Award-winning author writes about the devastation to her hometown
Excerpt from THE WASHINGTON POST: MAY 22, 2025
Environment
Rose Senehi, 86, sits by the Rocky Broad River each day to survey the destruction that remains in Chimney Rock, N.C., and to watch the town's resurrection. (Juan Diego Reyes/For The Washington Post)
By Brady Dennis
CHIMNEY ROCK, N.C. — Several times each day, Rose Senehi makes the short walk from the house where she has lived for two decades to sit in a worn rocking chair along the banks of the Rocky Broad River. The scene before her on a recent evening would have been unimaginable before last September, when Hurricane Helene’s floodwaters all but wiped out this beloved mountain village.
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On the morning of Friday, September 27, 2024, the Rocky Broad River, grown massive by two days of rain and the historic force of Hurricane Helene, plowed through North Carolina’s Chimney Rock Village. It tore away most of downtown, a swath of houses, and a woman from her home. This is the story of the effect this disaster had on the community of 140 and the heartfelt response from every arm of government, charities, churches, businesses, and its victims to get the beloved mountain village of Chimney Rock, NC, back on its feet in the breathtaking span of one year.
