A week after Hurricane Helene overwhelmed the Southeastern U.S., homeowners hit the hardest are grappling with how they could possibly pay for the flood damage from one of the deadliest storms to hit the mainland in recent history.The Category 4 storm that first struck Florida’s Gulf Coast on September 26 has dumped trillions of gallons of water across several states, leaving a catastrophic trail of destruction that spans hundreds of miles inland.More than 200 people have died in what is now the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland U.S.
since Katrina, according to statistics from the National Hurricane Center.Western North Carolina and the Asheville area were hit especially hard, with flooding that wiped out buildings, roads, utilities and land in a way that nobody expected, let alone prepared for.Inland areas in parts of Georgia and Tennessee were also washed out.The Oak Forest neighborhood in south Asheville lives up to its name, with trees towering over 1960s era ranch-style houses on large lots.
But on Sept.27, as Helene’s remnants swept through western north Carolina, many of those trees came crashing down, sometimes landing on houses.Julianne Johnson said she was coming upstairs from the basement to help her 5-year-old son pick out clothes that day when her husband began to yell that a giant oak was falling diagonally across the yard.
The tree mostly missed the house, but still crumpled part of a metal porch and damaged the roof.Then, Johnson said, her basement flooded.
On Friday, there was a blue tarp being held on the roof with a brick.Sodden carpet that the family torn out lay on the side of the house, waiting to go to the landfill.
With no cell phone service or internet access, Johnson said she couldn't file a home insurance claim until four days after the storm.“It took me a while to make that call,” she said.“I don’t have an adjuster yet.”Roof and tree damage are likely to be covered by the average home insurance policy.
But Johnso...