Couple went 4 months without power after Helene

YANCEY COUNTY, N.C. — A western North Carolina couple who didn’t have road access for weeks after Hurricane Helene also spent nearly four months without power.

Diane and Bill Merz live on U.S. 19W in Yancey County, less than 10 miles from the Tennessee state line.

What You Need To Know

Bill and Diane Merz moved to Yancey County near the Tennessee border 25 years ago for the picturesque views

Their area, like much of western North Carolina, was hit hard by Hurricane Helene in late September

The Merzes lost electricity for months after the destructive storm

Although power has been restored, damage to their property still needs to be repaired

The picturesque landscape is one of the reasons they moved to this area 25 years ago.

Over the years, Diane Merz has captured pictures and videos from her deck overlooking the Cane River.

“I loved photographing the birds that would come: the eagle and the osprey and the heron in the river,” she said.

Being on higher ground also gave them a front row seat to Helene in late September.

“This was at the beginning of it, there were trees there by the end of the storm, we had no trees there. One tree is left,” Diane Merz said as she pointed to a video she took.

The couple in their 70s welcomed their neighbors, a family of six, from across the river to wait out the storm. Back then, there was a concern their private bridge would be lost.

“It was raining on and off and we spent time on the deck watching the river come up,” she said.

Diane Merz said not only their swinging bridge and concrete bridge were lost, but they also watched their 1,800-square-foot log home lift off its foundation and float down the river along with their pickup truck.

“It was an unreal situation, and one that I hope I never have to see again,” she said. “It was an unreal situation, and one that I hope I never have to see again,” she said.

The moment is still engrained in Bill Merz’s memory.

“The kids were crying. It was really sad. It almost made me cry,” he said. “I get a little upset thinking about it because the kids, they knew everything they owned was gone.”

The unreal moments didn’t stop there. They saw a shipping container and caskets Diane Merz said came from a cemetery nearby get swept down the river.

Once the storm passed, it didn’t get any easier.

The lost power and communications.

The couple said the supporting bank their house sits on washed away and they had a landslide adjacent to their home.

In addition, parts of U.S. 19W and their driveway washed away.

Volunteers played a vital role after the storm, bringing them food and supplies. One group walked over a mile and carried a generator up a steep incline.

“We could not have stayed in this house without them,” Diane Merz said.

Bill Merz cut a path through a wooded area behind their home to access a drivable road on an off-road vehicle.

“Where the driveway is, there was no way out. The river was there, and it washed the driveway out so even when the river went down, there was no way out of it. It was a 10-foot drop,” Bill Merz said.

This helped him access a nearby supply station and get closer to town.

At the supply station, he got gasoline for the generator.

“I went through probably 30 gallons a day of gas. If I could get it here, it was great. If I couldn’t, it would cost you $70-$80 a day to get gas,” Bill Merz said.

They ran the generator during the day to keep the fridge cold, have hot water and internet. At night, they turned off the generator and relied on rechargeable lights and flashlights until the morning.

The generator wasn’t strong enough to run their furnace, so they had to find other ways for colder days.

“The only heat we had was the wood stove in our fireplace, and we could not run our electric stove or our dryer or any big appliances, so we were back to basics,” Diane Merz said.

She tended to the fire, cooking and other chores around the home, while Bill Merz did the heavy lifting outside. He was due for a shoulder and knee replacement surgery when Helene struck, and he had to postpone the procedures.

“It’s hard to get up at 6:30 or 7 in the morning and go out and fill the generators and run for gas and all the things my husband had to do,” Diane Merz said.

Once construction progress was made on the state-maintained highway in front of their home, crews from French Broad Electric put in poles and restored power one day shy of four months.

“We were very happy,” Diane Merz said.