'We were cut off from the world' | Reflecting on Hurricane Helene, one year later

BURNSVILLE, N.C. — The sounds of electric drills and hammers are common around Andy Buchanan's property in Burnsville.

"Almost every day if not every other day, there's some kind of work going on here to finish up," Buchanan said.

Workers are wrapping up a months-long project to rebuild his home, partially destroyed by Hurricane Helene.

"I had two walls, and a roof is all I had left," Buchanan reflected.

Getting to this point hasn't been easy for the lifelong Yancey County man. He had a bad feeling about the storm, even before it hit. "Two days before the flood, I had actually made a social media post about how high the water was, and to pray for the people along the path of this hurricane."

The morning of the storm, he watched as the river behind his home started rising. "The water