Credit: WCNC Charlotte
HENDERSONVILLE, N.C. — For months after Hurricane Helene, some families in western North Carolina had no clean water. It’s a crisis that added to the already overwhelming recovery from flooding and landslides.
Katie Zaremba and her family moved to Hendersonville in 2022, drawn to the hiking and outdoor lifestyle near Chimney Rock. But last year, their property was devastated when Helene triggered two landslides. A tree tore through their home, their shed was crushed against their deck and their well, their only source of water, was destroyed.
“I kind of anticipated we would lose power but didn’t anticipate what actually happened,” Zaremba said. “We had a tree go through the back of the house … pretty much all of the debris and mud was against the house.”
The storm also ripped the wellhead completely off, flooding the system with stormwater and debris. For about seven months, Zaremba, her husband and their toddler had no drinkable water.
“It was really stressful not having clean water in the house,” she said. “Everything we were depending on was bottled water. We were buying it for a while, then we found a volunteer group we were getting it from, and then from a distribution center.”
Katie Zaremba’s family went months without drinking water after Helene landslides destroyed their well. Zaremba estimates the family faced $40,000 to $50,000 in damage.
Across western North Carolina, thousands of families shared a similar struggle. The Water Well Trust, a nonprofit that provides safe drinking water to rural households, stepped in to help.
“We learned that there were at least 10,000 private wells impacted by Helene,” Margaret Martens, executive director of the Water Well Trust, said. “That is 10,000 households that lost their water during the flooding and the landslides.”
The group has funded repairs and new wells for more than a dozen families, as well as for fire departments and churches that served as emergency hubs after the storm.
“They were giving out food and supplies and everything else, but they didn’t have water,” Martens said. “This now ensured that people could come and fill up their tanks. And have access.”
For Zaremba, the restored well has been life-changing.
“It was a huge blessing given the costs we were already facing after the storm,” she said.
Martens said the work is ongoing, with more families still waiting for help nearly a year later.
“When you are able to give people back a water resource, or for the first time even give them a reliable water resource, it is absolutely life changing for them,” she said.
As the anniversary of Helene approaches, Zaremba said recovery has been both painful and humbling.
“It’s kind of a bittersweet moment that we are coming on a year and people are doing better,” she said. “But it is an interesting anniversary to reflect on.”
