BLACK MOUNTAIN, North Carolina (WLOS) — A Black Mountain community held a Road to Recovery Groundbreaking Ceremony on Tuesday, June 3, marking a big step forward for the area eight months after Hurricane Helene.

Paul Hensen, president of High Rock Acres Road Maintenance Association (HRA RMA), said Tuesday’s event was about celebrating moving forward.

“It was traumatic. It took a long time for people to recover from the event, now we want to celebrate because now we’re moving forward with an actual recovery,” Hensen said. “We’re in the construction phase. This will take about six months, and we’re going to have to tear down hills and put culverts into the ground.”

The ribbon-cutting ceremony took place at the base of the main hill on NC Highway 9 in Black Mountain.

Melinda Halford described the challenges the community faced in the storm’s aftermath.

“All the communications were down,” Halford said. “We had folks who were on medications that they didn’t have, or we needed to get those people out to other family members.”

With the assistance of FEMA, local leaders, and community members, the long-anticipated reconstruction of the community’s sole access road on High Rock Acres Road is moving forward.