Murfreesboro, TN - It’s hard to believe it’s been a year. One year since Hurricane Helene tore through the Southeast, leaving behind a landscape so altered, so battered, that even lifelong residents struggled to recognize their own towns. For East Tennessee and parts of Western North Carolina, September 27, 2024, is a date etched in memory when the skies opened, the rivers rose, and the mountains themselves seemed to give way.
Helene made landfall in Florida the day before, but it was Tennessee that felt her wrath as she moved inland. Torrential rains triggered flash floods and mudslides that swallowed homes, businesses, and entire stretches of highway. Interstate 40, the lifeline between Newport and Asheville, was ripped apart. Not just damaged--it was gone. Washed away like sandcastles in a tide. For months, crews battled unstable terrain and relentless weather to rebuild what had been lost. The road only reopened recently, but the scars remain.
The human toll was heartbreaking. Fifteen lives lost in East Tennessee alone. In Erwin, floodwaters overwhelmed the Impact Plastics facility, claiming five employees. Gatlinburg saw nearly nine inches of rain. Elizabethton wasn’t far behind. Rivers breached their banks, homes were swept off foundations, and historic buildings crumbled. Some neighborhoods still sit empty, their residents displaced, their futures uncertain.
But amid the devastation, something remarkable happened. People showed up. From Murfreesboro to Memphis, from Kentucky to the Carolinas, volunteers poured in. Churches opened their doors. Schools became shelters. The Heart of Tennessee Chapter of the American Red Cross mobilized its Disaster Action Team before the governor even declared a state of emergency. John Mitchell and his crew of seven volunteers packed up supplies and hit the road, offering blankets, food, and comfort to families who had lost everything. Their Client Assistance Cards helped victims secure temporary shelter, medications, and other essentials. They didn’t just bring aid—they brought hope.
Middle Tennessee Electric (MTE) answered the call too. Veteran line workers Billy Jack Alexander and Chad Anderson joined crews heading into the mountains to restore power. What they found stunned them. “Everything—trees, bridges, roads, houses, businesses, entire communities—just gone,” Alexander said.
Anderson added, “No picture can fully show you what we saw. It’s unexplainable.”
MTE teams hiked gear up mountainsides where trucks couldn’t go, rebuilding the grid by hand in terrain that hadn’t seen such hardship since the 1930s.
Recovery continues to be slow, painful, but it’s happening. In Cosby, Del Rio, and Hartford, new homes are going up. Schools are reopening. Businesses are finding their footing again. The road is long, but Tennesseans walk it together.
As we mark the first anniversary of Hurricane Helene’s devastation, we remember the lives lost, the families that are still rebuilding, and the countless volunteers who stepped up when it mattered most. From the Red Cross teams who offered shelter, to the local MTE linemen who brought back the lights, to the neighbors who shared what little they had—strangers became friends, and compassion lit the way through the darkness.
WGNS honors our local volunteers and disaster teams. Thank you MTE and the Heart of Tennessee Red Cross. East Tennessee and Western North Carolina will never forget!
