‘This is a story of human resilience': Marshall, NC still working to come back 6 months after Helene
MARSHALL, N.C. (WNCN) — There's an old saying that locals sometimes use to describe Marshall, North Carolina. It's 'a block wide, a mile long, sky high and hell deep.'
Toward the end of September 2024, those words took on new meaning.
'No one alive has ever seen that. I mean, we were expecting 19 feet, and our crest was 27 foot two inches here in the town, and that's verified. So that's like where we're standing. People were like, where is the water line? There's no water line, not in this room. I mean, the whole thing would tear the whole ceiling out. So, I had 11 feet of water in this building,' said Josh Copus.
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Copus first watched the French Broad River from the historic jail, which he bought from the county and turned into a hotel and restaurant.
'And I went to the courthouse and just watched it and just cried in absolute shock, disbelief. I left about 1 p.m., you know, I watched all the windows in Joel Freeman's Zuma coffee just shatter. And the whole restaurant just floated down the street and that's when I was like, I can't take it anymore,' said Copus.
Days passed before Joel Friedman could see the real damage Copus saw unfold.
'I had to climb in through sharded glass, glass shards through the window through about a foot and a half of muck, mud,' Freidman said.
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Friedman's Zuma Coffee sits on a corner that is the cornerstone of downtown Marshall in the truest sense. He was among the first to see the town's potential 23 years ago.
'I'm at a loss and I'm saying you know what… I don't think is going to happen again,' he said.
Friedman took a few days, leaving the devastation behind, to just clear his head and think. When he came back and parked his car, he knew what to do.
'As soon as I stopped the engine and opened my door I was surrounded by a community with hugs and love and asking me to come back and that we need to. That you're the heart and soul of this community. You're the one that got us started, we can't do it without you. So, at that moment I knew exactly what I had to do,' he said.
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Through the same mud and destruction, Connie Molland was also soon surrounded.
'I'd say within two hours of starting, helpers came—people we didn't even know, people we knew just showed up and just started helping and without that help and so many people that came even this week to help be open today we would not be where we are,' Molland said.
Officially back open six months to the day, Flow Gallery is flowing normally again just like the French Broad.
'We care about each other for our uniqueness and our quirkiness and what we've gone through,' Molland said.
Proudly showing off his progress, Copus is getting there too. But he said the story book ending is not quite there yet.
'We've done an incredible job as a town. You know, I always like to tell people like, look at our progress and it's worth celebrating,' he said. 'But at the same time, like, this is going to take years and so we're not okay. We're still not okay. This is not over. Like that's just the first chapter. This is a story of human resilience, compassion and love and community. That's the story that we're actually writing.'
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