The rain, floods and mudslides may have received much of the attention from Hurricane Helene, but there were still powerful winds from the devastating storm across western North Carolina. A large portion of the North Carolina mountains saw wind gusts of at least 70 mph from Hurricane Helene on

Three rivers that swelled to deadly levels during Hurricane Helene on Sept. 27 – the French Broad, Nolichucky and Pigeon – start in North Carolina and empty into Douglas Lake. They transformed the waters of the popular recreation and fishing destination to brown muck and left a one-square-mile island of wreckage after the historic floods.