CHIMNEY ROCK, N.C. – Rose Senehi made her way along the gravel path to a spot where three wicker rocking chairs perched on a jagged bluff above the Rocky Broad River.

The 87-year-old author has spent more than two decades living in this folksy village, penning novels set in the rugged foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. But the landscape that greeted her this afternoon seemed as alien as it was familiar.

“There used to be a house here,” she said, pointing at an empty space along the bluff’s edge. “The front door was right over there.”

The home and its contents vanished in a torrent of muddy water that raged through the village on Sept. 27, 2024, as Hurricane Helene carved a path of destruction through western North Carolina.

Helene killed more than 100 people in the Tarheel Sta

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