Planting season 2026 is underway across the country, including the mountains of North Carolina where farmers continue to rebuild from the devastation Hurricane Helene brought almost 18 months ago. Corn and apple grower Linda Pryor of Hendersonville, North Carolina says they’ve come a long way.
“At first, it was just very overwhelming, and now we’ve been able to break things up. And thankfully, for the ‘25 planting season, we only had one corn field and one orchard that we couldn’t access to plant. This year, we’ve gotten that cornfield rehabbed, and we can get back in there. The orchard, we still can’t, but amazing compared to where we started.”
Pryor says the rebuilding from the September 2024 storm continues.
“We’re still doing things daily. This week, actually, we worked on some culverts that were damaged from the hurricane that we’re just now able to repair. And a lot of that was just being able to afford to be able to do it. And as different funds have come in, and different programs have been allocated, then we’ve been able to do more.”
The recovery in the North Carolina mountains continues and will for a long time to come.
“You don’t think about the number of engineers it takes to be able to rebuild and redesign roads, and there’s not enough in the area and so just little things like that that you wouldn’t normally think of that it just takes time to make those plans and get those things to where they can those projects can happen.”