Maggie Valley faces a long road to recovery from Hurricane Helene

Ten months after Hurricane Helene tore through the Southeast, the recovery process is just beginning. As communities rebuild their lives and towns, the Carolina Journal revisits some of the state’s hardest-hit areas to assess what recovery looks like, what’s still missing, and how far there is to go.

The initial damage assessments of Maggie Valley post-Helene estimated costs of about $4.7 million. Most of the initial damage was sewer-related or damage to parks near Jonathan Creek. Several creeks that flow into the valley also overflowed, causing damage that required cleanup, which also accounts for initial damage costs. 

Maggie Valley has a contract with a company that handles everything related to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on their behalf. 

“It’s a ton for a small town,” Mayor Mike Eveland told the Carolina Journal. “We’re not set up for this. When you look at the amount of paperwork, and the amount of money, and the amount of time, as of right now we’ve expended about $539,000 out of our pocket. And the amount of paperwork that goes into making sure you’re going to get any kind of reimbursement from anybody is huge; it’s very expensive. We were fortunate to have some idea of what some of that was going to be required from Day One. We had a big initial clean-up area where people had to go out. We had to record everything — from the time on a machine to the amount of fuel, etc. So we’ve been working pretty hard.” 

With estimated initial damages at $4.7 million and an annual total budget of $5.4 million, only $539,000 has been spent so far. Maggie Valley has a long recovery road in front of it. 

“A lot of this is sewer related and along the creeks,” said Eveland. “Our first initial few weeks was to get all the sewer lines at least repaired. We were also very blessed because there were a lot of people within the region that lost their [sewer] plants. But we did not.” 

Eveland credits the sewer plant’s survival to repairs done on a levy project about a year ago. He said that without those repairs, the town may also have lost its sewer plant, similar to many other towns hit by Hurricane Helene. 

 Repairing Maggie Valley Carpet Golf, a local mini-golf business, is one of the most significant projects they had undertaken and completed so far. The floodwaters eroded approximately 25 feet of land, destroying three holes of the mini-golf course and stripping away a 20-foot-wide area of native vegetation, according to Eveland and Seth Boyd, interim public works director for the town of Maggie Valley.

To address this, a complete creek-bank stabilization project was undertaken to restore the area to its original condition, which was necessary to reinstall the sewer infrastructure. Given the urgency and the risk of further erosion from subsequent storms — as demonstrated by additional rainfall in February — the team opted to complete permanent repairs immediately, rather than executing a temporary fix and returning months later. This approach protected the sewer line and helped safeguard the impacted local business from further loss.

In addition, roughly 250 feet of sewer line and two manholes sustained significant damage close to the Maggie Valley Carpet Golf attraction. On top of these utility losses, a 20-foot-wide section of native vegetation and adjacent land was thoroughly washed away, necessitating substantial restoration work.

However, the carpet-golf attraction was not Maggie Valley’s only loss due to Helene; the flooding resulted in the loss of four aerial creek crossings. According to Eveland and Boyd, among the most critical losses was the destruction of a major bridge located on Highway 276. The storm heavily impacted this key infrastructure, underscoring the scale of the flooding and its threat to transportation routes.

Although the levee system at the sewer plant had been reinforced the previous year and remained intact during the storm, it was not without need for further attention. Repair assessments estimate that approximately $200,000 will be required to restore the levee to optimal condition. Temporary bridges have since been installed to maintain access, but full reconstruction — including replacing the damaged sewer line — is still pending final approval and coordination with the State Department of Transportation (DOT).

“I can tell you as of right now, we’ve spent $539,000, and we have not gotten a dime back from FEMA yet,” said Eveland. “We’re awaiting initial damages of $20,000, including debris pickup of $15,000. We should see that in the next 60 days. That’s the only money we’ve gotten that the team has even suggested that we get paid for, and we’re hoping that that starts to change here soon.”

The cashflow loan program was created in the Disaster Recovery Act of 2024.  Maggie Valley received a cash flow loan of $216,709.85.

Mayor Eveland said that Maggie Valley’s cash flow situation is currently stable, thanks to the state’s financial assistance. We received a low-interest loan from the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) for $2,575,000, which must be repaid over the next five years. 

“The state of North Carolina did a 0% interest loan for folks like us,” said Eveland. “Financially, Maggie Valley was blessed. We’ve done a great job over the years of taking care of our business, and we had money in the bank. And I’ll tell you that I’ve been on the board for 15 years now, and we’ve done a lot of stuff, but we’ve always made sure that we’ve got money in the bank for rainy days.”

Maggie Valley also received a $200,000 grant from DEQ to support engineering work. However, that amount only covered a single project — and it’s already been fully used. Still, while limited, town leaders say the grant was helpful.

They say the key benefit of the state’s support — especially the cash flow loan — is that it enables Maggie Valley to receive FEMA reimbursements over time without draining existing funds or seeking additional loans. Eveland said this dramatically improves the town’s ability to operate and sustain its town functions.

While the state has mentioned various other aid programs, Maggie Valley has yet to see evidence of how those may benefit the town.

Maggie Valley officials hope to be reimbursed for some of the money they have spent on Helene recovery projects by a combination of FEMA and state dollars. 

“Long-term, we’re all taxpayers, and we’re all going to pay for it — whether at a federal level, a state level, or a local level,” said Eveland. “But anything from FEMA and the state would be great. It helps the taxpayers here in the valley, and we’re one of the bigger towns [in terms of local tourism].”

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