Ben Hendren
CHIMNEY ROCK, West Virginia — Blue-collar workers prevailed over bureaucracy in Hurricane Helene-ravaged North Carolina by rebuilding a highway at breakneck speed on their own terms – allowing residents to finally return home.
Coal miners from West Virginia – whom locals have lovingly dubbed the “West Virginia Boys” – moved a mountain in just three days to reopen a 2.7-mile stretch of Highway 64 between Bat Cave and Chimney Rock washed away by Helene.
Chimney Rock residents who fled the hurricane one month ago will now be able to return home for the first time within a few days, months earlier than they expected.
“The river swallowed the road, so I haven’t been home since the hurricane,” Robin Phillips, 49, told The Post.
“The West Virginia boys have moved the mountains. All of the roads were just gone, until now. It’s nothing short of miraculous.
“I haven’t been to my house since the flood but I know very soon I’ll be able to. Without their help, who knows, it would be months before I could access our house.”
Phillips and her husband also run a campground in Chimney Rock, she said. They have not been able to assess the state of their business since the hurricane came through.
“For a small community like ours without many residents, that could easily get overlooked, it’s unreal what they’re doing,” she said of the miners’ effort.
The Post previously spoke to “sole survivors” from Chimney Rock, who expected to spend a year on the open road until road access to their home was restored.
On Friday, The Post watched while the miners balanced a bulldozer and two excavators on the banks of the newly-widened Broad River to shift the final 20-ton granite boulder into place to restore access between the two towns.
The miners, who were all volunteering their time, were too sheepish about building a highway without legal permission to speak on the record.
Officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), North Carolina Department of Transportation and the local Sheriff’s office all visited the site but turned a blind eye to the unsanctioned build.
Logan Campbell, 37, a volunteer from Mississippi, said the miners embodied the American spirit.
“To see this many wonderful men, women, all races, different political views, none of that matters at all in these situations,” he told The Post.
“Weak people don’t show up for s–t like this, and if they do they don’t last long.
“It’s such a heartwarming thing to see amidst all the heartbreak.
“It gives you so much hope for the American we all want to believe in and the America we want our children to experience.”
Campbell and his friend Dan Lewis, 41, have been sleeping in tents for the past 17 days volunteering for the residents in the hardest hit towns.
“Different road crews came in and said ‘it’s not doable, the people who live between Bat Cave and Chimney Rock will be trapped in all winter,” said Lewis, who traveled to North Carolina from Oklahoma.
“The DOT (North Carolina Department of Transportation) said ‘yeah, we’ll send some engineers down here and assess the situation.’
“Then the West Virginia boys came in and said, ‘We’ll have this road punched in in about three days.’ No s–t,” he recalled.
“The Army Corps of Engineers took a look and said they’d send some surveyors and engineers, the same thing the DOT said pretty much. I told them you might as well not waste your time because the West Virginia guys will have this road built before you finish your paperwork,” Lewis continued.
“It’s a miracle. It’s unfathomable what has happened in the past few days.
Many in the area still feel abandoned by FEMA and other emergency responders.
Bat Cave resident Curtis McCart – who appeared on The Post’s cover in the immediate wake of Helene – said he still has not received any FEMA aid, but that the agency has set up in the fire department to help residents work on their claims.
“This area got left alone. I rode my horse around and talked to people who haven’t seen any officials,” Lewis told The Post.
“People in this situation should be able to rely on the government and tax dollars coming in, but it never happened.
“The first FEMA guy came in about a week ago. These people should be supplied with what was promised to them on television. They’re right here, help them.
“I’ve heard stories of people getting money from FEMA, but not one person I’ve talked to has got money from FEMA.”