Life for those in western North Carolina changed in September, when the wrath of Hurricane Helene swept through those mountain towns and communities, destroying homes, businesses, roadways and bridges and claiming lives.
It was a hurricane on Sept. 27 with fury and without conscience.
Chimney Rock alone was all but destroyed.
Kim Cannizzaro saw the devastation up close and personal.
“There is still much to be done in many areas and so much will be affected for years to come,” said Cannizzaro, who is chief building and plumbing inspector for Cumberland County Inspections.
Cannizzaro was part of a county inspection team, which headed to western North Carolina in October and volunteered to assist in recovery. She was accompanied by fellow county inspectors Gilbert Sanchez, Terry Streets and Chase Lloyd.
All were honored recently with the Barry Gupton Award at the North Carolina Building Inspectors’ Association annual conference held July 20-23 in Cherokee, according to a news release. It is the NCBIA’s highest recognition and named for Gupton, a former code enforcement professional known for his dedication to excellence and public safety.
“This award reflects the selflessness, technical expertise and leadership of our staff,” Rawls Howard, director of Cumberland County Planning and Inspections, said in the release. “Our team represented the true spirit of community service in times of crisis.”
Assessments at ground zero
Cannizzaro says code officials from across the state volunteered to assist in affected areas of the state impacted by the hurricane.
“I responded to Hendersonville as part of a team conducting initial assessments,” Cannizzaro said Monday. “This is the first step in the recovery process in which every structure — residential and commercial — in that jurisdiction is assessed for any level of damage. As we identified damaged structures, they were flagged with photos and a tag to specify the level of damage. This process allows the next incoming team to conduct more detailed assessments on those structures with damage, enabling them to avoid stopping at structures already identified as safe.”
Other county inspectors responded to Black Mountain, Cannizzaro says, where they conducted detailed assessments of damaged residential and commercial structures.
“These assessments were conducted as part of a second step in the recovery process,” Cannizzaro said. “They went to structures identified by the previous team as damaged to some degree requiring further evaluation. Photos and notes were taken to assist the local officials and FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] to provide needed assistance to residents and business owners affected financially or those displaced from their homes or businesses with temporary lodging.”
Cannizzaro says she never has seen such destruction.
“In Hendersonville, I saw bridges and roads completely washed away, homes with damage from tornado winds taking off roofs and roof collapses from trees that fell on them,” she said. “There were some homes only accessible by a single two-lane road, as the other roads that once led to their neighborhoods were on the side of a mountain, which had trees down most of the road and parts of the road washed away.
“There were a couple of homes that were completely gone as a result of the flood waters overflowing the stream and or creek on which their homes once stood. Mobile homes in some areas were washed away from their anchors and carried miles away. I was fortunate to be in an area that had power restored by the time my team arrived, but my colleagues were not so fortunate and were housed in a gymnasium or church, sleeping on cots and getting showers in mobile units provided by FEMA.”
Rawls takes particular pride in the efforts of Cannizzaro, Sanchez, Streets and Lloyd, as does County Manager Clarence Grier.
“We are incredibly proud of our inspectors for embodying the spirit of public service and community support,” Grier said in the release. “Their willingness to volunteer their time and skills in the aftermath of a disaster speaks volumes about their character and the values we uphold in Cumberland County.”
Epilogue
Helene was a hurricane without mercy on Sept. 27. It howled and toppled power lines throughout our western part of this state. It spat all over a region known for its majestic beauty. It took, according to published reports as of June 17, 108 innocent lives.
“We know that the devastation brought by Hurricane Helene is beyond belief,” then-Gov. Roy Cooper said, estimating the financial cost of the hurricane could be around $53 billion. “Communities were wiped off the map.”
Kim Cannizzaro saw it firsthand.
“All of this is essential in the recovery process for areas that were impacted so severely by this once-in-a-lifetime disaster,” Cannizzaro said of her time volunteering in the hurricane’s aftermath. “While we did what we were called to do, it still seems like so little compared to the challenges some still face today. I’ve been a building inspector for only five years, but I’ve never seen some of the things we saw there.”
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
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