Landslides have buried parts of North Carolina after Hurricane Helene. For some homeowners, it’s too dangerous to rebuild.

Katelyn Midkiff and her father, Bill, were sitting at their kitchen table when a thunderous sound gave way to chaos. On the morning of September 27, their house was destroyed by a landslide Hurricane Helene. It was one of more than 2,000 landslides in western North Carolina.

“There was a loud noise behind us,” Katelyn Midkiff said. “Then it was like we were being thrown and pulled at the same time.”

Mud and debris from the landslide trapped them for three hours. Bill, a liver transplant patient, suffered serious injuries, including a broken neck and broken back. He had no access to his anti-rejection medications in the pile of destruction that was once his home and land.

“The dishwasher hit me in the face,” he said. “The refrigerator would have killed me, but it’s now against the tree.”

The mud and debris were so thick that their neighborhood was cut off from the rest of the region. Bill and his daughter were eventually rescued by a Blackhawk helicopter.

The hill on which their house had stood for thirty years was cut away by the force of the storm. The land washed down the river.

Their home was crushed against trees and rocks, landing far downhill from where it was just hours earlier.

As the family recovers, they have learned not to rebuild. The threat of future landslides makes it too dangerous.

The geologist’s perspective

Jennifer Bauer, chief geologist at Appalachian Landslide Consultants, was instrumental in mapping the landslides and assessing the risk of reconstruction. Bauer uses specialized maps to identify areas that glow bright purple on her rugged laptop.

These ‘purple zones’ show areas where landslides, known in geology as ‘debris flows’, are likely to begin. The zones make up 13.3% of the mountainous counties in western North Carolina, amounting to approximately 1,296 square miles.

If all of these areas were combined into one landmass, it would be almost as large as the state of Rhode Island. According to Bauer, this conclusion is based on advanced LiDAR scans from aircraft, satellite images and data on the ground.

“It’s important that people understand that there are many safe places to build and some that are not,” Bauer said as she toured affected neighborhoods with CBS News.

The impact of climate change

Stronger And wetter storms driven by climate change intensify the severity and frequency of landslides.

“Since the 1980s, hurricane records have shown a more active period in the North Atlantic,” according to NASA research. “On average, there have been more storms, stronger hurricanes and an increase in hurricanes that are rapidly intensifying.”

Ed Williams, a retired water quality biologist, and his wife had hoped to build a house on their land in western North Carolina. They are now changing their plans to build a smaller house on a different part of the property to ensure greater security.

“The last time a storm like this even came close to this much rain was in 1916, over 100 years ago,” Williams said. “We know now because of climate change that there are a lot more storms coming out of the Gulf of Mexico that we haven’t seen in the past. So those storms out of the Gulf tend to be the ones that dump a lot more rain here.”

The economic and emotional toll

For many, the financial and emotional toll of these landslides is insurmountable. Many homeowners are hoping FEMA will help buy them out, but it’s too early to know how much financial help they can expect. Some told CBS News that FEMA buyouts, while helpful, often fall far short.

In November, the Midkiff family met with FEMA again at an abandoned store in a shopping center in Asheville, North Carolina. They filled out the paperwork to have FEMA pay them in full for the house and land, but they may have to wait a very long time before they see such a large check.

The Midkiffs, like many others, are faced with the grim reality of having to leave their cherished homes. Often, this uncertainty leaves homeowners in limbo as they are unsure where they can safely rebuild.

“There are many homes under the purple zones that could be affected by future landslides,” Bauer said.

Community resilience

Despite the devastation, the community is resilient.

“There’s something about seeing people come together, to work to rebuild a place that means so much,” Williams said.

As recovery efforts continue, geologists like Bauer are working tirelessly to identify safe areas for rebuilding. Still, the scars left by the landslides are a reminder of the risks of living on land that keeps moving during big rainstorms.

The landslides of 2024 mark the end of one chapter and the beginning of a new one for the Midkiffs, Williams and others.

“I can’t really think of any other place I would want to live,” Williams said. “So we’re going to figure out a way to do it. There are a lot of great places out there, but this is our home, and this is where we want to be.”