Misty Hughes, a fifth-generation resident of Poplar, N.C., organizes flood relief efforts at the Poplar Community Center on Friday. The mountain hamlet sits along the Nolichucky River, which rose to record levels of flooding from Tropical Storm Helene.
Jessica Tezak for NPR
POPLAR, N.C. – Fewer than 300 people live in this tiny mountain hamlet, but their ties to this place are deep.
“I’m a fifth-generation settler child,” says Misty Hughes. “My great grandfather was the first white settler amongst the Indians here.”
The community sits along the beautiful Nolichucky River, popular for its whitewater rafting. When it rose up violently, Hughes’ home survived but her aunt and uncle’s place did not. “They ran out with the clothes on their back, and they’re both in their late 70s,” she says.
Tropical Storm Helene tore up much of the infrastructure that supplies western North Carolina with water and electricity. Restoring it has been slow going — especially in the most isolated areas like Poplar, which sits atop a winding, forested road.
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Hughes is coordinating much of the relief effort in Poplar, juggling nonstop questions and — thanks to a Starlink satellite set up in the yard — texts and calls. Cars, ATVs and helicopters cycle in and out of the community center with drop-offs and deliveries.
The 1910 home of Poplar resident Patrick Toups stood on this spot before it was swept away by Tropical Storm Helene’s floodwaters. Toups is an artist and welder, and about the only things left standing are his metal sculptures and the black railings he built for the front porch steps.
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She says most people here are seniors, and she’s worried about them. “They’re sticking with it. It’s not the first time they sit in the dark. That’s a quote!” she laughs. “So, they’re going to rough it.”
The last estimate Hughes got was that the hamlet may face up to five months without electricity, phone lines or internet.
Given that stark possibility, she’s now scouting for propane and kerosene heaters to see people through the cold, dark winter ahead. “These elderly that once used wood stoves have aged to the point that they’re unable to supply that need for themselves,” she says.
Another priority is making sure people can get the medication and care they need. Rick Hughes, who is 70 and says he’s no “close” relation to Misty, has a 94-year-old mother with high blood pressure.
Water and fuel donations wait to be distributed at the Poplar Community Center, where a food pantry has been set up inside. Community organizers are also scouting for propane and kerosene heaters in case the power outage stretches into winter.
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He and his wife are “not even staying in our house anymore,” he says. “We’re staying in her house, trying to keep a generator going. And she has to go to the hospital a lot so we’re just trying to keep her calm.”
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He’s working to switch her care to another hospital, because the one she had been going to half an hour away in Erwin, Tenn., was flooded out.
The whitewater paddling community has rallied to help a beloved place
One major source of help for Poplar has been the community of paddlers and kayakers who live nearby and have long simply passed through the hamlet to raft the rapids of the Nolichucky River.
Helene’s flooding put river educator Trey Moore out of work for now, so he’s been devoting all his time to rounding up donations, supplies and volunteers from across the country. Every morning at 9 o’clock, Moore gathers with a few neighbors on his front porch in nearby Erwin to discuss needs and logistics for Poplar.
At a recent gathering, one of Moore’s neighbors said she’d been in Poplar the day before and used a portable internet connection to help people there sign up for FEMA disaster aid – especially seniors not comfortable with computers.
Trey Moore (right) holds a neighborhood meeting on his front porch in Erwin, Tenn., to plan how to help with flood relief in Poplar, N.C. From left are Ruth Bell, Melissa Barnes and Dave Bell. Moore has rallied support from the whitewater paddling community that passes through Poplar to raft the Nolichucky River.
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Another neighbor said she was checking whether a new supply of generators could be borrowed or donated. Moore suggested looking into solar generators to cut down on noise and fumes at people’s homes and save fuel for other uses.
For Moore, this new focus is a way to process his grief over the destruction of a beloved river community that most paddlers simply bypassed. He said this was an opportunity to “build goodwill between paddlers and the people of Poplar.”
“What I hope for,” he says, “is that now my neighbors know me, and that we’re friends, and that some of us are going to become family through this.”
A 1910 house floats upstream, ‘completely majestic like a ballerina’
After the porch meetings, Moore usually drives up to Poplar to help out at the community center, which is just down the road from where he would put boats into the river.
That road runs along damaged railroad tracks, which a loader and other machinery are working to clear and restore. Then, around a corner, the entire area becomes a wasteland of deep, brown muck. On one side is the river. On the other, Moore’s friend and fellow paddler Patrick Toups is trying to dig out his property.
Patrick Toups stands near the area where his 1910 home once stood along the Nolichucky River in Poplar, N.C.
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“What you’re looking at is, for some places, five feet of river silt,” Toup says. “This entire area became a standing water river eddy. All of the trees and garbage were kind of floating around in here.”
Until Helene hit, Toups lived on this spot in a house that was built in 1910. He says the previous owner had told him about a big flood in 1977 when water reached the front porch steps. So Toups was in disbelief as Helene’s floodwaters just didn’t stop, eventually reaching the home’s gutters.
Retreating up a hill behind the house, he watched what happened next, distraught but also amazed. “That house picked up in one beautiful piece. It floated out upstream into the eddy, completely majestic like a ballerina,” he says.
Toups is thankful he had just built a workshop up top of the hill. He’s now staying there, not ready to imagine giving up on this place he loves.
Making do and planning for the long haul
It took days to clear out some driveways and roads in Poplar, and some elderly residents are still not able to get around. Misty Hughes says even some who drove themselves before are now afraid to go out on the torn-up roads. She’s sending out volunteers on ATVs to do wellness checks and see what people need.
Down one road and up a long driveway, two volunteers stop to check on an older couple. Jarrell Peterson greets them in the yard and says he could use more gasoline for the generator. The couple is lucky to have a water well, he says, but he sure does miss hot showers.
Chris Nash (center) leads a team searching for people who need help after record flooding in Poplar, N.C.
Jessica Tezak for NPR
Inside the house his wife, Jewel, dissolves into tears when she starts talking about what happened. “I’m just devastated for everybody,” she says, her voice catching. But she immediately counts her blessings, saying she’s thankful her loved ones are safe and that her home – in which her husband grew up – was spared.
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She is also finding ways to make do. “We have a grill that we heated water on to do dishes and bathe,” she says. “You know, when you live in the mountains, you kind of do things different.”
Peterson says that includes being prepared. She’s happy her husband had just dug up their potatoes before the flooding. She’s also canned food, and as long as the generator holds out, they’ve got a full freezer.
