Floods from Hurricane Helene damaged 80 percent of the buildings in Asheville’s River Arts District

Over the past forty years, artists in Asheville, North Carolina, have transformed an old industrial area west of downtown into a vibrant creative hub. The called River Arts Districtthe neighborhood is home to the studios and galleries of more than 300 artists, as well as coffee shops, breweries, bakeries, and other local businesses.

But now, instead of painting or sculpting, artists are exploring the destruction that has been caused Hurricane Helene. The storm damaged an estimated 80 percent of buildings in the River Arts District, including some that were completely destroyed, Robin Pogrebin and Jonathan Abrams report for the New York Times.

“It’s heartbreaking,” said Judi Jetson, founder of Local clotha nonprofit fiber arts organization, the publication says. “We’re trying to save what we can.”

The hurricane made landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast on September 26. More than 200 people in six states have died from the storm, and many more are still missing. Helene is now the deadliest hurricane in the continental United States since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Flooding and wind gusts also caused billions of dollars in property damage across the Southeast, including in Asheville. The River Arts District was particularly hard hit due to its proximity to the French Broad River, which rose to a record high 24.67 feet. That’s one foot higher than the 108-year-old record of 23.1 feetwhich was instituted during the Great flood of 1916.

For now, many of the artists who call the River Arts District home are unable to make a living. Their galleries and studios are filled with mud. Their masterpieces are soaked. And their supplies are ruined.

“I lost all my original paintings,” painter Spencer Beals said in one Instagram role. “All my prints, all my canvas work. All my art supplies and sales supplies. And a lot of people here have just lost their entire creative practice.”

Karen Maugans, an art photographer, watched the water drag her framed photos from the windows of her gallery.

“I’m numb now,” she says ReutersKarl Plume and Rich McKay. “It’s surreal… Everything I had was underwater.”

Last weekend, artists and volunteers began the long, difficult process of clearing the wreckage Asheville Citizen Times‘ Lici Beveridge. The district has also started accepting donations website. However, some artists have already decided that the damage is too great.

“We are doing well. The studio, on the other hand, does not,” wrote Angelique Tassistro, a ceramicist who works out of Asheville’s CURVE Studios and Garden, in an Instagram post. “We are not going to rebuild. My heart is broken for myself and our community.”

Many worry about the fate of the district as a whole. Some artists and local businesses were still recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic and may not be able to weather another disruption. Others are also concerned about recent interest in the area from developers, who are already buying up land to build new apartment complexes, according to Reuters.

“This will definitely take a new shape [the district]– we will be forever changed,” Heather Divoky, an artist and designer who co-chairs the district’s marketing, told Hyperallergic‘s Rhea Nayyar. “I don’t know how many of us can come back.”

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