AVERY COUNTY, NC (WBTV/Gray News) – North Carolina residents continue to deal with the devastation left by Hurricane Helene.
Christmas tree farmers are reporting huge amounts of crop loss, and while this should not affect the marketing of what is left, it could take years to recover.
The damage in Avery County can be seen across the area.
But an Avery family farm may have been hardest hit by the storm, with more than 60,000 trees lost.
“All the trees are dying,” said farmer Graham Avery.
Avery is just one in a long line of farmers who have worked the land for the past 200 years and it has been passed down from generation to generation.
The family said the devastation after Helene was unprecedented.
“They’re in really bad shape, so we’re trying to figure out how to save this,” Avery said.
When the storm hit, Avery, his wife and his six-month-old daughter were home. He said they had an overwhelming feeling to run away when Helene came through.
“My wife woke up and said she had a bad feeling,” Avery said.
The family escaped before water from the nearby creek overtook the property.
“It didn’t look like anything we’ve ever seen,” Avery said.
When the water receded, 60 to 80,000 of the family’s trees were destroyed. What the floods left behind made matters worse: invasive plants poisoned fertile soil.
Waightstill Avery, Graham Avery’s father, also rode out the storm at his nearby home.
“When the water poured over our porch, we knew we were in trouble,” Waightstill Avery said.
Ultimately, he lost not only his crop, but virtually everything else. The trees alone are valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“We lost everything we had. We lost the house, the barn, the office and of course the tree patch,” said Waightstill Avery.
Some trees can be saved using a tedder to eradicate the damaged parts, while the remaining crop is made into tabletop trees or wreaths.
As for the following, the entire farm will have to be bulldozed and restarted. But it can take up to fifteen years before another tree grows.
“It’s terrible. It’s just horrible to have to go through this,” said Graham Avery.
The Avery family is offering wreaths and table trees for sale during the holidays and receiving recovery gifts as they work to get their farm back in order.
Copyright 2024 WBTV via Gray Local Media, Inc. All rights reserved.