More than 100 days after Tropical Storm Helene ravaged the region, piles of debris still stand around Buncombe County, especially near the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers.
After the storm, officials estimated that Helene created about 10 million cubic yards of debris in Buncombe County alone. As of Jan. 15, more than 741,000 cubic yards have been removed in Asheville, Black Mountain and unincorporated Buncombe County, according to County Manager Avril Pinder, with about 263,000 cubic yards in Asheville alone, according to the city’s recovery dashboard. That represents less than 10% of the way through the mounds of debris.
“It’s going to take a long time,” Pinder said in response to questions from the media at a briefing Jan. 9.
Currently, 34 debris removal trucks and 26 tree crews are circulating the county, she added.
More than 2.5 million cubic yards of debris has been removed in WNC by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and contracted providers, according to a media release from FEMA.
As of Jan. 9, the county hadn’t even started to remove titled property, such as cars, campers and trailers. That work will begin by Monday, Jan. 20, Pinder said. Nor has work started to pull debris from waterways. The Army Corps told the county it plans to start that work by mid-February, Pinder said at the Jan. 7 Board of Commissioners meeting.
In rights of way around the county, Florida-based AshBritt, hired by the county, is making multiple passes in six zones throughout the county. The first pass was 99% complete in four of those zones, as of Jan. 7, with the Barnardsville and Swannanoa areas about 95% complete, Pinder said. A second pass will begin once the first pass is complete, so residents should continue to place debris in rights of way without blocking cars and not under utility lines, she added.
Construction-related debris should be separated from vegetative debris, if possible, as the county is grinding vegetative debris to save landfill space.
In Swannanoa, especially along the main commercial corridor on U.S. 70, substantial amounts of debris remain untouched since the storm. Commissioner Terri Wells asked Pinder why it’s taking so long to clean up that highly visible area at the Jan. 7 meeting.
“When you’re driving through Swannanoa, a lot of people feel like they’re not seeing the progress through that commercial area,” she said.
Typically, owners of commercial properties work with their insurance companies to get their property cleaned up, but in some cases, that has not happened, Pinder acknowledged.
The county is starting to offer commercial property owners assistance through the Private Property Debris Removal program, which can help any property owner — residential or commercial — with demolition and cleanup of certain storm-affected properties, Pinder said.
To date, the county has received about 2,000 applications through that program, which is funded by FEMA and requires approval by the federal agency. The county will begin working through the first batch of properties that were approved for assistance Monday Jan. 20. Apply at buncombeready.org or call the One Buncombe call center at 828-250-6100.
This story was supported by the Fund for Investigative Reporting and Editing.
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