There’s just no nice way to say this: We’re still looking pretty rough these days.
Western North Carolina, I mean. And yes, thanks to Helene.
Sure, a blanket of snow over the weekend helped with the aesthetics a bit, but we’ve still got a pretty bad tropical storm hangover. Debris remains everywhere, ranging from piles of tree branches to cars in rivers.
A recurring theme in my correspondence with readers is their frustration with the slow rate of storm debris cleanup. Everywhere. Here’s one sample, from my email:
“Is Swannanoa now the new dumping yard and general eyesore for Buncombe County? Three months since Helene, yet Swannanoa looks and feels eerily like the disaster area it has been since Sept 27, 2024. Other areas are being picked up, put back together. Meanwhile, Swannaona resembles essentially what it did a week after Helene hit.”
I’ve heard the same complaints about Biltmore Village, the French Broad River north of town, the Swannanoa River pretty much everywhere, the River Arts District, north Asheville, and several parts of Buncombe County.
The readers are right — parts of our community still look pretty rough. Heck, in my neighborhood a few houses still have furniture, mattresses, and paint cans sitting at the curb, waiting for some mysterious entity to pick them up.
More than three months after Helene, debris cleanup remains agonizingly slow. I hate to say this, but it’s not going to get a whole lot faster. Cleanup is going to take months, probably even years in places.
I will say this: Asheville and Buncombe officials have been very upfront about this from the get-go. Buncombe County Manager Avril Pinder and Asheville City Manager Debra Campbell have made frequent appearances at the regular Helene briefings, giving updates on storm cleanup, and they always mention how much debris has been cleared and how many trucks and crews are on the road.
A mind-bending amount of debris remains
And they always mention that millions of cubic yards of debris remain.
At the last briefing Jan. 9, Pinder noted that “694,384 cubic yards of debris have been removed from the public right of way.
“That’s in Buncombe County, Black Mountain, and the City of Asheville,” Pinder said. “Today, there are 34 trucks running in Buncombe County for right-of-way collection. There are 26 tree crews operating in the county. And debris crews are currently active at Lake Julian Park.”
The city and county have maintained since the storm that Buncombe has about 10 million cubic yards of debris that needs to be cleared. That includes about 3 million cubic yards in the city proper.
If you do a little extrapolation — say, calculate that they’re picking up 650,000 cubic yards every three months, or about 217,000 a month — that comes out to about 2.6 million cubic yards a year.
That would mean four years of looking at debris piles. I don’t think removal is going to take that long, but it’s not going to be fast, either.
I asked Pinder on Thursday if that extrapolation holds true.
Debris filled the River Arts District after flooding receded. // Watchdog photo by Victoria A. Ifatusin
“I think it’s going to take several, several more months to pick up all the debris,” Pinder said. “And what we did say today, as well, is that we are at about 95 percent of that first pass. We talked about several passes to pick up all the debris.”
People are now bringing out second piles of debris, as they continue to clean out their homes and yards.
“As we’re going back through now and surveying our streets, we’re seeing new debris on the site as well,” Pinder said. “So we know it’s going to take multiple passes. We ask people not to bring too much to overcrowd it right away, and we’re seeing that that second wave is starting now.”
Swannanoa and Barnardsville have had about 95 percent of the first wave picked up, Pinder said, and the other parts of the county stand at 99 percent. But that second wave is considerable, too.
Crews have not started removing ruined “titled property” — cars, boats, trucks. The goal is to get that started by mid-February, Pinder said.
As a reminder, Pinder again explained how this system works.
“We actually have the United States Corps of Engineers doing a collection for us on debris, and that’s the contract through FEMA,” Pinder said. “And then they then subcontract to our local vendors.”
Keep in mind that these contractors also are working in several other mountain counties where debris remains.
Can more resources be brought to bear?
I asked if the county could request more trucks and more crews. Pinder said it has “really ramped up the staffing and subcontractors” doing this work.
“They have been bringing more trucks,” Pinder said. “And I would ask that question too — if there are more trucks that they can bring, but they have brought as many trucks as possible, I think, in our community,” Pinder said. “But we can ask that question again to see if there’s any more that they can bring to our community.”
In its Jan. 8, newsletter, FEMA noted: “More than 2.6 million cubic yards of debris has been removed from public rights of way by FEMA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and contractors.” That’s a big number but that’s not just Buncombe, of course.
The FEMA North Carolina news desk told me Friday that the Army Corps is currently picking up debris in 10 cities, towns, or counties. FEMA and the state are conducting debris removal in the remaining counties affected by Helene, FEMA said.
I asked about adding more crews, and a timeline.
“More contractors, crews, and trucks can at times only increase congestion and illuminate pinch points along the routes and into/out of staging and reduction sites,” the FEMA news desk said. “To keep from overtaxing infrastructure, debris contractors work with local officials on collection routes and priority areas.”
Regarding a timeline, FEMA said, “There is no exact date for when debris removal will end. Usually after large disasters, it is common for removal to continue for several weeks or months after an event.”
I’ve also asked the city about debris pickup slowness, and city spokesperson Kim Miller responded.
“We understand our community’s frustration with storm debris removal,” Miller said. “The initial assessment shows up to 3 million cubic yards of storm debris in the city — equivalent to roughly 140 football fields stacked 10 feet high.”
She noted that efficient debris removal “requires careful sorting and processing, which takes time.
“Please continue to leave storm-related debris curbside,” Miller said. “Teams are out collecting debris daily. We are unable, at this point in recovery, to specify streets or times of pickups.”
The county and city also offered tips for keeping debris removal efficient. Here are a few to keep in mind:
Debris may be blocked by parked cars or overhanging power lines. Some piles, such as those under power lines or behind parked cars, require smaller equipment like skid-steers.
Piles placed outside the right-of-way (beyond 10 feet from the road) cannot be collected.
Trucks are limited by the type of debris they can collect during each pass. For example, if a truck is collecting vegetation, it cannot pick up construction or mixed debris.
Crews are making multiple passes and will continue working until all debris in the public right-of-way is cleared. The first pass focuses on readily accessible debris. Ensure your debris is sorted, unobstructed, and within the right-of-way.
The county is still asking people not to take vegetative debris to the landfill, as it’s trying to keep that out of there and grind it up separately.
When I asked FEMA about complaints from readers about spotty debris pickup, the news desk also stressed putting the debris in the right of way.
“Some debris removal was ineligible due to the fact that private insurance made or were in the process of making arrangements to remove that debris,” FEMA said, noting you should contact local officials if you feel you were skipped over.
Before Christmas, I wrote an Answer Man column answering a question about waterway cleanup. That also falls to the Army Corps of Engineers, under direction from FEMA, and Army Corps spokesperson David Connolly also invoked the long-haul nature of this enterprise.
We’re looking at months and months of cleanup time, at least.
The complexities of waterway debris cleanup
“If you think right-of-way debris removal is complicated, waterway gets that much more complicated,” Connolly said then. He also noted that the Corps has similar cleanups to do in 10 to 15 mountain counties.
Debris is a common sight along the French Broad River. // Watchdog photo by Starr Sariego
So those cars and trucks in the Swannanoa River that are visible from Thompson Street? They’re not going anywhere soon.
Connolly said steps for waterway cleanups include receiving applications for the work, verifying the need through reconnaissance and then assembling a detailed plan that includes definitions of where the waterway in question begins and ends. The Corps also has to determine where the proper points of entry will be.
When asked for a timeline, Connolly answered with brutal honesty.
“I honestly can’t. I won’t even pretend to speculate on that right now,” Connolly said. “I wouldn’t want to give people some false hope of a timeline, because I really just don’t have one.”
I can tell you from talking to property owners that removal and rebuilding damaged buildings gets really complicated. They have to wrangle with insurance companies and banks, figure out if their buildings are salvageable and arrange for reputable contractors to do the work.
In some cases, they’re unsure if they can rebuild in a floodplain or meet newer codes that call for sites to be raised.
All of this is just more complicated than it appears it should be.
That’s frustrating and depressing for all of us, especially in winter when all of the vegetation and leaves are gone. We’re exposed in many ways right now, and it’s not pretty to see.
One of the charms of this area is the natural beauty, the streams and rivers and beautiful vistas that we’ve all taken for granted for so long. It’s tough to see it besmirched.
For now, we all have to be patient, follow the recommendations, and do what we can to help others out.
Meanwhile, it’s not going to be pleasant to look at.
Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Got a question? Send it to John Boyle at jboyle@avlwatchdog.org or 828-337-0941. His Answer Man columns appear each Tuesday and Friday. The Watchdog’s reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.
SUMMARY: The video showed a human skeleton, deeply affecting the family, especially their brother, Evatar, who is critically ill and near death. He’s described as a kind, musical soul who plays guitar, sharing music with the narrator, who plays the piano. The family is devastated, unable to watch the video, but focused on saving him. Doctors say Evatar has only days left and urgently needs food, medical care, and vitamins to survive. Despite his fragile state, his spirit remains unbroken, and both he and his family believe he will recover. The narrator longs for his warm hugs and smile.
ABC News’ Ian Pannell spoke to the brother of Evyatar David, an Israeli hostage seen in footage released by Hamas over the weekend.
Evyatar’s brother, Ilya, says the release of the video “crushed” his family and that doctors say his sibling has only a “few days to live.”
www.thecentersquare.com – By David Beasley | The Center Square contributor – (The Center Square – ) 2025-08-05 09:57:00
A new charter school in Fayetteville, Agape Achievement Academy, may not open as planned on August 21 after the Charter School Review Board recommended the state Board of Education deny its charter. The school failed to present an acceptable budget despite multiple revisions; its financial projections were deemed incomplete or incorrect. Agape aims to serve grades K-3 with 168 students and emphasizes literacy as key to academic success. The state requires evidence of operational readiness, including a balanced budget, before approval. Agape recently submitted a revised budget showing a surplus, which includes employee contributions to health insurance costs. The final decision is expected soon.
(The Center Square) – A new charter school in Fayetteville may not be able to open as planned later this month following a recommendation by a state school board panel on Monday.
The Charter School Review Board recommended that the state Board of Education not approve a charter for Agape Achievement Academy. It has been scheduled to open Aug. 21.
“Agape has not been able to present an acceptable budget within the required time frame despite a number opportunities,” school board member John Blackburn said Monday following the panel’s review of Agape’s application. “We support that finding,” Blackburn said.
The state school board is expected to issue a final vote on Agape at its meeting later this week.
“Agape Achievement Academy recognizes that a foundation in literacy is crucial to academic achievement in the upper grades and life-long scholarship,” the school says on its website. “We also recognize a foundation in literacy provides students with the strongest likelihood to meet their full potential as students.”
But questions over both enrollment and finances cast doubt on the school’s chances of opening its doors this month.
Agape was scheduled open for grades K-3 with an enrollment of 168, Ashley Baquero, director of the state’s Office of Charter Schools, told the school board panel Monday.
The application for a charter school was originally submitted in 2022.
Before opening, charter schools must first complete a year-long planning program called “Ready to Open,” Baquero said.
Schools must also present evidence of “readiness to operate,” which include proposed budgets that show the school at least breaking even financially, Baquero added.
Agape’s budget projections were either “incorrect or incomplete,” Baquero told the school board panel.
The proposed budget was returned to the school four times for revision, Baquero said.
“The fourth submission of the budget was deemed insufficient,” she said.
On Monday, school officials submitted another revised budget which projects the school having a surplus, William O’Kelly, chairman of the Agape board of directors, told the state board panel Monday. Changes in the new proposed budget include requiring employees to pay 20% of their health insurance costs, saving $19,200 per year.
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Centrist
The article provides a straightforward report on the challenges facing Agape Achievement Academy’s charter school application and does not promote a particular ideological stance or viewpoint. It presents factual information about the decision-making process of the state school board, including quotes from board members, details about budget concerns, and procedural requirements for charter schools. The language is neutral and focuses on presenting the sequence of events and official statements without editorializing or using loaded terms that could indicate bias. Thus, the content adheres to neutral, factual reporting by covering the issue without advocating for or against the charter school or any broader political position related to education policy.
A reader asked about growing black bear populations in western North Carolina and potential control methods like trapping, birth control, or castration. Wildlife experts explain bears do die from vehicle collisions and legal hunting, but these don’t sufficiently control the population. Castration and fertility control are not feasible due to biological, logistical, and financial challenges. Relocating bears is ineffective as they often return. The best solution is removing human-related food sources such as unsecured garbage and bird feeders to reduce bear habituation. Additionally, a reader questioned Asheville’s water quality report timing, clarified as a misunderstanding—the 2024 report including post-Helene data is online, with no paper copies printed to save costs.
Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies and the real answers:
Question: Regarding the bear situation, my concern is that nothing kills these bears. Did you ever see a roadkill bear, like a deer, raccoon, possum or squirrel? So, every year these mamas are producing one or two more cubs, so every year the population is increasing exponentially, as more reach the age to reproduce. What is the answer? Trap and export them? Feed them birth control pills maybe? How about capturing males and castrating them? Something’s got to be done soon as it continues to become a problem. I’m sure you will have a witty answer, John.
My answer: Generally speaking, when you toss the word “castration” at a male of any species, wit evaporates instantaneously. Such was the case here. I have also bought a stainless steel codpiece.
Real answer: My recent column about whether we’re heading toward bearmageddon spawned this query. As I noted, we have 8,000 to 9,000 black bears in western North Carolina, and Buncombe County typically accounts for about one-third of the state’s human-bear interaction reports annually.
Our bear population is growing in part because bears have so much access to human-related food, whether that’s garbage, bird feeders or people intentionally feeding bears, all of which cause problems.
Before we get to bear birth control, let’s clear up a misconception the reader has that bears do not get hit by vehicles. I’ve seen dead bears on the roadside at least three times, and it’s unfortunately not that uncommon.
“As stated before, collisions with vehicles are the number one cause of mortality of bears living in and around Asheville, followed by legal hunter harvest,” Colleen Olfenbuttel, a North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission wildlife biologist, said via email. “In fact, Buncombe County continues to be the hotspot for human-bear vehicle collisions in the state.”
For 2023, the most recent year available, Buncombe County recorded 18 to 23 fatal vehicle-bear collisions. Haywood and McDowell were close behind, recording 10 to 17 mortalities, according to WRC data.
“NCDOT, as well as our agency, does a good job of responding to bears hit by cars and removing them, which may be why the commenter never has seen a dead bear,” Olfenbuttel said. “However, the level of mortality caused by drivers is not sufficient to cause the bear population in the Asheville area to decline or stabilize.”
For 2023, the most recent year available, Buncombe County recorded 18 to 23 fatal vehicle-bear collisions. Haywood and McDowell were close behind, recording 10 to 17 mortalities, according to state Wildlife Resources Commission data. // Graphic credit: North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission
Regarding reproductive control by castration or birth control, “neither are feasible or effective,” Olfenbuttel said.
Let’s start with trying to castrate or sterilize male bears.
“Because one male can inseminate many females and because males tend to disperse widely, castration or sterilization of male bears would not be an effective strategy,” Olfenbuttel said. “One would have to sterilize almost every male bear in the county. That means trapping hundreds of male bears, which is simply not possible, as about half of bears are trap-shy, meaning they won’t go in the trap, no matter what bait you use to try to entice them.”
Also, any such effort would have to be annual, “since male bears would disperse into Buncombe County from surrounding counties to displace the sterilized male bears.”
“Another barrier is where you could trap, as there are areas with bears that you can’t place traps, partly due to lack of landowner permission or areas that have high human use,” Olfenbuttel said. “To trap as many male bears as possible, you would need to trap as many places as possible, which is not possible.”
And castration would be effective for captive animals only in controlled settings, she added.
Regarding fertility control for female bears, Olfenbuttel said the “short answer is there are no chemical fertility controls with FDA approval for female bears. Simply put, none are available for application to female black bears.”
Olfenbuttel added these points that also make fertility control difficult:
Fertility control requires treating a large proportion of reproductive females in the population, which is extremely difficult in open populations where movement/dispersal rates are high.
Impacts of fertility control on the health, behavior, and population ecology of treated animals are still largely unknown.
There are no long-lasting contraceptive agents that have been developed that avoid the repeated capture of wild animals and avoid the very high cost of re-treatment.
terilization and fertility control would cost millions of dollars annually.
Over the years I’ve had multiple readers ask about relocating bears, and this is not practical, either. The WRC has a good explainer page on its website about this. The commission notes that its employees will not trap and relocate nuisance bears for these reasons:
This would simply move the problem, rather than solve it. The solution is to modify your habits and prevent bears from being attracted to your home and neighborhood.
Most conflicts do not warrant trapping. For example, a bear simply being in a neighborhood is not necessarily threatening or cause for trapping.
In most cases, people are the cause of the problem and the best long-term solution involves removal of attractants (bird feeders, unsecured garbage) rather than destruction of the bear.
Simply catching every bear that someone sees is not an option; we have no remote places left to relocate bears where they will not come into contact with humans.
Relocated bears often return to the place they were originally captured.
Catching bears is difficult, and can be dangerous for the bear, the public, and those involved in the capture. It is best to let a bear take its natural course out of the neighborhood or city.
The commission really cannot overstate how important it is to secure potential food sources for bears. These sources are called “anthropogenic foods” because they are related to us humans.
Bear cubs sleep in a tree outside a south Asheville home. Controlling bear fertility comes with a large set of obstacles and complications, wildlife experts say. // Watchdog photo by Katie Linsky Shaw
“Our urban bear study showed that due to the amount of anthropogenic foods in Asheville, Asheville residents are growing more bears — larger litter sizes, younger age of first reproduction,” Olfenbuttel said. “If anthropogenic foods were secured in Asheville and surrounding areas — i.e., remove bird feeders when bears are active, use a bear-resistant trash can, use bear-resistant trash can straps such as Trash Lock, put garbage in a secure place until morning of trash pick-up, don’t purposely feed bears — this would reduce anthropogenic foods, thus impacting reproduction and human-bear interactions.”
Reducing human-related foods would make bears act more like wild animals, which means they would be more wary of humans, Olfenbuttel said. It’s always worth mentioning the state’s “BearWise” program, which offers good rules for coexisting with bears:
Never feed or approach bears.
Remove bird feeders when bears are active.
Never leave pet food outdoors.
Clean and store grills.
Alert neighbors to bear activity.
Question: I called the Asheville Water Resources department in February and inquired about the Asheville water quality report. I was told it would be released to the public in April. I recently called to find out if the post-Helene results were available. The supervisor would only refer me to the pre-Helene 2024 results. When I pressed further, I was given the runaround. I know that pre-Helene annual results were always included in early spring with the water bill. Not so post-Helene. What is the water department hiding? And why, for the health of its customers, aren’t the recent detailed water testing results being released to the public?
My answer: Throughout the report, they apparently substituted the letter ‘d’ for the ‘b’ in “turbidity.” Unfortunate, that.
Real answer: This was a bit of a misunderstanding.
Water Resources spokesperson Clay Chandler said he listened to the call my reader put into the city.
The North Fork Reservoir experienced high turbidity following Tropical Storm Helene. The Water Resources Department’s 2024 Water Quality report, which includes post-Helene results, is available on the department’s website. // Photo provided by the City of Asheville
“The customer service rep got confused when the caller asked for the ‘2025’ Water Quality Report,” Chandler said via email. “The 2025 Water Quality Report won’t be issued until spring 2026. The 2024 report, which includes post-Helene results, was posted to the website in April.”
Now, if you’re looking for a paper copy, you won’t find one.
“One thing that is different this year is that we didn’t print copies of the report, as a cost-savings measure,” Chandler said, noting that customers were told it is available on the website. “Our regulators at the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality allow us to either mail paper copies of the report or post it on the website. To save approximately $20,000, we didn’t produce paper copies this year.”
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Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Got a question? Send it to John Boyle at jboyle@avlwatchdog.org or 828-337-0941. His Answer Man columns appear each Tuesday and Friday. The Watchdog’s reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Centrist
The content focuses on local environmental and community issues—specifically bear population management and public water quality reporting—with factual explanations and expert input. It avoids partisan language or promoting ideological positions, instead emphasizing practical challenges and solutions supported by data and authorities. The tone is informational and balanced, reflecting a neutral stance without discernible leanings toward left or right political perspectives.