After Hurricane Helene, North Carolina's holiday tourist season grinds to a halt

Typically, the winter months draw millions of visitors to the Blue Ridge Mountains, inviting hiking trails and live music venues. But all that is over for now.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Air Force veteran Nathan Garrison watched from a hotel parking lot as loader trucks removed chunks of rubble from a blocked road that once led to his home.

The trucks scooped up cement and dirt and tossed it into their waiting beds in a scene that would be played out for hours, days, even years.

“I lost everything,” said Garrison, 75, flicking Marlboro ashes from his scraggly white beard. “All my stuff went in the trash.”

More than two months after Hurricane Helene displaced tens of thousands of residents in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina, the federal government's $500 million cleanup effort appeared to be making nary a dent.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/hurricane-helene-north-carolina-holiday-tourism-rcna183025

---