Old Fort, N.C. (AP) – As they appear, morning mist burns from the surrounding mountains. With a single-wheeled skateboard-like contraption, a small group of helmet riders navigate pitched streets past the 30-foot granite arrow monument in the town square.
They are one of about 400 people gathering in this town of Blue Ridge Foothills for the Floatlife Fest, and they bring together the “original longest running” dedicated to cars on electric one-wheel boards. Inflated the old fort’s normal population in half, the festival in mid-September has infused the necessary money and hope, and hope in the town is recovering a year after flooded by the remaining remnants Hurricane Helen.
“We definitely should come back again,” says Jess Jones, a 34-year-old marine biologist from Edinburgh, Scotland. “The atmosphere and the welcome we got there was really great.”
The fact that the festival has happened is a tribute to the natural beauty of the area and the resilience of its people.
On Thursday, September 11th, 2025, a claw operator scooped the debris following Hurricane Helen in Old Fort, North Carolina.
Signs of progress are still mixed with the invisible Scars from Helen In this town, it is about 24 miles (39 km) east of Asheville. Most of the old Fort stores have reopened, despite workers continuing to steal piles of downtown debris.
Like other businessmen who depend on this tourist Mountainsbicycle shop owner Chad Schoenauer has lended the bank during the strong fall foil season to help get him back on track after Helen. However, many seem to assume that the old fort is still a wasteland.
“Yeah, I didn’t know you were open,” he says.
Helen’s floods and landslides interrupt outdoor tourist makeover
when Helen passed through her seat.Old Fort was in the middle of recreating itself as an outdoor destination, especially after furniture maker Ethan Allen laid off 325 workers when he converted 325 workers into sales centres in 2019.
“When the Ethan Allen layoff happened, local leaders came together and said, ‘How do we use these beautiful natural assets that have to diversify the manufacturing economy?'” says Kim Effler, president and CEO of the McDowell Chamber of Commerce.
Chad Schoenauer will take a portrait at his bike shop in Fort, North Carolina on Thursday, September 1, 2025 under a sign that says “Hell or High Water.” (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)
Named after a revolutionary war-era inventory, the town has decided to become a world-class destination for hiking, running, horse riding, and especially mountain biking.
“We have the red clay that makes the best trails in the country,” says Justin Thompson, founder of Floatlife. “The trail is spectacular.”
In 2021, the G5 Trail Collective (a program led by the non-profit Camp Grier Outdoors Complex) has forced the U.S. Forest Service to agree to a new 42-mile (68-kilometer) multi-purpose trail. The initiative began paying dividends almost immediately.
“For all the trails we were able to open, we saw new businesses open in town,” says Jason McDougaldo, executive director of the camp.
The collective had just completed 21 miles (34 km) of the trail when Helen washed the trail, hurting businesses and pressed the “reset button.”
When the storm exploded on September 27, 2024, the Catawba River converged with a normally mild Mill Creek, leaving much of the downtown under several feet of muddy water.
Schoenauer, who opened an old Fort Bike Shop in 2021, says it took him two days to go to town to assess the damages of the business housed in a former general store in 1901.
“I was paralyzed here the whole time,” he says. “And as soon as I got off the exit I started crying.”
The water rose over 3 feet (1 meter) within the shop, leaving a 10-inch (25 centimeters) layer of reddish brown mud. The beautiful heart pine floor leaned over.
Schoenauer says he suffered about $150,000 in uninsured losses.
At the mountain bike complex in the Foothills basin along Catawba, the storm took 48 large shaded trees and 18,000 square feet (1,672 square meters) of trucks built with banks and jumps.
“We had a cleanser, a brand new cleanser for the destroyed business,” says Casey McKissick, who spent the last three years developing bicycle parks. “It’s never been used. It’s not turned on yet. And it all went down the river.”
McKissick said the business has no flood insurance, is too expensive, and the threat of catastrophic events appears to have been far too far.
The damage was $150,000. What’s worse, there was eight months of business loss, including last year’s leaf season.
“We lost a really important fourth quarter of that year, and this is a beautiful fall,” says McKissick.
The closure of the Blue Ridge Parkway slows visitors’ returns
Gov. Josh Stein Recently, it announced that travelers spent a record of $36.7 billion in the state last year. But the boom avoided Helen’s worst blow to the county.
Visitor spending in Asheville’s home base in Buncombe County fell nearly 11% last year compared to 2023, according to the state Department of Commerce.
Part of the Blue Ridge Parkway damaged in Hurricane Helen is under construction in June 2025 near the Ferrinknob Tunnel in Candler, North Carolina (National Park Service via the AP)
In McDowell, tourist spending fell by nearly 3% over the same period. Effler says that in June and July this year, pedestrians at the county’s largest visitor center have fallen by 50% from last year.
She has consistently condemned damage to one of the national park’s most visited, the Blue Ridge Parkway. Approximately 35 miles (56km) of the North Carolina route – including long stretches in McDowell County – are not scheduled to resume until fall 2026.
McDougald says that nearly every trail in the old fort complex was damaged, and the landslide pulled out “a section of the trail at a time.”
They managed to resume the approximately 30 miles (48km) of trails, but he says many miles remain closed.
Schoenauer reopened its stores in December, but traffic fell by about two-thirds this summer.
“My business has shifted further to the repair side when it comes to revenue,” he says. “People are still trying to replicate it, but they use the bikes they need just to keep it up and make it fun.”
The basin complex opened in June, but there was no planned riverfront gazebo and performance stage. And they moved bike jumps to the highlands.
“It certainly changed the way we look at flood plains,” says McKissick.
___
The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation in its water and environmental policy coverage. AP is solely responsible for all content. Visit us for all the AP environment coverage https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
