preserves. 

But there’s still a significant gap in the recovery: people living in rental units at the time of the storm. 

“My concern is that the people that want to come back to the valley, they don't have that choice, especially if they were renting,” Horton said. 

Trigg said many of the people Swannanoa Communities Together works with rented before the storm and have little assistance available through state programs. Some families have found rental housing elsewhere in Buncombe County but are driving their children back to Swannanoa-area schools. Others have moved multiple times or are still living in RVs.

The problem isn’t always that housing doesn’t exist, Trigg said — although that is a part of it, as many rental homes were washed away. Some rentals sit vacant because displaced residents can’t meet income requirements for a lease, pass application screenings or navigate a formal rental market after decades of renting informally from neighbors, relatives or longtime landlords. 

Swannanoa Communities Together has helped pay rent and prevent evictions, but its resources have declined as the recovery stretches on. The organization spent as much as $100,000 a month on rental assistance during some months in 2025. It is now aiming to spend about $30,000 a month to stretch grant funding and donations. 

Co-founder Mary Etheridge-Trigg said the nonprofit has helped prevent 70 evictions so far this year, with 18 evictions in April alone, and has provided rental assistance to 163 households this year. 

Nearly two years after the storm, Swannanoa’s one full-service grocery store remains closed. The building sits seemingly abandoned.

Ingles announced in July 2025 that it plans to rebuild the supermarket, raising the site elevation and creating space for other retailers. Buncombe County later approved a special-use permit for redevelopment, reported Blue Ridge Public Radio. The company’s current store listing continues to mark the Swannanoa location as temporarily closed, and the marquee out front says “Black Mountain Store Open.” 

The Ledger contacted Ingles for an updated construction timeline but did not receive a response. 

For residents with cars, the next two closest full-service grocery stores are Ingles in Black Mountain and Ingles in east Asheville, about a 10-minute drive away. For residents who rely on walking, public transportation or wheelchairs to reach Ingles — especially residents who live in the two income-based rent-restricted apartment complexes across the street from Ingles — the loss is much more consequential. 

“It has had a significant negative impact,” Etheridge-Trigg said. “People have had to pay more money, and people have had to wait for buses to take them to one of the other Ingles.”

Commissioner Horton said that she has not heard an update from Ingles and that the county is not responsible for any delays or barriers to the store being rebuilt. 

“I’ve even had people in the community that’s like, ‘Well, Black Mountain’s just right down the road.’ Well, for somebody with a car with the means of getting to Black Mountain, yes, but for somebody that doesn’t have that ability, it’s not,” Horton said. 

A convenience store recently opened near the area’s two adjusted-rent apartment complexes, called Bee’s Mini Mart, to help fill some of the need. It’s the only food supplier in Swannanoa that accepts EBT cards, used for North Carolina Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) benefits. But the store is limited to typically grab-and-go food items and snacks. 

In Beacon Village, one small business is trying to fill the food-access gap. 

The Rite Buy Grocery quietly opened shortly before Christmas 2025. Owner Diana Rhodes had spent about 20 years working in e-commerce before Helene knocked out power and temporarily paused her job. She and her husband, Justin, instead threw themselves into volunteer storm recovery. 

After about eight months of that work, Rhodes was preparing to return to her old career when she learned a small building in Beacon Village would soon be vacant. She had spent months saying that Swannanoa needed a grocery store. 

“I had been pretty frustrated with our access to food,” she said. 

So, with the encouragement from friends and family, she opened one. 

The Rite Buy sells fresh produce, eggs, dairy, meat and poultry, with most products sourced locally or regionally. Rhodes said she intentionally chose Beacon Village because she wanted the store near residents who had previously been able to walk to Ingles. 

As a small independent grocer, however, The Rite Buy can’t match the buying power and prices of a supermarket chain. 

To make the store accessible to lower-income residents, Rhodes partners with the nonprofit Valley Hope Foundation to create Community Cares, a privately funded program that provides qualifying households with reloadable cards to buy groceries. Depending on the household size and need, Rhodes said participants can receive anywhere from $100 to $300 a month. 

Food demand is also straining local food pantries, like Swannanoa Communities Together’s pantry. Etheridge-Trigg said its pantry spends roughly $800 to $1,000 a week buying food, in addition to donated food and prepared meals, and still regularly runs out. 

Residents are careful not to define Swannanoa’s recovery solely by what remains undone. 

Commissioner Horton said the county recently secured funding from the state’s disaster relief for sidewalks in Beacon Village and has another $10M request pending for sidewalks along U.S. 70.

Construction is also underway on a new emergency medical services base along Old U.S. 70 near the community’s public pool. Horton said the project is moving quickly and is expected to be completed in February 2027. And for Charles D. Owen Park — the Swannanoa area’s main park that was washed away in the flood — the final design for recovery work has been completed, with construction slated to begin in 2027, Horton said.

And Swannanoa is moving closer to regaining another community fixture: its post office. Horton said construction is expected to be completed during the first quarter of 2027. 

“I think, despite what hasn't happened, there's so much that has happened,” Rhodes said, “and we have to just keep looking forward and acknowledge the loss, but just hope for what's ahead of us.”

Lindsey Banks is assistant editor for The Charlotte Ledger. She’s also a Swannanoa native. Reach her at [email protected]. 

The investigations into Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ contracting and finances aren’t going away anytime soon — and neither is The Charlotte Ledger’s coverage of them.

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