News

Leaders assure Hickory Nut Gorge residents they're committed to recovery

By Bill Moss, Published: February 25, 2025

BAT CAVE — County leaders assured residents of Hickory Nut Gorge on Monday night that they’re working every day to boost recovery efforts in the area of the county hardest hit by Hurricane Helene.

“We do not control FEMA, we don’t control state agencies and we do not control how money flows out of the state and federal government,” County Manager John Mitchell told an audience of more than 120 who turned out for a special called meeting of the Board of Commissioners at Bat Cave Baptist Church. “But it is incumbent on us to advocate on your behalf for those resources. That money hasn’t made it to the county yet.”

The one burst of applause from the crowd in the pews at  came when Mitchell emphasized how hard he’s working to get the Bat Cave post office reopened.

“We’ve been working for quite some time to reopen the post office down here,” he said. “I want you to know we talk about it every single day. I’ve had three conversations today with our federal leaders. The only person I haven’t talked to is the president of the United States.”

Board Chair Bill Lapsley urged the residents to join the county’s effort for a Hickory Nut Gorge recovery plan.

“Y’all got the worst of it — no question about it, in our county,” he said of the powerful storm that washed out roads and bridges and caused numerous landslides that swept homes, vehicles and sheds into Reedy Patch Creek and the Rocky Broad River. “We want to help but we want your help. You need to participate and tell us how you want to recover.”

EARLIER COVERAGE:

In trips to Bat Cave and Gerton, the isolated communities in the Hickory Nut Gorge, Bill Lapsley has heard a common refrain.

“I continue to get comments when I’m  talking to people one-on-one (who say) Chimney Rock has got a lot of national attention. 'Where’s Henderson County? What are you doing?'” Lapsley, chair of the Henderson County Board of Commissioners, said at a meeting of the board on Feb. 17.

“We’re doing a lot but maybe we’re not being vocal enough. So I think this is an opportunity for us to reassure those residents — 4,600 residents out of 120,000 — that’s a lot of people and they deserve our attention. We want to let them know that by seeing us there, if nothing else, (they see) that we care and we’re doing all we can.”

Images of the picturesque village of Chimney Rock ricochet across the national television networks and on social media; Bat Cave and Gerton, equally hard hit by landslides and the wild flooding of the Rocky Broad River, don’t make the 6 o’clock news.

“I think the hype on Chimney Rock — not that it isn’t important, because it is — (happens) but it’s a tourist area and it naturally draws more attention from the media,” Commissioner Rebecca McCall said. “Bat Cave is a well-kept secret in some ways. I’m glad we’ve gotten to the point where we can do this. They’re not in the digging out mode. They’re in the looking-towards-the-future mode.”

Commissioners hope the looking-towards-the-future mode gets a substantive with numerous public events focused on Gerton-Bat Cave-Chimney Rock recovery and rebuild:

• Local, state and federal agencies will host the Upper Hickory Nut Gorge Disaster Resource Fair, at Bat Cave Baptist Church, 5095 Chimney Rock Road, from 1 to 6:30 p.m. Bat Cave and Gerton residents can get help on applications for assistance through FEMA or the SBA, learn more about hazard mitigation grants, apply for Private Property Debris Removal and get information from the Environmental Health and the Permit Office and from non-profits and free legal aid.
• County commissioners have called a special called meeting at 5:30 p.m. Monday, also at Bat Cave Baptist Church, , to assure people in an area hardest hit by Hurricane Helene that they're doing all that they can to help in the recovery, the county announced.
• NCDOT will host public meetings Tuesday and Wednesday to provide information about two major Hurricane Helene highway recovery projects in Gerton and Bat Cave/Chimney Rock. The first meeting, on repairs on U.S. 74A in Gerton from Bearwallow Mountain Road to the U.S. 64/U.S. 74/N.C. 9 intersection in Bat Cave, will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at Bat Cave Baptist Church. The second meeting, 5-7 p.m. on Wednesday, at Lake Lure Classical Academy, covers permanent repairs including replacing the U.S. 64 bridge and reconstruction of 2.6 miles of U.S. 64/74A from the U.S. 64 bridge to Terrace Drive. Officials will also present potential options and receive opinions for crossing the Rocky Broad River from the highway to the south side and Chimney Rock State Park.

Although Henderson County’s Helene response team has tried to respond to the concerns of the communities on the eastern side of the Continental Divide, commissioners are growing impatient with the glacial pace of bureaucracy. The Bat Cave post office, a beacon of community and identity in a rural outpost, is out of commission.

“The post office has been shut down for four months,” Lapsley said. “Mail is not delivered down there. They have to drive up Highway 64 to Dana post office to get their mail.”

The post office discussion highlighted two sources of frustration for Bat Cave folks. They question why they have to drive right past the much closer Edneyville post office to Dana to pick up their mail and why a mobile U.S. Postal Service truck sitting in the parking lot at the WNC Justice Academy can’t be towed to Bat Cave and set up for mail service.

County Manager John Mitchell’s explanation of the Dana v. Edneyville matter had to do with post office bureaucracy. As for the postal service trailer, “We have requested both in writing and verbally that that be delivered down there,” he said. “It’s not there today.”

Mitchell said he and his team have been in contact with the state’s two U.S. senators, U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards, Gov. Josh Stein, the postmaster and the owner of the building, which is leased to the government.

“At this moment I’ve been informed that it should be open within 30 days,” he said. “I don’t think that’s acceptable. We have requested a discussion with the decision-maker at the United States Postal Service.”

Mitchell called on Kye Laughter, a Western North Carolina aide for U.S. Sen. Ted Budd, to tell commissioners what the federal leaders are doing to help Gerton and Bat Cave.

“We are working this issue with our colleague in Sen. Tillis’s office,” Laughter said. “We are pushing the Postal Service to put that truck in Bat Cave or open it in Edneyville. I know it's a long commute from Bat Cave to Dana. But it is a bureaucratic maze. Our goal is to cut through that red tape and hopefully get the truck back open, at least as a temporary fix.”

A presentation from Planning Director Autumn Radcliff on a community plan for the recovery and rebuild in Hickory Nut Gorge included a snapshot of rescue efforts and hurricane damage:

• More than 100 residents were evacuated by helicopter when the gorge was inaccessible by road. If the 12 Helene-caused fatalities in the county, two occurred in Bat Cave — both from landslides.
• 315 structures are considered damaged and115 are destroyed.

Radclliff said the county would need to hire a consultant to help develop a Gerton-Bat Cave recovery-rebuild strategy because the plan needs to be finished quickly.