Western North Carolina’s waterways continue to bear the scars of Hurricane Helene, with significant erosion impacting roads, power lines, and other critical infrastructure. The aftermath of the storm has left steep slopes and eroded banks that present ongoing challenges.
Buncombe County is set to receive a $36.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture aimed at stabilizing these vulnerable waterways. The grant, part of the USDA’s Emergency Watershed Protection Program, marks the largest streambank restoration funding the county has obtained since the hurricane struck in late 2024.
The federal support will be directed toward reinforcing 207 sites across the county, spanning farms, businesses, residences, and public lands. Efforts will include reshaping slopes, clearing debris, and planting deep-rooted vegetation like rivercane to secure the fragile streambanks.
Jennifer Harrison, who oversees agriculture and land resources for Buncombe County, emphasized the challenges posed by the area’s mountainous geography. “One of the things that makes Buncombe County so awesome is our varied terrain,” Harrison told BPR. “Our mountainous regions, all of our rivers and streams – as beautiful as they are, they also pose some significant challenges when we get heavy weather events.”
She explained how the storm caused rainwater to cascade down slopes, overwhelming the waterways and resulting in significant erosion and landslides. “All of that water was flowing. All of our stormwater was taking all of the hardscape water and also pushing that into the same streams,” Harrison said, describing the stormwater runoff that poured into the French Broad River.
The Emergency Watershed Protection Program is not intended to completely restore natural ecosystems or address long-term flooding issues, but rather to focus on emergency measures that protect at-risk infrastructure. “Whether that’s a house or a bridge or maybe it’s a utility pole or fiber optic cable or sewer lines, we need to protect that infrastructure so that our community can continue to operate safely,” Harrison added.
Kevin Madsen, Buncombe County’s Helene Recovery Officer, views the grant as a pivotal step in the recovery process. “This is taking it to that next level and addressing additional sites, where, not only is there debris removal, but then, additionally, the need for doing that restoration of stream banks,” Madsen explained in a phone interview with BPR.
Despite the scope of the grant, Harrison noted that it addresses only a fraction of the damage, estimating the total cost of repairs at “hundreds of millions of dollars.” County staff conducted over 500 site assessments for grant applicants, but only 207 projects were approved under the program. “That kind of tells you a little bit more about the overall damage in the county that we’re facing,” she said.
The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners is anticipated to formally accept the grant at their upcoming meeting on Tuesday, June 2.
