By Carly Walton

It has been more than a year since Western North Carolina was devastated by Hurricane Helene in September 2024. College campuses from Appalachian State University to Warren Wilson College experienced some of the worst damage, flooding and were closed for months. Mars Hill University, Brevard College and UNC Asheville were also affected as they experienced flooding and power outages. In campuses like Warren Wilson, students had stepped up to help clear away debris and make sure they were able to get their campus back to its original self. In an article coming from Appalachian State University, the dining hall had meal prepped just nearly 40,000 meals for the students who were on campus. Most of the campuses were bringing students back to start classes in early November.

Western North Carolina faced unprecedented devastation in the small mountain towns like Blowing Rock and Banner Elk as Interstate 40 was shut down due to massive mudslides going down the mountain, completely taking away the road. Some areas were open by October 2024 but there are still parts of Western North Carolina that are closed to the public, which include parts of the Blue Ridge Parkway and other smaller mountain areas. Parts of Interstate 40 are still under construction, with one lane going in each direction.

This year’s hurricane season was one where some could not wrap their heads around.  According to the National Hurricane Center, there were 13 different named hurricanes that were projected to hit the U.S. mainland, but when looking at the map and data, seven of the thirteen hurricanes downgraded to tropical storms, while any of the major hurricanes that were projected to make landfall all turned away. This meant that, for the first time since 2015, no hurricane made U.S. landfall. The National Weather Service shows that the winter season was unusually cold with a heavy snowfall. However, the summer months of 2015 held record-breaking temperatures. With this information, there could be a strong chance that we see some snow this winter, or how this hurricane season went will not have any effect on this upcoming winter whatsoever.