HOT SPRINGS, N.C. — Hot Springs is a tourist destination. Community members say out-of-towners come to the area to enjoy its famous hot springs, see the leaves change every fall and walk parts of the Appalachian Trail.
However, the recent flooding from Helene has scarred the downtown of this small mountain community.
"Nothing's the same but the best part is that all the people that we love and care about are still here," Elissa Humphries said. She first visited Hot Springs when she was only a 4-year-old.
"The town that you grow up in and seeing all the people that you care about, love about and seeing all their businesses completely decimated and just feeling absolutely hopeless," Humphries said.
Humphries turned her lack of hope into hard work, tasking her and her friends with cleaning up the inventory at Gentry Hardware—a staple in the community.
"It's extremely important we get this business up—up and running so we can get the rest of them up," Humphries said.
Donations of food, water and even a shed being used as a "pop-up" hardware store have kept this community together.
"Seeing the community come together for the past week has been amazing. Everybody's trying to lend a helping hand," Humphries said. She emphasized the people of Hot Springs are not a sob story, they are a resilient community that is now turning its focus into recovery and coming together.
"We don't want to just be another sob story," Humphries said. "We do need help and we do need assistance, but we're not trying to make people feel that sorry for us. So, we'll come out of it."