ECU surveys historic houses in western North Carolina post-Hurricane Helene

ECU surveys historic houses in western North Carolina post-Hurricane Helene

GREENVILLE, N.C. (01/23/2025) - On Jan. 25-26, East Carolina University students and staff will conduct a historic house survey in western North Carolina in the wake of significant property damage during Hurricane Helene. The team will work with the Preservation Society of Asheville and Buncombe County (PSABC) to conduct a pedestrian survey of roughly 300 historic structures in Montreat - some dating as far back as 1898.

The ECU team includes Chelsea Freeland, research fellow and local resident of western North Carolina, who has been volunteering with PSABC since the storm as part of her fellowship in community archaeology. Dr. Jennifer McKinnon, a professor in the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences Department of History and the Program in Maritime Studies, will provide guidance in survey methods. McKinnon has conducted community archaeology and citizen science projects for more than 20 years in various communities from Australia to the Pacific and within the United States.

Volunteers will take notes and photographs of houses throughout the town that sustained damage from the hurricane in September. These photos and notes will be compared to a pre-storm survey completed in June to better understand the storm's impact and assess potential mediation and rebuilding needs. This weekend's survey is part of a larger volunteer effort to document historic property damage across Asheville and Buncombe County.

In the weeks following Hurricane Helene, PSABC staff worked quickly to shift their programs to meet the emerging needs of the communities most affected. They traveled across the county to get a preliminary idea of which areas were hardest hit. Staff surveyed historic structures in Buncombe County to gain a better understanding of where and how services like technical support and grants would be most useful to county residents. Once the most at-risk areas were identified, a formal survey strategy was developed to assess the full extent of damage to historic structures in those areas.

"By the end of this survey project, we hope to have a much better understanding about the impact of Hurricane Helene on our historic resources, documentation of places that have been lost and damaged and a document that can live on to tell the story of this storm and the people and places it impacted," said Jessie Landl, PSABC executive director.

Contact:
Chelsea Freeland, [email protected];
Dr. Jennifer McKinonn, 252-561-5122 (cell); [email protected]

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