‘What this is now, it’s history.’ Buck Creek neighborhood wiped out by Helene

MARION, N.C. ( QUEEN CITY NEWS ) — “Lean not on your own understanding” is the Bible verse Brian Greene has recited in his head every day since Tropical Storm Helene destroyed his paradise in the Western North Carolina mountains.

For the past 30 years, his paradise has been along Buck Creek, north of Marion, and is made up of 14 properties owned by 14 people who he considers extended family members.

“That’s what I’m going to miss the most,” Greene explained.

Out of those 14 properties, only five homes still remain somewhat intact.

The rest have been washed away by the creek.

“It was just so loud…you could hear the popping,” Greene said of the moment he realized his community would be forever changed.

The Friday Tropical Storm Helene began to move through Western North Carolina, Greene said the small creek his neighborhood sat on began to rise.

However, he said it didn’t begin to become a major concern until a large landslide from the Blue Ridge Parkway sent trees, rocks, and anything in its path through the community.

Greene said he woke up with enough time to get his wife out of their house. He said that “stuff started flying through the side of my house. I got my wife and I out, we were passing it.”

His neighbors who lived 50 yards from his front door were not as lucky.

They had tried to escape in their Jeep but became trapped when their house was lifted off its foundation and smashed into another building with their Jeep between the two.

Greene said he barely made out the sound of their horn from the Jeep over the roar of the waters. They managed to get to higher ground where they waited to be rescued.

In the chaos, however, they lost the fiancée of one of their neighbors. John Norwood became separated from his fiancé Julie Le Roux when a wall of water tore through their home.

The pair was swept downstream for roughly 100 yards, where Norwood was able to crawl out.

Five days later, the body of Le Roux was found on the other side of the creek bed. The face of the Buck Creek community has now forever changed and now has a dark cloud above it.

Not only were lives lost, and homes destroyed, but the Buck Creek Trout Farm, which drew in hundreds of families was leveled in the slide.

Families who have lost property have begun to come to grips with the idea that they may never be able to return to the place they called home.

Greene, who lived there for 30 years said, it’s been hard to accept.

“That’s what this is now, it’s history,” he said. “It’s not something alive and vibrant and ongoing. This is history now.”

When Greene spoke with Queen City News Thursday afternoon, he said FEMA had not fully been able to tour his property. However, they had a meeting scheduled for Thursday to discuss what would happen next.

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