YANCEY COUNTY, N.C. — In Yancey County, one of the areas in western North Carolina that was hit hardest by Hurricane Helene, many roads and bridges are still damaged, but the North Carolina Department of Transportation has been working to fix them quickly.
“It took out all of the embankment and part of the roadway as well as several bridges up to here,” said Chris Deyton, deputy division manager for the transportation agency.
Deyton says the department has been working to help restore roads in the area.
“We’ve been working for the past month trying to get access to everyone that lives and utilizes this roadway to try to get them in and out,” he said.
Forty to 60 crews from across the state have been working to restore roads and bridges. Not only is it hard work, but for some local transportation department employees — like Deyton — it’s work that doesn’t stop when the day is complete.
“We have a lot of people working that are not just trying to rebuild at work, but also trying to rebuild at home as well,” he said.
His agency has made progress since the first days after the storm. Deyton says the main goal now is to reopen roads so residents have access to surrounding communities and emergency services can come and go as needed.
The second goal is to enhance the safety of those roads, and the third is to create shoulders and finish paving.
With the days getting shorter and the weather getting colder, there’s no timeline on when that work will be complete.
“If we had weather like we’ve had the past month, we could ... have these roads in pretty good shape by Christmas,” Deyton said. “At some point that’s going to change and so it’s going to be hard to predict.”
He says that although there’s still plenty of work to be done, he’s proud of the progress that’s been made in one month.
“To place the amount of materials back and open up the number of roads and to get the number of temporary bridges installed that we have so far is just monumental,” he said.
Across western North Carolina, the transportation department says 1,004 roads have reopened and 302 remain closed. The agency also reports 140 bridges need to be replaced.