This Old House - Season 47 Episode 01- Asheville Rebuilds
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00:00And wins to Western North Carolina.
00:02When the first tree hit, it shook the whole house.
00:06No one was prepared for what was about to happen.
00:09Is that a propane tank?
00:10Yeah, dude.
00:11That's scary.
00:12We were at the point that we were hanging out to the gutters.
00:15We heard our neighbors screaming for their lives.
00:18Houses on my street washed away like houseboats.
00:24I realized that I made a mistake.
00:26And I thought I'd put us all at risk.
00:31I wish I'd gotten us out of it.
00:45Hi there, I'm Kevin O'Connor.
00:47And welcome back to this old house and to season 47, where we start in Western North Carolina.
00:53Last fall, Hurricane Helene tore through these mountains.
00:56And communities like Asheville, Swannanoa, and many others experienced catastrophic winds and extreme flooding.
01:05So much so that some homes literally washed away.
01:09Over the next 11 episodes, we'll work with some families from these resilient towns as they rebuild their communities and their homes.
01:16Making them stronger than ever.
01:18Welcome to this old house, a Carolina comeback.
01:21September 24th, 2024.
01:26A hot, muggy day in Asheville, North Carolina.
01:30A band of thunderstorms worked their way through the mountains and valleys of Western Carolina.
01:34What most people didn't know is that the weather they were experiencing was connected to a much larger force over 1,000 miles away.
01:43By 11 a.m. that morning, a tropical cyclone, the ninth of the season, was off the Yucatan Peninsula.
01:50The National Hurricane Center saw a jump in wind speed and gave the storm a name.
01:55Helene.
01:56Asheville is known to get a lot of rain.
01:58We really didn't think much of it.
02:02As the storm plowed northward across the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the wind speed jumped.
02:08By early morning, it was a full-blown hurricane.
02:12Still hundreds of miles away, the governor of North Carolina declared a state of emergency.
02:18We knew the storm was coming our way.
02:20We were worried and a little bit scared, but, you know, weren't expecting too much damage.
02:26Back in the small town of Swannanoa, Jim and Allie lived in a quiet neighborhood of former factory housing built in the 1920s.
02:34Kind of prepped, got the house ready to stay at home and hunker down for a couple days.
02:40Paula lived several miles downstream from Allie and Jim.
02:44She lived close to the river, but felt no danger.
02:47I never really considered leaving.
02:51In the past, the storms hadn't really had flooding get that close to my home.
02:57A few miles up the road in North Asheville, Matt and Melinda had no worries about flooding.
03:02They and their two children lived on a mountain.
03:06My wife, who's always already very paranoid about the giant trees in our neighborhood, made us all sleep in the basement.
03:13So we set up the lights, and we had a movie, and our dog, Rosie, downstairs, and we were just trying to make it fun for the kids.
03:21All right, there's the heavy rain band.
03:23Thursday night was a rain event.
03:25By sunup, hopes were on the rise.
03:28I thought we had made it, and then the wind picked up like crazy.
03:31I would say the first tree probably fell on the house around 6.30 or 7.
03:38It made the whole house shake, and I decided to go check out upstairs and see what the damage was.
03:47So I went to my daughter's room, and this is where I saw a new decorative branch.
03:56So I was like, obviously, something terrible has happened.
03:59So I came back this way, and my child's playroom was up here.
04:06And that's when I opened this door, and pretty much everything's gone.
04:13Like, it's all open to the outside.
04:15How did the kids react to the whirling wind and then trees landing on the house?
04:20The kids were terrified.
04:21We were all pretty terrified.
04:26We had about six to seven trees hit the house.
04:30One which took the whole roof off of the right side of our home.
04:35So all the light fixtures, the electrical plugs and everything were just, water was shooting out everywhere.
04:42I started walking down the stairs, and that's when the other tree hit and took out this part of the house.
04:52This is when I realized, like, the house was going to be gone.
04:54So this is just a series of events, tree after tree after tree.
04:58And then was it after this tree that you guys decided to, we need to get out of here?
05:04We were trapped at this point.
05:08So we huddled in the basement.
05:10And I looked out the window, and I saw a large tree go cartwheeling by into my neighbor's house.
05:19And at that point, I realized that I made a mistake.
05:25And I thought I'd put us all at risk.
05:27What do you wish you had done?
05:32I wish I'd gotten us out of there.
05:34That realization came to you at that moment.
05:39And, you know, I didn't know that we were going to make it out of there.
05:44And that was a rude awakening.
05:50In Swannanoa, the flooding happened with shocking speed,
05:55turning familiar streets into rushing torrents in a matter of minutes.
06:00It looks like the bridge is still holding, but honestly, I can't tell.
06:04Jim and Allie realized that they, too, were trapped.
06:07Car stalled out in front of our driveway, so we couldn't even exit.
06:12And I was like, well, we're stuck.
06:16And we went back into the house,
06:17and then it started coming up through the floorboards and the floor vents.
06:22And at that point, I was like, if worse comes to worse, I'm going to get on the roof.
06:28And the only way that I know how to do that is keeping a door open.
06:33Furniture started floating and falling over.
06:36I told Allie, we have to get out and onto the front porch.
06:40How are you with this plan at that point?
06:42I mean, I just trusted him that he knew what to do.
06:45So I just got off the kitchen counter,
06:48and we noticed the foam blocks were in the front bedroom.
06:52And they were floating, and we grabbed them, and we went out the front door.
06:57And our dog, Piper, was in a backpack on my back, strapped onto me.
07:01And the water was about two feet when we exited.
07:04You, Jim, decided to leave the front door open, although you still had to fuss with the storm screen door.
07:11Yeah, I had to push that open with all my body weight.
07:14And when I got to the point where I knew that I kind of had the tread water and the dog was in the backpack,
07:21at that point, I put her onto one of those floating blocks that we had.
07:25Right.
07:26And within 15 minutes, we were holding onto the gutters.
07:29I mean, are you floating up to the gutters?
07:31Are you walking on the railing?
07:32Yeah.
07:33We held onto the banisters and kind of hold onto the poles until we were able to float to hold onto the gutters
07:41and traverse around the house to get to the back of it.
07:45Allie, when you're here, are you sort of just looking at the roof?
07:48Or as you look out, can you, are you looking around?
07:52On our street, it was a river.
07:54So we saw cars going by.
07:56We saw propane tanks.
07:58Is that a propane tank?
07:59Yeah, dude.
08:00That's scary.
08:03At the point that we were hanging onto the gutters, we heard our neighbors screaming for their lives.
08:08Just for help to get out and neighbors getting caught in attics.
08:14We are punching our way out of the roof at this point.
08:17In case the flood continues.
08:24So this idea of traversing, is that basically just hand over hand as you work your way around?
08:31Yep.
08:31And pulling the dog on the floaty mat?
08:35Yep.
08:35You make your way around sort of counterclockwise.
08:38You end up where?
08:40At the back corner of the house.
08:42And at that point, a shed came at us, separated us.
08:48I had a smurge underwater.
08:51But Allie was on this side of the house at that point.
08:54And then got her up onto that lower roof line.
08:59Am I looking at the mats?
09:00Yeah.
09:01Those are them?
09:01Those are the foam blocks.
09:02They're still up on the roof.
09:04Yeah.
09:04They have been there since the day of.
09:07Jim is the biggest hero.
09:09How so?
09:10He did everything for me that day.
09:15Dang it.
09:18I just love him so much.
09:21That's a good thing.
09:22I know.
09:25You tell him that?
09:26All the time.
09:27And I always say, thanks for opening the door.
09:32Because he, I don't know how he knew that.
09:36But he did.
09:37And he kept us safe.
09:41Oh, good for him.
09:44I'm sure you do plenty for him as well.
09:47Yeah, I do.
09:52In East Asheville, Paula was watching the event unfold on higher ground, along with her neighbors.
09:59The water rose in about 20 minutes from below that deck to beneath the windows.
10:10But when the water hit the bottom of the window, we were like, okay, we might not be high enough here.
10:16That's right.
10:17So we had to climb up through the woods.
10:18So when you decided to go to high ground, what was your route?
10:20Well, I had a dog under my arm.
10:23A giant suitcase.
10:24You had a suitcase, yeah.
10:24A suitcase.
10:25And we pretty much climbed up right through this wall right here.
10:29And my friend that was with me hoisted my suitcase and all of their crap.
10:33And a crock pot with meatloaf in it.
10:35Really?
10:36And we went up the hill.
10:38We turned around to just watch the water.
10:44And that's when we saw the first house float by.
10:49And the water was so strong that it actually twirled the house.
10:56And it floated down the river.
10:59And it hit some trees.
11:01The sound is what got me the most.
11:09Like if you crumple up a water bottle.
11:11Yeah.
11:11Like that crunch, crunch.
11:12Crunch noise.
11:13Yeah.
11:13That's the sound.
11:14And that sound kind of triggers me.
11:20Eleven houses on my street washed away.
11:23Like houseboats.
11:24They just washed away down the river.
11:27By now, local 911 operators were so overwhelmed, calls were being diverted to dispatchers hundreds of miles away.
11:42Back in Swannanoa, Jim and Allie made it to a neighbor's roof and waited for help.
11:47Eventually, their salvation came from an unexpected source.
11:52A neighbor with a kayak who was making rescue runs throughout the flooded neighborhood.
11:56I panicked and I grabbed my kayak and skirt and then my life jacket.
12:01And then we ended up down at the water and my jaw just like dropped.
12:04I just never dreamed the water would get up to the gutters of the houses.
12:09It was just brown lake.
12:12You could see the rooftops.
12:14I heard people screaming.
12:16And then all of a sudden, here he comes.
12:19And he just said, I'm here to get you.
12:21So he took us one by one.
12:23He took the dog first.
12:25And then he took me.
12:27I held on to the back of his kayak.
12:29Went in the water again.
12:31And he just said, kick for your life.
12:33So then he just took us to higher ground.
12:37And that's when we saw Piper, our dog.
12:40And then we both just started crying.
12:42Heroes were everywhere that day, including in North Asheville.
12:46My neighbor, Tony, was banging on the windows.
12:50And we opened the garage.
12:52And he was like, we need to get, everybody needs to get out of here.
12:55My neighbor is a good friend.
12:57And to put himself at risk like that.
13:03It was amazing.
13:04So, yeah, we grabbed our family and we took off running with them.
13:11We were thankful that he was able to, you know, check on us and direct us to where a safe
13:16area was because we weren't aware of what our next step would be at that point until we
13:22heard his voice.
13:24We were in shock.
13:25You know, we didn't.
13:27I called a friend of mine because the phones went down intermittently.
13:31And we made it to a fire station.
13:34And I called a friend of mine that lived out of town.
13:37And I was like, call my mom.
13:47And, you know, just tell her we're okay.
13:51Not everyone was able to make it to safety.
13:54We had one neighbor that refused to leave.
13:56The next we heard he had gotten onto his roof with his dog and somebody had seen him float
14:02by.
14:04I don't know.
14:04They found his body two days later.
14:07Paula is one of the lucky ones.
14:10Not only did she survive, her house is one of the only ones still standing in her neighborhood.
14:16So why do you think this house survived?
14:18My house is the newest house in probably the whole development.
14:22It was built in 2001.
14:23It was built by an architect who was dabbling with whether or not manufactured homes could
14:29be kind of affordable housing.
14:30Oh, sure.
14:31Yeah.
14:31So four parts of it are manufactured and then there's stick built around it.
14:35All built, all bolted together?
14:37Bolted together and bolted to the foundation.
14:39Really?
14:40And I'm pretty sure that's why it didn't move.
14:43This was absolutely a geological event.
14:45The Army Corps of Engineers says the river moved nine feet away from me.
14:49So therefore, I'm no longer in a floodplain.
14:53The scale of destruction was overwhelming.
14:56As the immediate shock began to wear off, families faced an impossible question.
15:02Should they rebuild?
15:04I have to rebuild.
15:05I have to hope the real estate rebounds.
15:07I absolutely did consider not going back.
15:10You know, as much as I love my neighbors and what they did for us, going back there is
15:17definitely a choice and it's a hard choice.
15:20I always felt like that we would rebuild.
15:23Even with the ceiling open when I'm in there, I just want to be home in my house.
15:29We're three months post-storm right now and we're trying to, you know, get the ball rolling
15:37on a lot of that stuff.
15:40As our North Asheville and East Asheville homeowners make plans with their builders in Swannanoa,
15:47Jim and Allie made their decision quickly and are already underway.
15:51I really didn't have much of another option.
15:54There is no way to get out of my mortgage, you know, the financing that I had on the HVAC
16:02system that we just installed.
16:05We'd have to figure out something else.
16:08There's no way that I could afford another mortgage or rent at the same time.
16:14We're rebuilding our house.
16:16Why?
16:16Because we love it and we want to go back.
16:19I mean, I want Swannanoa to come back bigger and better than ever.
16:24And so the cleanup and demolition has started.
16:28Your minds have shifted to the rebuilds.
16:30Yep.
16:30Yep.
16:31It's started already.
16:32Confident that you can get it done and it's the right decision?
16:35Yes.
16:35Absolutely.
16:36Very much so.
16:37Good.
16:37Well, we'll follow along.
16:38We'll help you out with that.
16:41Their neighbors, Kat and Jeremy, are signing on with the same builder as Allie and Jim.
16:46That's actually another factor as to why we decided to stay, that people are going to rebuild
16:54maybe even more than before.
16:57I think quite a bit of people are going to be moving back.
17:01I think the homeowners have really come together and, you know, we have frequent meetings and
17:07talk about kind of different issues.
17:10And it's been really a terrible and nice way to get to know our neighbors.
17:16I think we know them better than we ever have before, for sure.
17:20And so is their neighbor, Maya, whose family has been on this street for generations.
17:26I remember my grandfather, there was a couch always up against this wall and he took so
17:32many naps here.
17:33Like this was his napping area.
17:34For her, rebuilding meant honoring the past while creating something new.
17:39A new safe place.
17:41And I think I'm going to incorporate, you know, my grandparents as much as possible.
17:47And I think, yeah, it will be a safe place again.
17:50Hey, Tommy.
18:00Hey, Kevin.
18:00How are you?
18:01All right.
18:01So interesting story with this whole little village.
18:03I mean, worker housing, so modest, all for rent.
18:06But everyone I've talked to who lives here, they're like, we can't believe how well our
18:10homes are built.
18:10And they can't believe they're still here after the flood.
18:12Yeah, I'm surprised that they're all here too.
18:15I mean, the raging water coming down here.
18:17I mean, lots of times it takes these houses and it pushes them off of the foundation.
18:21Yeah.
18:22And I thought of like, why didn't they all get pushed off the foundation?
18:25The first thing I noticed was this concrete slab.
18:27All of these houses have porches with a poured concrete foundation, which was rare back in
18:32the 20s.
18:33Probably done, you know, all by hand.
18:35But it's a lot of weight that's fastened to the foundation and to the structure.
18:40So any water coming down, you just pushed away.
18:43Right.
18:43So this is a slab here.
18:45We've got a little crawl space, a little foundation all the way around.
18:48Is it tied to that little foundation?
18:50It's setting on it.
18:51They didn't really do ties.
18:53They basically set it on the foundation and mortared it into place.
18:56Right.
18:56So that seal broke over time.
18:58But it also has a novelty siding, which is a six inch siding that's shiplap.
19:02But if you look at right here, look at the siding that's all nailed and it's all nailed
19:07on every board.
19:08So the nails are like six inches apart and they're three quarters of an inch thick.
19:12All right.
19:12And these are cut nails.
19:14Wow.
19:14So the water pushing against the foundation can't break the wall.
19:19So it falls over.
19:20And it's really a well-built wall.
19:24So in this case, the siding, thick, nailed a lot.
19:27It's also the sheathing, right?
19:28This is siding right?
19:30Yeah.
19:30It's on it.
19:30Yeah.
19:31Yeah.
19:31And the shiplap, there's a shiplap right here.
19:33So you have the scoop piece that comes up and the shiplap or the half lap right here
19:38goes on top, keeping the rain from running into the building.
19:42But I think they built the house really well.
19:44I mean, this is two by four construction, but look, they've got diagonal bracing in all the
19:49corners.
19:50So you've got a diagonal brace that runs to a post down to the sill.
19:54And on this other side, you've got another diagonal brace that runs from this corner down
20:00to the sill.
20:01And they both are in a V direction like this.
20:04What that does is it basically keeps the wall movement and lessens it on a windy day.
20:10In this case, it's basically you've got the water pushing against it along with the thick
20:14siding and all the nails.
20:15So you've got a diagonal brace in this corner that goes this way, one that way, one here,
20:20down here, the other one the other way.
20:22All of that is to help the movement of the building and keep it tighter longer.
20:26But what held it in place, I noticed all of these houses have chimneys that go up through
20:31here.
20:31Well, there was a big chimney that went up through here and there was a big fireplace on
20:36this side.
20:38The chimney got narrower, but it was still weight.
20:40And another big fireplace on that side.
20:43Same thing on that side of the house.
20:44Four fireplaces in this house is kind of remarkable.
20:47It is.
20:47And think of the weight of the brick.
20:49So you probably go like 3,000 pounds in each chimney right here, pushing down into the
20:54ground.
20:55So the water going against it along with the slab, the diagonal bracing, it's not going
21:00to get pushed off of the foundation.
21:02So worker housing built in the 1920s, but despite that, according to you, well built?
21:08I think it's very well built.
21:09And homeowners, pretty much everyone we would talk to wants to come back and rebuild.
21:13You don't think that decision's crazy?
21:15I don't think it's crazy at all.
21:17I love houses like this.
21:18This is great for one floor living.
21:20Yeah.
21:21Three bedrooms.
21:22It's great.
21:23All three of these former mill houses are being renovated by one builder.
21:28I'm sure Jim and Ali are going to be pleased here getting your stamp of approval on the houses.
21:32I hope.
21:33Hey, Chris, Nick, good to see you guys.
21:35Yeah, good to see y'all.
21:35Good to see you.
21:36So we've spoken to everyone and they all want to come back and rebuild.
21:39And I hear you guys have signed on for the task to help us with a few houses.
21:42Yeah, it's going to be a wild ride, but I ran into Jim and Ali early and we're all kind
21:48of from and around the area, so we just kind of knew this is where we were going to start
21:51rebuilding.
21:52This is the place.
21:53Yeah, that's right.
21:54This is our hometown.
21:55This is where we want to be.
21:56Good.
21:56Well, we're glad you're on board.
21:58And Richard, Jen, you guys saw some stuff too.
22:00Yeah, you know, I don't think you realize the devastation until you see it up close.
22:04It's just amazing.
22:05This whole place is just crazy.
22:07I know, and everybody is coming together to help each other, so it's an incredible
22:11community here and I'm looking forward to working on it with you guys.
22:14Yeah, and everybody, including your folks, want to rebuild as well.
22:17Absolutely.
22:17So we'll be working in all those locations, which means next time, work begins.
22:22So on behalf of all of us, I'm Kevin O'Connor signing off for This Old House here in Western
22:27North Carolina.
22:28Welcome aboard, fellas.
22:29Thanks a lot.
22:30We're going to need your help.
22:36Next time on This Old House, we're back in Western North Carolina where it's all about
22:40rebuilding after Hurricane Helene.
22:43And here in Swannanoa, it's all about prepping this bathroom wall for tile.
22:48And in East Asheville, the plumbers and electricians are here.
22:51We're turning the corner.
22:52It's a pretty cool unit.
22:54And I'm in North Asheville helping the builder uncover how much damage there is in this house.
22:58So if you like Demo, this is the place to be.
23:04That's next time.
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