CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Nearly one year after Hurricane Helene devastated western North Carolina, leaving hundreds of thousands without power and forever changing mountain communities, one Blue Ridge Energy worker who witnessed the destruction from above recalls the sobering reality of what nature unleashed.

Zach Benfield, who works with Blue Ridge Energy's helicopter operations for power line maintenance, provided one of the first aerial assessments of the storm's impact in September 2024. What he saw from the sky defied his expectations and challenged everything he thought he knew about natural disasters.

Initially, Benfield wasn't particularly concerned about the approaching hurricane.

"To be honest with you, I wasn't that excited about it until we got a phone call," he said, describing ho

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