Yancey County is one of the last school systems in western North Carolina to get its schools back open. Students in the rural district northeast of Asheville have not been to class since Sept. 25. Teachers and staff at Burnsville Elementary spent Thursday getting their classrooms ready and hosting an open house for families.

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.

David Burke’s ambitious plan is to host a feast for more than 5,000 people on Nov. 28 in a gesture of gratitude and resilience in the face of adversity.

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.

Students at Spring Road School in Neenah competed against different grades in an effort to raise money for kids impacted by hurricanes in North Carolina. The whole Spring Road School student body raised a collective $1,