Vintage Harley-Davidson enthusiast Tom Plackis was used to answering calls for help. He retired after a long career with New York City’s fire department. This time, it was his friends asking to help them escape the devastation of Hurricane Helene in Bat Cave near Chimney Rock, North Carolina.
Nearly a year after Helene devastated Western North Carolina, residents who lived through the natural disaster say the deadly storm brought them closer together with their friends and neighbors.
High winds and heavy rains especially battered the Hickory Nut Gorge, the scenic region home to Lake Lure, Chimney Rock and Bat Cave on Sept. 27, 2024. The deluge washed out most of the buildings on the main throughfare in Chimney Rock. Debris filled Lake Lure. Bat Cave became cut off from the outside world when the Rocky Broad River rearranged the landscape. In total, at least 108 people lost their lives and countless others suffered property damage.
Answering a cell phone call, luckily during a time when he was using his generator to recharge it, Plackis didn’t know how he’d get to his friends given all the downed trees and washed-out roads. He was familiar with the area from years of riding his motorcycles to Chimney Rock and Lake Lure. He’s ridden across most of Western North Carolina and made several cross-country motorcycle trips, but the massive storm damage made obvious routes impassable.
He used his network of friends and former colleagues to give him updates as his emergency-supply-packed truck slowly made its way to through the swath of storm damage.
“It was awesome the way strangers came together to help each other to help one another. We met new friends through the whole thing, people from other areas coming to help, said Jim Kempton, whose wife reached out to Plackis for help.
“For me, one of the greatest things was as if, strange as it sounds, we got to experience something that not everybody on this planet gets to experience. I feel blessed, or just enlightened,” Kempton said. “I raced motorcycles when I was young. I went through a lot of broken bones and a lot of stuff racing motocross. It was an experience. Just the experience that I look back on, it enriches my life, as bad as it was, as horrible as everything was, how many people get to experience something so terrible?”
As the storm passed, Kempton and his wife, Tara Normington, became thankful their home was intact. They weren’t injured, but some of the neighbors were. They offered first aid, food and clothing. Power was out. The main highway, U.S. 74A, did not exist anymore, scoured away by the raging river.
Kempton’s iPhone has a feature where users can send an SOS via satellite. He got a response and requested help. A group of rescuers soon approached from over the wooded mountain responding to the SOS. They managed to call for a military helicopter to evacuate survivors of the devastating flood. They arrived the next day. There was no place to land, so they lowered personnel and began hauling the injured and newly unhoused up in a basket. A crewman on the ground tallied everyone’s weight before loading them for evacuation. Kempton asked about their beloved Australian shepherd, Rocky. Sorry, no dogs on the helicopter came the terse reply.
“I said we’re not going. A man can’t leave his dog. I said we’re hiking out. He kind of gave a look of approval,” said Kempton, who retired to the scenic area after a career in the aerospace industry.
The couple packed up some essentials and cherished possessions in to a few backpacks and headed out with their dog on a three-mile hike to the Gerton Fire Department’s station on U.S. 74A.
“Thank goodness we’re both in shape to do that because it wasn’t a cake walk. We were crawling down into the stream and wading. We were walking along and all of sudden, the road is gone,” Kempton said.
They made the arduous hike to the fire station, then caught a ride to another fire house closer to Asheville. They didn’t want to go to the main shelter to spend the night since they were not sure they’d even take them with their dog. That’s when Normington managed to get a cell phone call out to her friend Plackis, who lives near Rutherfordton, about 40 miles away.
Plackis, the retired FDNY firefighter, snapped into action. Several roads were still flooded, washed out completely, or blocked by down trees, but the former 9/11 first responder was undeterred.
“I can’t make any promises on what time, but I’m going to be there, I don’t know when, so don’t leave,” he told his friends.
Plackis, who collects and restores vintage Harley-Davidsons as a hobby, eventually found an open route to meet and evacuate Kempton and his wife – and of course, their family dog.
For residents near Bat Cave, Chimney Rock and Lake Lure, life is returning to normal a year later. Work continues in Chimney Rock and Lake Lure to rebuild roads. Chimney Rock State Park has reopened, although access from the north is still blocked or restricted.
“Obviously, I appreciate that our house is still there, based on the fact several people were not that lucky. I’m grateful we’re alive and didn’t suffer any debilitating circumstances. Our place is the most beautiful place on earth. It’s a been a long haul getting it back to being beautiful,” Kempton said.
