Makeshift pedestrian bridge is small mountain community’s only way in and out

BAT CAVE, N.C. — What’s usually a tourist destination in western North Carolina has been cut off from the rest of the world after Tropical Storm Helene.

Bat Cave, North Carolina, is a small unincorporated area near Chimney Rock and Lake Lure. The small mountain community sits in the lower elevation of Henderson County along the Broad River.

HELENE COVERAGE IN HENDERSON COUNTY:

• In Henderson County, rescuers hike crumbling paths to find missing people
• Neighbors’ compassion shines in storm-stricken North Carolina towns

Now, all the roads in and out of what’s left of Bat Cave are gone.

“Bat Cave was completely an island. All four ways in [were] washed out,” said Kannapolis Fire Department Chief Tracy Winecoff.

Highway 64 once connected the community to more populated towns. Now, it’s connected by a makeshift pedestrian bridge built in part by the Department of Transportation and Kannapolis Fire crews.

“We were there when the first couple people come across and it was just, you know, it’s just almost like a freedom to get out and interact with other people,” Chief Winecoff said.

Winecoff has been working in the area for several days.

“Up until that point, we had been pulling everybody across by raft, and there were people that just wasn’t able to make that,” he said.

Winecoff took Channel 9 Reporter Hannah Goetz as far as the crumbling Highway 64 would allow. With nothing much left to hold it up, engineers said it wouldn’t take much to bring it down. So one by one, the people of Bat Cave and rescue teams are crossing the bridge to get supplies in and people like Blake Smith out.

“I lost my car and my house, so,” Smith said.

“Is this all you have?” Goetz asked.

“Pretty much, yep,” he said.

“It’s been a really sweet, caring community anyway, yeah, for all this. And everyone I’ve talked to so far is going to try to come rebuild.”

But rebuilding may be harder for some than it will be for others.

‘Might have been the only ones to survive’

Andy Wells and his wife, Chelsea, survived Helene. Their home did not.

“We heard the basement door break open,” Wells said. “Yeah, I went here to check the basement. The water was rising. We grabbed both of our cats and our dog.”

They used their phones to record the water sloshing into their basement. They also videoed what happened to their neighbors on the other side of the river that morning.

Henderson County homeowner records video of basement flooding during Helene

“We were watching people’s houses come down,” Wells said.

″We all thought we were, you know, we might have been the only ones to survive,” he said.

With water rushing up and hillsides sliding down, instinct kicked in.

“Fight or flight,” he said. “So you just take off and run, ran, yep, that’s all you can do.”

Wells said they first ran to the post office across the street. Now, it’s one of the only buildings left standing. Then, they ran up the mountain and found a safe place to hide.

“We slid a window open and sat in somebody’s car. And then we felt bad, so we left some money up there just because we took their water, so we didn’t want to be in trouble or anything like that,” Wells said.

They were running for their lives and somehow thinking of others.

“They might not get it for a couple years, but that’s OK, at least it’s there when they get there,” Wells said.

‘Everybody’s stuck together’

Once the storm settled, Wells and his wife were able to return to their own home, finding their quaint riverside living room completely gone. It was no match for the strength of the current that morning.

Wells recorded video of his porch before it, too, was torn off in the storm.

The aftermath at Wells’ house is just a glimpse at some of the devastation the area has faced. Yet somehow, the people who live there are finding ways to be thankful and help each other.

“If you don’t stay together, then it’s not worth living at that point,” Wells said.

“And it’s great to get to know some of your neighbors, even though it’s under this circumstance, and to build bonds that you’ll never, ever, ever have anywhere else, except for the people who went through this.”

They’re building bonds and hoping to rebuild homes. Wells and his wife are also helping their next-door neighbor Curtis McCart stabilize what is left of his home.

“Everybody’s stuck together,” McCart said.

And everybody’s been acting like a neighbor, no matter where the help is coming from or who needs a hand.

“It’s amazing how western North Carolina has just absolutely come together and just solidified you,” Wells said. “Just makes you feel so, so warm and fuzzy, even in moments like this.”

It’s the one thing Goetz noticed — how resilient the community is in the face of everything. She could see it on the faces of Wells and his wife.

The couple lost everything, but still talked and laughed with Goetz. They showed her a picture they smiled for. Andy’s wife Chelsea proudly held up a Josh Allen jersey. He’s the quarterback for the Buffalo Bills.

The couple said the jersey is one of the first things Chelsea, a western New York native, grabbed after they saved their pets.

Now, there’s a GoFundMe established to help the couple get back on their feet. The organizer said 10% of the money will be tithed to Ebenezer Baptist Church, which they said was one of the first in the area to give food, water and help to the community.

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Bat Cave digs out of Helene's destruction What’s usually a tourist destination in western North Carolina has been cut off from the rest of the world after Tropical Storm Helene.

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