HENDERSONVILLE, N.C. — For months after Hurricane Helene , some families in western North Carolina had no clean water. It's a crisis that added to the already overwhelming recovery from flooding and landslides.

Katie Zaremba and her family moved to Hendersonville in 2022, drawn to the hiking and outdoor lifestyle near Chimney Rock. But last year, their property was devastated when Helene triggered two landslides. A tree tore through their home, their shed was crushed against their deck and their well, their only source of water, was destroyed.

“I kind of anticipated we would lose power but didn’t anticipate what actually happened,” Zaremba said. “We had a tree go through the back of the house … pretty much all of the debris and mud was against the house.”

The storm also ripped the wellh

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