After Storm Helene, Struggles Grow in Black Appalachia Town, Junaluska, North Carolina

'After Tropical Storm Helene, struggles grow in Black Appalachia town of Junaluska,' USA Today, Nov. 24, 2024. This community of the descendants of enslaved people has proven resilient, but the storm that ravaged the region took a place trying to hang on and raised more challenges.
How will they survive? Ella Adams, Special to the Asheville Citizen Times USA TODAY Network
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Photo caption: Three sisters — Sheila Goins, Lisa Foster and Brenda Whittington — talked after Tropical Storm Helene about what might happen to their small Appalachian community of Junaluska, North Carolina. “We’ve made it through worse,” Goins said. “We’re just happy we’re alive.”
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BOONE, N.C. - Cross-stitched Bible verses decorate the wood-paneled living room walls in a small, historic piece of Black Appalachia — the Western North Carolina mountaintop community of “Junaluska.” Lisa Foster’s 16-year-old dog sleeps on the flannel blanket next to her. She strokes Lily’s head and glances at the TV in the corner. “The floods have devastated rural communities across Western North Carolina,” a newscaster says, gesturing behind her to a collapsed creek bank surging with floodwater.

The Goins sisters — Foster, Brenda Whittington and Sheila Goins — can trace their family roots in Junaluska back to 1832. The Junaluskans gathered in Foster’s home in the days following the storm and have worked together since then to map a future post-Helene. This community of the descendants of enslaved people has proven resilient, but the storm that ravaged the region took a place trying to hang on and raised more challenges. How will they survive and move forward?

‘I thought we were going to blow off this mountain.’ Junaluska Road weaves between homes on a mountainside that was rain-drenched by Helene, where fallen trees blocked the flooded street after the tropical storm hit. As Helene lifted on the afternoon of Sept. 27, there were no birds chirping, no cars driving and no dogs barking. The sun shone faintly through the breaking clouds as downed power lines lay strewn across the asphalt in front of the darkened homes.

One of Appalachia’s oldest historically Black communities, the nearly 200-year-old community is home to about 100 people. Many of the families have lived here for more than seven generations. A white house overlooking the clear blue mountains of the North Carolina High Country is the Goins sisters’ childhood home. All three were born and raised within its walls, along with their six other siblings...

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/11/24/tropical-storm-helene-black-appalachia-new-challenges/76547757007/