Heavy rain fell across parts of western North Carlina on Thursday for the first time since the devastating flooding event from Hurricane Helene and many continue to rebuild their homes.

Three rivers that swelled to deadly levels during Hurricane Helene on Sept. 27 – the French Broad, Nolichucky and Pigeon – start in North Carolina and empty into Douglas Lake. They transformed the waters of the popular recreation and fishing destination to brown muck and left a one-square-mile island of wreckage after the historic floods.

Officials with the North Carolina Department of Transportation estimate that a portion of I-40 in the Pigeon River Gorge will be open to traffic by the start of the new year.

One of my favorite Christmas stories as a child was The Year of The Perfect Christmas Tree by Gloria Houston. An Asheville, North Carolina, native, Houston published the Southern Christmas tale in the mid 1990s;

The benefit concert put on by the North Carolina Folk Festival at the Steven Tanger Center on Nov. 7 raised over $40,000 for Hurricane Helene relief, according to a press release sent out Tuesday. The event featured performances from western North Carolina-based bands Steep Canyon Rangers and the Holler Choir.