News

County leaders assure Hickory Nut Gorge they're committed to recovery

By Bill Moss, Published: February 25, 2025

BAT CAVE — For residents of Hickory Nut Gorge, the Psalms 46 scripture that preacher Nathan Sundt shared Monday night before he blessed the meeting with prayer must have seemed acutely on point:

God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,

though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling.

Here in Hickory Nut Gorge, Old Testament imagery became terrifyingly real last Sept. 27 when Helene’s rain and high wind made the earth give way and moved the mountains toward the sea, via the Rocky Broad River, Garren Creek and Reedy Patch Creek, whose waters roared and foamed.

On Monday evening Henderson County commissioners visited the land where the mountains trembled, one of the places that was Ground Zero of Helene’s destructive power, its steep and rugged terrain a particularly vulnerable target for the double-barreled shelling of torrential rain and brutal wind. Helene washed out roads and bridges and shoved homes, sheds and vehicles to the bottom of the gorge.

The task now is to rebuild and county leaders assured residents that they’re committed shoulder to shoulder to carry that recovery out.

“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.”

The one burst of applause Mitchell earned came when he 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. “We want to help but we want your help. You need to participate and tell us how you want to recover.”

On Feb. 18, when he announced the special meeting in Bat Cave, Lapsley shared with the board a common refrain he had heard in visits to the gorge.

“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?’” he said.

“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 — not so much.

“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.”

SUBHED

Postal service is ‘a bureaucratic maze’

Before the county commission meeting, 13 federal, state and local agencies converged in the basement fellowship hall of the church to offer assistance with everything from debris removal to mental health to septic tanks.

Particularly busy were the FEMA table and one hosted by Debris Tech, the consultant that guides the relief program that pays to remove downed trees and other debris from private property.

Also this week, the NCDOT hosted public meetings to provide information about two major highway rebuilding projects in Gerton, Bat Cave and Chimney Rock:

• Repairs of U.S. 74A in Gerton from Bearwallow Mountain Road to the U.S. 64/U.S. 74/N.C. 9 intersection in Bat Cave.
• Replacement of 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 and options for crossing the Rocky Broad River from U.S. 64/74A to Chimney Rock State Park.

Although Henderson County’s Helene response team has tried to respond to the concerns of the communities on the steep slope of the Eastern Continental Divide, commissioners are growing impatient with the glacial pace of bureaucracy.

“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 at last week’s county commission meeting highlighted two points of puzzlement 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 Edneyville post office can’t be driven to Bat Cave and set up for mail service.

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, an Edneyville native who serves as 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. Of the 12 Helene-caused fatalities in the county, two occurred in Bat Cave — both from landslides.
• 315 structures are considered damaged and 115 were destroyed.

Radcliff 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.