Two weeks after Helene, NCDOT is still working to connect the Bat Cave with the outside world

When Chelsea Atkins and her husband came down from the cabin where they took refuge during Hurricane Helene, they were shocked by what was left of their community.

The normally knee-high Rocky Broad River destroyed homes, businesses and the land they stood on. Their house was still standing, although the back deck was gone along with part of the wall closest to the river.

The roads in and out of the Bat Cave were blocked by landslides, landslides and downed trees. Just beyond the Bat Cave post office toward Chimney Rock, US 64 disappeared, its pavement washed away or covered in several feet of mud and debris. The bridge that carried the road over the river was still standing, but with a large opening on one side, where the water had washed away the earth and rockfill.

Atkins said they thought it would be months before anyone could get into the Bat Cave.

“I really didn’t think anyone would come after us,” she said Thursday, two weeks after the storm. “The fact that people are here and care is just amazing to me.”

Among the people in the Bat Cave are now contractors for the North Carolina Department of Transportation, which is working to fill the gap between the US 64 bridge and the riverbank. Restoring the bridge to use is the best hope NCDOT has for rebuilding U.S. 64 and other roads in the community, said Michael Patton, resident engineer on the project.

“This bridge is very, very vital to getting men, equipment, materials, supplies, electricity, you name it, back to Bat Cave and then to other areas beyond Bat Cave, including Chimney Rock,” said Patton, standing just a few steps away. meters from the site. gap that workers began to fill with earth and fine gravel.

US 64, where it passed in front of Caulder Realty & Land Co. in Bat Cave, North Carolina. The sidewalk is covered in several feet of mud and debris or, like most of the Caulder building, washed away by the Rocky Broad River to the right.

From Hendersonville, US 64 crosses the Eastern Continental Divide and follows Reedy Patch Creek toward Bat Cave and Chimney Rock. When the wind and rain stopped on September 27, the winding two-lane road was blocked by fallen trees and power poles, mud from landslides and places where the creek had destroyed the sidewalk.

From the cabin at the top of the hill, Atkins said he watched the Rocky Broad gradually overwhelm the buildings.

“We could see them falling. It sounded like a crack of thunder,” she said. “We saw our neighbor’s trailer. It was huge; I don’t know how many meters. And it looked like a child’s toy in a bathtub. He just swam away.”

Several homes and businesses in Bat Cave, North Carolina were swept away by the Rocky Broad River during Hurricane Helene. This was left standing.

First step: take your gear to the Rocky Broad Bridge

On Thursday, NCDOT engineers took reporters to US 64 at the Continental Divide to show what they had accomplished and how much work was still ahead.

The road along Reedy Patch Creek is passable again and was packed with tree crews from Alabama and utility contractors from Canada and Indiana. The landslides are clear and the washouts are full, although the guardrails hang like spaghetti where the creek has washed the shoulder.

The road is good enough to bring in the earthmoving equipment and dump trucks needed to repair the bridge, which is as far as the NCDOT vans could go. Ben Williams, an NCDOT maintenance engineer based in nearby Fletcher who drove one of them, said he cleaned it up after many storms in his 25 years with the department.

“I never dreamed of anything like this,” Williams said, walking past the destroyed buildings hanging over the river. “I can’t understand what I’m looking at.”

The concrete span over the Rocky Broad River was built in 1958. Helene’s deluge pressed trees, pieces of buildings and a shipping container, now crushed by the force of the water, against the steel pilings. Partially blocked by debris, raging water began rushing down the river banks at each end of the bridge, creating the gap that workers are now trying to fill.

A flattened container lies among the debris embedded in the pilings of the US 64 bridge over the Rocky Broad River in Bat Cave, North Carolina.

The bridge is slightly inclined downstream. At first, NCDOT wouldn’t let anyone go under it for fear of tipping over. Concrete poured around the piles helped stabilize them.

“We monitor it every day,” Patton said. “He’s found his happy place now.”

When NCDOT crews first arrived at Bat Cave, they discovered that residents had set up a rickety bridge across the river. Thinking they could do better, NCDOT engineers found four pieces of scaffolding and bolted them together, creating something stable enough to roll a wheelbarrow.

With the US 64 bridge complete, North Carolina Department of Transportation engineers used scaffolding to make a footbridge over the Rocky Broad River in Bat Cave, North Carolina.

As of Friday, NCDOT still listed more than 700 roads in western North Carolina as closed or partially closed because of Helene. NCDOT’s strategy has been to repair roads just enough to restore connections, especially to isolated communities like Bat Cave, and worry later about long-term reconstruction.

The bridge over the Rocky Broad River will need to be replaced. But Patton said contractors should be able to fill the gap and open it to truck traffic within a week or two, allowing crews to begin rebuilding roads and power lines in the valley.

“We’ve come this far,” he said. “Now we need to cross the river and we can do more.”

A home now hangs precariously over the Rocky Broad River, just above the US 64 bridge in Bat Cave, North Carolina.