This Old House

Kevin: Today we're back in western North Carolina, where it's all about rebuilding after Hurricane Helene.

And here in Swannanoa, it's all about prepping this bathroom wall for tile.

Richard: And in East Asheville, the plumbers and electricians are here.

We're turning the corner.

Zack: And I'm in North Asheville, helping the builder uncover how much damage there is in this house.

James: If you like demo, this is the place to be.

Woman: That's it.

Kevin: In late September 2024, meteorologists started issuing a warning there was a hurricane that was headed for the Florida Panhandle.

About 500 miles away, in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the residents of Asheville and Swannanoa heard the warnings and knew that the remnants would be headed their way like they usually do.

But this time the unthinkable happened.

Man: Here's the bridge near the convenience store.

Man #2: Looks like the bridge is still holding, but honestly, I can't tell.

Kevin: Creeks and streams swell to the rivers.

Rivers turned into tidal waves.

Man: These waves are about 8 to 10 feet high, so it's still coming up.

Kevin: Flooding to levels this area has never seen.

Man: God, this is crazy.

I'd say we're close to 20 feet over the regular height of the river, and that looks like it could get swept away.

Kevin: So why was Helene different?

For that, we turn to Weather Channel meteorologist Stephanie Abrams, who was here in the days following that record-breaking storm.

You were here days after the storm.

Abrams: Exactly right here.

This is what it looks like on a typical day.

One, two feet.

You can stand in it.

But when Helene came through, this river got over 27 feet.

Kevin: I mean, that's crazy, right?

That's up to roof lines and stuff like that.

Abrams: I mean, you're talking two stories high.

That's how high it was here.

And of course, taking out everything in its path.

And that broke the old record by over six feet that had been standing since 1916.

Kevin: That's crazy.

So put that in meteorological terms.

Like, what does that mean?

What type of storm is that?

Abrams: Okay, so that brought the rainfall we saw from not only Helene, but there was actually a rain event before that.

So we had the rain event, then we had Helene on top of that.

You saw four, five, six times the amount of rainfall you get in a typical month in just a matter of days.

So there were some areas here that had a thousand year rain event.

Kevin: Wow.

Abrams: And that doesn't mean that it's going to happen once every thousand years, it means that there's a .1% chance of that happening any given year.

Kevin: Yes.

But the point is a minuscule percentage chance that that's going to happen.

Abrams: Yeah.

And here's the thing, though.

With our warming climate, Helene went over record warm temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico.

It was still a tropical storm when it crossed over into North Carolina.

Kevin: So let's just talk about that.

We're 300 miles inland from the coast.

I didn't think that you'd get a hurricane and this type of damage in the mountains so far from the ocean.

Abrams: That happens a lot.

It can go all the way into the Midwest or even the remnants.

So you have to remember that these are not just coastal systems.

Whatever's left of them, whether it's a hurricane, tropical storm, or even the remnants, can cause a lot of damage.

Here in western North Carolina, you have the mountains, which makes things worse because you get the moisture coming in, and what the mountains do is they shove the air mass up, it cools and condenses and rains out even more.

Kevin: Oh, everything is being funneled down and it's rushing down.

Abrams: Very quickly, and it's filling up all the different tributaries, those that are going to fill up all the rivers.

And Asheville sits on the intersection of two rivers.

So it's not just one, it's two rivers that are swelling and coming into this area.

There was over 2,000 landslides.

You had mudslides.

Mount Mitchell, the highest peak here, gusted over 100.

So you have hurricane force gusts and you have weak soil with the trees are trying to grab on.

Tons of trees coming down, too, slicing through homes.

Kevin: The perfect storm.

Abrams: Unfortunately.

Kevin: So you've seen this before.

You've been everywhere.

You've followed all these storms.

You've been doing it for decades.

What are your thoughts on, you know, western North Carolina, Asheville?

Abrams: They're going to come back.

They're going to come back stronger.

They're going to come back better.

And I just can't wait to see the finished product.

Kevin: We love to hear that.

Thank you.

Welcome to Swannanoa, a town that is about 15 miles east of downtown Asheville, North Carolina.

Lots of damage, work is underway, and we're here to help.

Hey, there they are.

Chris, good to see you.

Chris: Good to see you.

Kevin: Good to see you.

Zack, welcome to North Carolina.

Zack: Hey, Kevin.

Kevin: Good to have an extra set of hands down here.

You guys are gonna like working with this guy.

Thoughts?

Have you had a chance to look around?

Zack: Yeah, I mean, just -- just driving in, it was amazing.

As soon as I got close to the water, it just -- it felt like the storm was yesterday with the amount of damage and vehicles overturned.

It's a little overwhelming, honestly.

My heart goes out to the amount of rebuilding you guys got to do, and hopefully I can just help a little bit while I'm here.

Kevin: Well, there's a lot to do in this neighborhood.

You've seen what's going on outside here.

Zack: Yeah.

Kevin: So, uh, you guys made some progress since we were here last?

Chris: Yeah, we're coming along.

We kind of changed some layouts on some of these houses.

Uh, got some framing in, and, uh, we're kind of trying to strike the balance of giving the clients kind of what they want in a new house, but trying to make it feel old still, even with the old layouts and stuff, so.

Kevin: And you've got to do that times three, because we've got three houses in progress.

Where do they each stand?

Nick: Yeah, Kevin, this one, we got all of our rough end trades finished up and we have electrical, plumbing, and the other two.

Kevin: Okay, so progress.

Although lots to do.

And like I said we've got extra hands so put us to work.

What can we do to help?

Chris: Cool, yeah, we'll start right back here straightening walls and getting things ready for the next stage.

Kevin: Okay.

Four of us or...?

Nick: Yeah.

No.

Zack and I will head over to another house and we'll start the porch ceiling.

Kevin: Divide and conquer.

Zack: Let's race you.

Come on, let's go.

Chris: All right, Kevin, so today's works in these two bathrooms here.

This is the primary bath.

This is secondary bath here.

Kevin: Okay.

Chris: Um, we're going to be kind of straightening some walls and replacing some stuff, but the general layout on this one is linen tower in the corner.

Then we'll have a vanity, and a toilet.

And then we've sized it all appropriate for a little bit larger tub, just for a little more soaking space.

And then over here it'll be kind of a similar just tub, toilet, cabinet as well.

Kevin: So you kind of back them up to each other.

The plumbing, right?

Chris: Mm-hmm, yep.

Kevin: All right.

Sounds good.

And our job today?

Chris: So today we're going to kind of be tackling these two walls here.

Uh, we want to pull some of the old stuff out -- it's just squirrely, it's not straight.

And with this be an exterior wall, and nine-foot ceilings, and being tiled, we want the new structure to be more stable than it is now.

Kevin: I'm game.

Uh, so we start with demo?

Chris: Let's do it.

Kevin: Okay.

So this is just temporary.

You want to take this out now?

Chris: Yeah, we'll go ahead and take this out, and then we'll start getting this first cripple out here.

And then we'll go ahead and take this old seal out.

All right, Kevin, I've got some temporary support for us.

We're gonna go ahead and stick this in here and kind of get a tight fit while we take these other kings out.

Kevin: So this is our new material?

Chris: Yeah, this is the new material.

It's really stable.

It's laminated.

It's kind of like an LVL.

They're straight as can be, strong as can be.

Kevin: Those will be our kings -- the vertical studs that run from the bottom plate to the top plate of the wall, placed on either side of the opening.

Chris: We'll go ahead and pop our header in.

Four and an eight.

Kevin: Now our jack studs, which are the shorter studs that support the header above the window.

Chris: So this is our last piece.

We're going to double up that sill just for some rigidity.

And this was actually tapered from inch and a half down to inch and a quarter.

Just so the water rolls off as we flash it.

Kevin: Okay.

So one down.

Should we get going on the next one?

Chris: We got one more to do.

Kevin: Let's do it.

Chris: Cool.

Nick: Yeah, Zack, all these homes are on crawl spaces.

And all the HVAC units were in the crawl spaces.

So what we did was we moved the HVAC units into the attic.

Zack: Okay, I see them up there.

Yeah.

Nick: Yeah, Zack.

The reason that we did that is because in a couple of years, we're going to have to raise these houses by about four feet because we're reestablishing the floodplain here in the county, and that takes time.

Zack: Oh, I gotcha.

So what's the plan for insulating this now?

Nick: We're going to use a spray foam insulation.

Spray foam needs a backer something to adhere to.

So we're going to extend this wall up.

Zack: Got it.

So you're basically making a spray foam hat on this house in the HVAC equipment is going to be inside that.

So it's going to be in a nice conditioned space rather than being in a really hot or cold attic.

Nick: That's right.

Zack: That's a good plan.

I like it.

So what do you need me to do?

Nick: We need to get some studs up and we need to get some OSB up there.

Zack: All right, let's do it.

Richard: I'm in East Asheville, and it was so idyllic here.

A series of beautiful houses nestled along the river.

There were six of them in a row right here.

And then that day came, and all of them are gone.

Six in a row disappeared.

But there was one house in this lower part of the neighborhood that survived, and that's Paulus.

And today we have contractor trucks, plumbers, and electricians.

That means we're turning the corner.

So, James, you're the general on this one.

It's your mission to bring this all together.

James: Yes, sir.

Richard: Thanks for your help.

James: Yeah.

Richard: So you tell me this was a modular building.

James: That's exactly right.

You know, one of the first signs is -- is that we have an interior OSB here.

Richard: Okay.

James: Which gave us a lot of shear strength against the river's force.

Richard: So the strength of the box has actually helped keep this building here.

James: That's exactly right.

Richard: And I'll tell you, Paula told me the story about her dining room table somewhere in here.

And it floated all the way to the ceiling and came right back down again.

James: Yeah, everything -- everything sort of floated down here.

And once the water receded, we were able to come in and have volunteers help us with getting the drywall and insulation and the subfloor removed so that we could let the house air out.

Richard: Right.

James: Dehumidify.

And just breathe a little bit.

Richard: That's so important.

So now we can reuse the OSB.

James: That's correct.

Richard: All right.

What about this new deck here?

James: New subfloor, that's correct.

Richard: Good.

And I see electricians are on site.

Hello there, I'm Richard.

Chester: Hey, I'm Chester.

Richard: Hi.

How are you?

Chester: Nice to meet you.

I'm great.

Richard: What are you working on?

Chester: We are replacing the electrical system on the first floor.

Richard: Just the first floor?

Chester: Just for the first floor.

Anything that got wet, submerged.

Richard: And there's no question with code.

Once this gets wet, we can't know, so it has to completely go away, right?

Chester: It was underwater, so we'll be replacing the whole panel.

Richard: And then you said the first floor wires have to go?

Chester: Yep.

So if you look right here you can see the Romex has a paper sheathing on it.

So if any moisture or water gets in there it wicks up the wiring and... Richard: And water and electricity definitely doesn't mix.

Chester: It does not mix.

Richard: Thanks to you and your guys for helping out.

Chester: Thank you.

Richard: All right, so the new kitchen window roughed in?

James: We do, Paula's going to have a great view of the river.

Richard: With the kitchen sink right here.

I see the plumbing.

James: Kitchen sink.

All new first floor plumbing.

Richard: I see the plumber's truck outside, so we must see who's this.

James: Yeah, we've got Larry here working in the-- Richard: Hey, Larry.

Larry: Hey, Richard.

Richard: I'm Richard.

Nice to meet you.

Larry: Nice to meet you.

Richard: I'm your brother from another mother.

[ Both laugh ] So take us through what you've done here.

Larry: Sure, we took this opportunity to change the layout of the primary bath.

We got a toilet here, a single vanity.

Richard: Okay.

Using PEX, I see.

Yeah.

Larry: Yeah.

And a nice new walk-in shower.

Richard: Love it.

What's -- What's this thing?

Larry: It's a digital shower valve.

Richard: We've used these before.

They're pretty cool.

It's an electronic device, you pick the temperature you want and which way you want it to come out of which showerhead, if you have two.

That's pretty cool.

Larry: Right, right.

Richard: So then this connects to this shower valve -- electronic valve right here.

It's a pretty cool unit.

Larry: Right.

Richard: So hot and cold come out right there.

Larry: Right, and then these go to different showerheads.

Richard: Ah, look at that.

Larry: That's the inner workings of everything.

Richard: So it goes to one shower head or the other.

That's great.

Larry: So I need to solder adapters on here.

So to do this safely-- Richard: You don't want to melt this plastic.

Larry: Right.

So I have to pull these out.

Richard: All right, so now with those soldered adapters, you can adapt to the PEX tubing which is great.

Larry: Right.

Richard: And where are you going to actually put this unit in the building?

Larry: So we're going to put this in the crawl space, so it's accessible in case it needs to be serviced.

Richard: For any future service.

That's a great idea.

Larry: Right.

Richard: All right, we're going to let you go back in that crawl space.

I'm not going to go down there, all right?

Larry: All right.

Thanks, Richard.

Richard: Thanks, my friend.

And thank you for your good work.

This is really something.

You know, you turning the corner here.

James: Thanks for having us.

Richard: Well, thank you for your help.

James: Thank you.

Kevin: Up in North Asheville, a family-run general contracting firm signed on to put Matt and Melinda's tree-damaged house back together again.

Hunter: Matt and Melinda contacted us, they couldn't get a contractor to come look at this home after Helene.

And typically, we're new-home builders, we don't do renovations, remodel.

We focus on energy-efficient green homes.

And so this is a little bit out of our realm.

But, you know, their story touched our hearts and we just felt like we had to come in and do what we can to help put these folks lives back together.

Zack: Wow, Hunter.

Tell me what the plan is in here.

Hunter: Yeah, Zack, so we had a tree fall from the storm right through the living room here.

Water just rushed in.

2 to 3 inches of rain right after that.

So we're just demoing the entire area.

Kind of just see what we're working with.

Zack: Right, basically, peel back all the layers so you can see what got wet, let it dry out, and figure out where to stop.

Hunter: Exactly.

And then we can go back and -- and put this back for the homeowner, you know, as it was before the storm.

Zack: Got it.

So where are we starting right now?

Hunter: So, uh, we're going to go over to, uh, our lead guy, James -- he's our project manager.

Zack: Nice to meet you, James.

James: Nice to meet you.

Hunter: He's going to put us to work.

James: Yes.

Yep.

There's a multitude of things to choose from, but if you like demo, this is the place to be today.

Zack: Let's do it.

I at least have demo skill set.

James: Great.

Zack: Let's get started.

By making these cuts, it's allowed us to pry it up very easily.

If we tried to do it without the cuts, the fact that they'd be all interwoven together, it would be very difficult to get them up.

This is my piece.

[ Laughs ] Gotcha.

Yep.

Hunter: Could possibly be salvageable.

They did take a lot of water.

So we're storing these right now so that they can be evaluated by both the homeowner and the insurance.

Zack: All right, looks like we made a bit of a -- bit of progress in here, James.

James: Yeah.

It's a great progress today.

So it won't be long, we'll be putting things back together.

Zack: I like it.

All right, let's wrap it up.

Kevin: Back in Swannanoa, it's been several months since that fateful day when water started coming up through the floorboards at Jim and Allie's house, and at the house of their neighbors, Stephanie and John.

Allie: Called 911 probably seven times.

They just told us to get to higher ground.

Stephanie: I also called 911, and then I finally got through and she was just overloaded.

And I said, you know, "We're getting flooded," she said, "Go into the attic," and I said, "Okay."

And she said, "Okay, that's all I can tell you to do."

So that was it.

We knew that there was no help to be had.

Kevin: The scene was very different just one street away.

Up a steep hill, new Swannanoa resident Rob, a restaurant cook, was still asleep from a shift the night before.

Rob: My wife woke me up and said, "There's a ton of water back behind us," and I hear, like, people screaming from the roofs.

And then I hear somebody shout -- it was on -- I think it was on this roof over here.

They were saying that they had a baby.

So I just kind of, you know, I got that big rush of adrenaline.

My neighbor, he has kayaks in his backyard.

Ran right over to his house, jumped his fence.

Kevin: That neighbor, whom he had never met, was John, an avid outdoorsman.

John: Yeah, I was just drinking coffee on the porch, thinking that it wasn't that bad.

And then all of a sudden, this guy jumps over my fence and grabs my kayak and starts taking off with it.

I panicked, and I grabbed my kayak and skirt and then my life jacket.

I think I grabbed a spare life jacket.

Kevin: It was then that Rob admitted he had never even sat in a kayak before.

John: I think I told him, "The current's coming this way.

Keep your edge up because if it hits your -- the edge of your boat, it'll flip you."

And then, uh... [chuckles] Yeah.

Um, I don't know.

And then I just kind of did a, you know, one of those.

I'm not Catholic.

[ Chuckles ] That's what I was thinking anyways.

And then I pushed off, and then we ended up down at the water, and my jaw just, like, dropped because I -- I just never dreamed the water would get up to the -- the gutters of the houses.

It was just a brown lake.

You can see the rooftops.

I heard people screaming.

Sirens and alarms going off everywhere.

And that's, uh -- Yeah, it was nuts.

Rob: I'd get closer to somebody and they say there's people in their attics that are stuck.

Man: We are punching our way out of the roof at this point in case the flood continues.

Rob: So I turned around, um, I'm telling -- I'm telling everyone I'm going to be back and, uh, turn around and go inside and I get a -- you know, I go into my shed and I get this maul.

I probably should have grabbed the axe, but I just started, uh -- just started hacking through the roofs.

Kevin: While Rob was chopping through a roof, John heard the screams of Jim and Allie next door.

Allie: And he just said, "I'm here to get you."

So he took us one by one.

John: I told her that, you know, "Can you hold on to the back of my boat and I'll paddle you to shore."

Allie: And he just said, "Kick for your life."

He had the life jacket that he put on us.

And he said, "If I go underwater or if I lose you, just keep kicking," and I said, "Okay."

Jim: Brought her to higher ground and then brought me.

Then he moved on to the next roof and got people off.

Kevin: Did you know John beforehand?

Allie: Did not know John.

And now I love John so much.

I owe John my life.

Kevin: Pauline surged on.

But so did John and Rob.

John: And I was like, man, the water was raging.

You had to dodge things that were floating, like sheds, washing machines, tires.

Kevin: Several houses down, Stephanie, John, and their two young boys, just two and seven years old, had escaped out a window and swam up to the roof.

Stephanie: When we did get out, as soon as we swam over and I got my -- he was out and I put my seven year old and said, "As soon as you get out, start screaming for help."

It was just like pure adrenaline at that point.

And I said, "Scream for help."

And he started screaming for help as soon as he got out the window.

Kevin: Both John and Rob heard the screams, each frantically racing towards the family.

Rob: I'm like, "Hand me the baby."

I tried to get the mom into the back kayak and it's hard to get in and out of them.

So she goes down and then my kayak starts going down and, like, my legs are in there.

This water is like -- you can smell the sewage in it.

You can see the oil, like, the sheen on top.

John: But we ended up getting that boat on the roof and they handed me a shivering little boy or baby -- about that big.

Stephanie: You just -- You don't let your mind go in any other way.

John: It felt like that was the thing to do.

That was the safest bet for them.

Stephanie: Yeah, he's gonna be fine.

John: He was cold, he didn't have -- he had almost no clothes on.

John: And I just sat him in there and he was a little trooper, though.

I mean, um, I remember his lips were kind of blue.

Um... Stephanie: I trusted them, you know, with them, and just had to just -- just give them.

And that's all I could do.

You know, I wasn't going to fight them.

Protect my child.

Kevin: John got the two year old in his kayak and paddled towards higher ground.

John: I just picked him up and handed him to someone on shore, and he was all shivering and -- Uh, felt good to get him to shore.

John: They don't want to hear it, but they saved our lives.

Stephanie: Yeah.

Allie: One by one, there's 16 people that John kayaked to safety that day.

And that Rob took them out of their attics.

And every single person survived.

John: I felt like Forrest Gump, I was just going.

[Chuckles] You know?

Um... There was one time I kind of broke down about started crying, but it wasn't because it was that scary.

It was just overwhelming.

It's really overwhelming.

Kevin: And today I got to witness a reunion months in the making.

John: You know, you may not think of yourself as a hero, but I believe that you are.

And, um, you know, our words may say thank you.

And I don't think we could really express how thankful we are.

Um, we can only hope to maybe pay it forward one day.

Um, it was a chaotic and hectic time, but you were, um, cool, calm, and collected.

And I think your training kicked in, even if you weren't conscious of that.

And, um, you know, you -- You saved our lives that day.

You really did.

John: I think we all saved our lives.

We all did it.

It was a group effort.

Kevin: Next time on "This Old House"... Zack is busy working on our North Asheville project.

Our East Asheville project also sits right on the Swannanoa River and had a ton of flooding right here.

So today's project is to work on the siding.

There are still hundreds of miles of public waterways that are littered with debris.

With a job this big, FEMA called in the Army Corps of Engineers to head up the cleanup.

That's next time.