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Hurricane Helene was the deadliest storm to hit the U.S. mainland in two decades. In western North Carolina, those who survived the devastating flooding are now struggling with the demands of rebuilding and with their mental health. NPR's Katia Riddle reports from Asheville.
KATIA RIDDLE, BYLINE: People have a deep affection for the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. They make their homes and the nooks and crannies, the coves and hollers of these hills that have names like Black Mountain and Chimney Rock. Ann DuPre Rogers' family has lived here for generations. She describes Helene's injury to the land as a kind of personal assault.
ANN DUPRE ROGERS: My first feeling was, this wasn't a flood. We've been bombed. It felt like it was so violent, like, giant trees upside down, and the destruction didn't feel like something water could do. It felt like bombs had been dropped.
RIDDLE: Rogers is a therapist. She's treated hundreds of people since the storm. She says, many people are not just grieving for the land. They're missing the trust they had in it.
ROGERS: Yeah, they kind of - people who experienced landslides, mudslides, either who were in them or witnessed them - that kind of shakiness - like, the ground beneath me is not as sturdy feeling anymore. And that's really - kind of can throw your nervous system out of balance, right?
RIDDLE: Rogers has been hosting community listening circles, helping people learn how to tame their nervous systems and deal with this trauma. Other people are still in the thick of it, like Maria Paez. She and her husband and two kids got trapped in a neighbor's house the night the storm hit. Talking about it brings her right back there.
MARIA PAEZ: And then we're going to - very fast to my neighbor house. And then we stay there. And then, like, very fast, like, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, like, the water - mucha agua. (Crying) Mucha agua. Mucha, mucha. It don't stop, right?
RIDDLE: Paez lives in Swannanoa, a half-hour outside Asheville. It's a working-class town. It was inundated by Helene. Entire houses have been flattened here. She's standing on this day in what used to be her house. Now it's stripped to the studs. She remembers her 17-year-old son promising her that night they would not die.
PAEZ: Because he looking - he say, we're not die, Mama. We're not die. Don't worries.
RIDDLE: The Paez family is now staying with a friend indefinitely. It's unclear when or if their house will be livable again. Tracy Hayes works for the state of North Carolina.
TRACY HAYES: It's very hard for people to get better and to improve their mental health if they don't have a safe place to live.
RIDDLE: The state has budgeted $25 million in mental health crisis services here in the coming months. Officials like Hayes say it's displaced people like Maria Paez and her family that will be the hardest to reach with this investment and that rebuilding along small waterways and in the floodplains of these mountains is not a sustainable solution. Housing was already in short supply here. A recent report from the governor's office estimates that more than 70,000 homes were damaged in the flooding.
ROGERS: Apartment complexes have been declared uninhabitable. People are living in tents or living with friends and family members, which we know can also impact mental health.
RIDDLE: Another group who needs mental health services - children. The North Carolina public schools are investing millions in mental health crisis supports, but it will take time to get those services in place. Diego Hernandez is 7 years old. Since the storm, he's become a weather expert. He can now explain the difference between a tornado and a hurricane.
DIEGO HERNANDEZ: Tornadoes don't come water. But only the hurricanes - they're - they come with water.
RIDDLE: Diego and his family are putting up a Christmas tree in their house on this day. He has two younger siblings.
MARYBELLE HERNANDEZ: Si.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Baba (ph).
HERNANDEZ: (Laughter).
RIDDLE: When the storm hit, they got trapped in the mobile home where they live. One-hundred-foot trees snapped down all around them. One crushed their car. Diego's mom, Marybelle Hernandez, says, since then, he's been terrified of rain and wind. A few nights previous to this one, there had been a storm. Diego begged his mom to take him to a hotel or a taller house, he said, some place where he couldn't see tall trees or big windows.
HERNANDEZ: He's crying a lot. He don't want to stay in the house.
RIDDLE: Are you worried about him?
HERNANDEZ: Yes. (Crying) Yes. Only for him, I'm sad. I want to help him.
RIDDLE: Help him learn to trust again in the stability of this land and the trees because right now, 7-year-old Diego keeps telling his mom, this place is too scary. Katia Riddle, NPR News, Swannanoa, North Carolina. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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