Hardin Brothers Landscaping

The damage caused by Hurricane Helene has had a huge impact on our region. Many lives, homes and properties were lost and destroyed by the storm. Those areas along creeks and rivers were flooded and tornadoes wiped out much of our forests. Mudslides were also responsible for many deaths and devastation.

Thankfully, the storm didn’t devastate Amber Ranches. No houses were flooded, hit by trees or washed away by mudslides. A lot of trees came down and some houses had some water damage, but the damage was very minimal compared to other areas nearby.

Overall, the community of Buladean fared well during the storm. Many trees came down and creeks flooded, but the effort to repair these areas has been phenomenal. Our Buladean Community Center (the old elementary school) did an extremely good job at providing relief to not only Buladean, but the entire county. Businesses, churches, non-profit organizations and the National Guard all showed up with supplies and labor to help our local citizens.

On the night of the storm my brother said he could hear boulders crashing against each other as they rolled down Broad Branch (the creek that starts up at Amber Ranches). He lives in the little white house pictured below where my great grandparents once lived (first house on the right on the paved road when leaving Amber Ranches). The creek got up over the bridge and up to his front porch steps, but not inside his house. His garage and basement flooded, but the house and bridge withstood the storm.

On the night of the storm I was staying with my parents in Burnsville. Burnsville was hit by the storm too, but thankfully my parents’ house only had mild water damage.

On the day after the storm, everyone who had a chainsaw had to start cutting their way out of their driveways and roadways in order to reach essential supplies. Everyone was without electricity, water, internet, and phone service.

I began cutting my family and neighbors out of their driveways in Burnsville. My brother worked his way down Broad Branch Road to my Grandma and then to his girlfriend’s family on Bad Creek. Andy and Dawn Hotchkiss, as well as other residents at Amber Ranches began cutting their way towards their neighbors at Amber Ranches. All the roads and driveways in the region had to be opened up with chainsaws so that people could be rescued and reach essential services, food and water.

The entire region worked, and are continuing to work to get things back into shape. When FEMA arrived, they said we were weeks ahead of schedule for the normal progress associated with a storm that caused this much destruction. They credited this progress to the strong work ethic of the local people and all the volunteers that came into the region.

After the initial rescue effort was over, my brother and I began to improve the roads and roadsides at Amber Ranches. Grading our roads and cutting trees further off of our roadsides and power lines became our priority. Chris and Kathy Brooks also rounded up some volunteers at the Buladean Community Center to help with the effort. Our Grandmother Shirley Hughes, Mike and Nancy Bellinder all donated their personal tractors to help with the effort.

Normally, this is the time of year that we clear all the leaves, sticks and debris out of our ditches and culverts. Mother Nature changed our plans. We’re still cutting back roadside trees and branches off of our roadsides so that we can eventually get back to our normal seasonal maintenance.

We still have a lot of work to do on our culverts and we need to re-grade our ditches with the tractor, but we’re making progress. The roads and roadsides are now safe and in reasonably good shape compared to what they were right after the storm. I want to thank everyone that helped us out after the storm. It was certainly a team effort and it brought us all together.

And here are some more photos from around the county…