When you lose everything to a storm like Hurricane Helene, how do you keep from losing hope?

And where do you find the faith and fortitude to fight back and build back that Helene took away?

Tonight, nearly one year later, PBS Charlotte travels back where the storm was the worst to see how a disaster like Helene also brings out the best in us.

Carolina Impact's Jeff Sonier and videographer Russ Hunsinger are in Burnsville with more on rebuilding, reopening, and restoring after Hurricane Helene.

- Yeah, here in western North Carolina in the mountains, Hurricane Helene, well, it was more than just a storm.

It was a life changer.

12,000 were left homeless after Helene.

Displaced after the storm destroyed their homes and 200,000 more, well, they had their houses damaged by Helene.

But it's not just about the numbers, it's also about the neighbors still struggling after the storm, but also, stronger than the storm.

- Well, there's the top of the line there.

- [Jeff] Sherry Housley reaches above her head to show us where the water rushed in.

That's the watermark there on the wall?

- [Sherry] Yes.

- [Jeff] And where the water rushed out.

- Evidently came from this direction and pushed the sliding glass windows out or sliding glass doors out.

- [Jeff] Good gosh.

- [Sherry] Just shoved it out.

- [Jeff] Like the ebb and flow of an ocean tide, Helene's flood water swirling inside Sherry's old mountain home.

- It was as if a vortex or some kind of washing machine churning, because things got shifted from room to room.

Once I saw it, the first day I saw it, I just sat down and I thought, I can't do this.

- [Jeff] Her family bought this property in 1953.

They paid $10 for two acres between Crabtree Creek and the Cane Branch River.

And for almost a year now, since Hurricane Helene blew through.

- I can work in there and sleep and cook, and you know, in here.

- [Jeff] Sherry's been living in this camper.

With everything from her home she could salvage from the flood and the mud stored in these tents and in this old school bus.

- It's my little crash pad for right now.

- [Jeff] But on this day, Sherry has a tough decision to make.

Maybe the toughest decision she's ever made.

Letting a wrecking crew finish the job that Helene started.

- There are just no words.

- [Jeff] On the house that her parents built.

- This is so surreal.

I mean, I'm just sitting thinking about all the pennies they pinched and they went through so much to build that house, so much, both of them.

- Having a dream come true.

Oh, man.

(metal clanging) - Took my breath away.

Literally, took my breath away.

Felt like a punch to the gut, but I just wanna move forward.

I want to move forward so bad.

- [Jeff] For Sherry, though, moving forward doesn't mean moving off her land.

It means moving in to a new house.

(camera shuttering) Built for her by the construction technology class at Mountain Heritage High School.

Partnering with a Burnsville-based volunteer group known as Rebuilding Hollers, which is helping hundreds of mountain neighbors who need home renovations or home replacements after Helene.

- It's a really big deal.

You know, here people, this is generational land for so many, so I would be the same way.

I wouldn't wanna leave my land.

And so, by giving them a resource to stay on their property until we can get their home build is a big deal.

- I pray for safety.

I pray for Miss Sherry.

This home carries memories.

- [Jeff] And for Sherry Housley, it's a prayer answered.

A chance to make new memories in a new home on the same patch of land that will always be home to her.

- I'm rooted here.

I am part of this little bit of ground.

(somber music) (traffic droning) - [Jeff] 90 minutes south of Burnsville in Chimney Rock Village, half of Bubba O'Leary's General Store is finally reopened for business.

- You're doing a great job.

Thank you.

- [Jeff] Almost a year after Hurricane Helene destroyed the store's other half along with 50 more businesses here on Main Street.

- The devastation, the destruction was just heartbreaking, it was overwhelming.

All the favorites, all the old favorite spots are gone, but everybody that's got a building left, I mean, they're all trying to reopen.

- [Jeff] Store owner, Peter O'Leary is also the mayor of Chimney Rock, but he's not just on the street talking with us.

You'll find him behind the counter too, talking with his customers.

- Thank you.

Appreciate you coming in.

- [Jeff] About what O'Leary calls the new Chimney Rock.

- I think it's very important for people to see that we are recovering.

When we added everything up, we lost 200 jobs.

Basically, the whole employee force of Chimney Rock, the whole workforce was unemployed.

So, it's very important to get those 200 people back to work.

You're not repairing anymore, you're not cleaning anymore, you're actually welcoming customers in.

- [Speaker] Hi, welcome in.

- [Peter] I mean, that's a huge step for all of us.

- [Jeff] The mayor adds, another huge step was the reopening of Chimney Rock State Park, which attracts 400,000 visitors a year, but from the top of Chimney Rock, the view of nearby Lake Lure looks a little different now.

(machinery beeping) Lake Lure sandy beach and Marina now dried up and overgrown.

There's also damage from Helene along western North Carolina's river banks.

But here on this rocky stretch of the Tow River near Mount Mitchell, volunteer groups are raking in new seed, replanting and restoring what Helene washed away.

- Perennial grasses, native shrubs, native flowers, a mix of things that'll take root kind of wherever you put 'em.

They're gonna grow up, spread their seed all down the river from here.

A lot of the banks were totally stripped away.

Some of them we had full forest and now there's nothing, but bedrock or sand.

- We are hoping to that the seeding will help to keep the soil or keep the land.

Well, partly make it look a whole lot better, but it will stabilize.

It needs vegetation to stabilize the earth.

- We've been left with a blank slate in certain areas where we have an opportunity to make it better than it even was before.

- [Jeff] The volunteers are also reseeding native plants on steep mountain mudslides to stop erosion and prevent future flooding, but what if you can't hike there or drive there?

- [Drone] Stand back at a safe distance.

Take off.

- [Jeff] Well, Yancy County is using a drone to replant the riverbanks from a above.

- So over the river, I'd fly it up over the trees about eight or 10 feet over the trees.

The biggest thing it can do is save time.

And I can also access a lot of areas with the drone that we can't access on foot, but you know, we still need those volunteers on the ground.

- The goal is to stabilize the exposed soil around the river so we can keep sedimentation out of the river, because the creatures and animals that live in the river, most of them need this clean water.

- And whether it's restoring rivers, reopening businesses, or rebuilding homes, the reality here in Western North Carolina is that nobody can do everything, but what they're also finding out here is that everybody can do something.