JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Wildfires are burning south of Asheville in an area that was hit by catastrophic flooding six months ago today. It's a blow to communities still recovering. Throughout southern Appalachia, small towns are having a tough time getting back to normal. Paul Garber from member station WFDD visited the mountain community of Lansing near Boone, North Carolina, where too many bridges are still out.
PAUL GARBER, BYLINE: The waters breached the banks of Buffalo Creek near Mae Medley's house the morning of September 27. As the flood got closer, she thought about making a run for it, but that would mean leaving behind her husband, John, who has a disability.
MAE MEDLEY: If it had kept a raining, we'd have just went down the creek with it. John can't walk out of here, and I'm not leaving him. That's exactly what I said.
GARBER: So they rode it out together. A half hour after making that fateful decision, it stopped raining. The Medleys survived the flood, but the bridge they used to cross the creek to get to the main road was destroyed, and they weren't alone. State officials say about 8,000 private bridges and roads were washed out by the floods. Replacing so many bridges has become a hardship. Steven Howell says many residents couldn't use their cars.
STEVEN HOWELL: I've seen people hitchhiking and try to get a ride to town and go get groceries, and it's affected a lot of people.
GARBER: Howell is a volunteer for Lansing's Bridge to Recovery. The local nonprofit helps people make repairs in the area. Howell's crew fixed Mae Medley's bridge.
MEDLEY: God had sent an angel when he come, didn't He?
GARBER: Private bridges are everywhere in these parts. Most homes on the mountains cross a creek, culvert or waterway at some point. Upkeep and repair are up to the landowners. Mack Powell (ph) is mayor of Lansing. With many bridges still out, he says people here are struggling.
MACK POWERS: We talk about moving from disaster to recovery, and I know that's supposed to be kind of a natural process, but for a lot of people, this is still disaster.
GARBER: There are state dollars available to help fix private bridges, but Powell says one barrier to recovery may be that mountain folks are proud to be self-reliant and don't want to ask for help.
POWERS: People in this area are used to giving. They're much more used to giving than receiving, and that's been a difficult thing for a lot of us.
GARBER: Bridge to Recovery, the nonprofit, says only 1 in 5 of the town's 250 damaged bridges have been fixed so far.
For NPR News, I'm Paul Garber in Lansing, North Carolina.
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