Hurricane Helene’s Floodwaters Damaged 80 Percent of Buildings in Asheville’s River Arts District
Home to more than 300 artists, the neighborhood was submerged under the record-high waters of the French Broad River
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Over the past four decades, artists in Asheville, North Carolina, have revamped an old industrial area west of downtown into a vibrant creative hub. Called the River Arts District, the neighborhood is home to the studios and galleries of more than 300 artists, as well as coffee shops, breweries, bakeries and other local businesses.
Now, however, instead of painting or sculpting, artists are surveying the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene. The storm damaged an estimated 80 percent of River Arts District buildings—including some that were totally destroyed, report Robin Pogrebin and Jonathan Abrams for the New York Times.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Judi Jetson, founder of Local Cloth, a nonprofit fiber arts organization, tells the publication. “We’re trying to rescue whatever we can.”
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The hurricane made landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast on September 26. More than 200 people in six states have died from the storm, and many more are still missing. Helene is now the deadliest hurricane on the mainland United States since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Flooding and wind gusts also caused billions of dollars worth of property damage across the Southeast, including in Asheville. The River Arts District was hit particularly hard because of its close proximity to the French Broad River, which rose to a record-high 24.67 feet. That’s a foot higher than the 108-year-old record of 23.1 feet, which was set during the Great Flood of 1916.
For now, many of the artists who call the River Arts District home have no way to make a living. Their galleries and studios are filled with mud. Their masterpieces are soaked. And their supplies are ruined.
“I lost all my original paintings,” says painter Spencer Beals in an Instagram reel. “All of my prints, all my canvas work. All my art supplies and vending supplies. And a lot of people here just lost their whole creative practice.”
Karen Maugans, a fine arts photographer, watched floodwaters carry her framed photos out the windows of her gallery.
“I’m numb right now,” she tells Reuters’ Karl Plume and Rich McKay. “It’s unreal … Every single thing I had was underwater.”
Over the weekend, artists and volunteers began the long, daunting process of cleaning up the wreckage, per the Asheville Citizen Times’ Lici Beveridge. The district has also started accepting donations on its website. Some artists, however, have already decided the damage is too much.
“We are okay. The studio, on the other hand, is not,” wrote Angelique Tassistro, a ceramic artist who works out of Asheville’s CURVE Studios and Garden, in an Instagram post. “We will not be rebuilding. My heart is broken for myself and our community.”
Many are concerned for the fate of the district as a whole. Some artists and local businesses were still recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic and may not be able to weather yet another disruption. Others also worry about the recent interest in the neighborhood from developers, who are already buying up land to build new apartment complexes, per Reuters.
“This will absolutely reshape [the district]—we’re going to be forever changed,” says Heather Divoky, an artist and designer who serves as the district’s marketing co-chair, to Hyperallergic’s Rhea Nayyar. “I don’t know how many of us can come back.”
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