Buncombe County has spent or dedicated more than $26 million toward Tropical Storm Helene recovery efforts so far and has gone public with the details using an online dashboard.

Buncombe has spent $9.07 million in the two months since the disaster and has contracted with more than 60 entities for an additional $17.5 million. About $12 million of the contracts are dedicated to three companies –– a disaster recovery consultant and two services related to debris recovery.

Asheville Watchdog reported Nov. 14 that the city of Asheville had committed $21.7 million to disaster recovery, with the largest portion of the money going toward emergency repairs on its damaged water distribution system. Combined with the Buncombe expenditures, the total for storm recovery comes to $47.7 million.

County officials unveiled the details of the fiscal toll leveled by the storm when they announced at Monday’s daily Helene briefing that the online dashboard was up and running.

The county’s dashboard shows specifics about the spending, delineating and categorizing individual expenditures. 

Money already spent is labeled and categorized in the dashboard — $3.5 million went toward payroll and benefits and $3.4 million went toward contracted services.

The payroll and benefits are overtime related to the storm response, county spokesperson Kassi Day said.

The dashboard will be updated monthly along with the closing of the county’s ledger, Day said.

The largest contracts that the county has committed to include: 

• $8.03 million for Tetra Tech Inc, a disaster recovery consultant
• $2.8 million for DebrisTech, a debris removal monitoring service
• $2.4 million for Southern Disaster Recovery, a debris removal service
• $1.03 million for MHC Kenworth to replace six dump trucks at the county’s  transfer station
• $689,693 for EnviroServ to bring potable water to the county jail
• $665,400 for Hale Trailer Brake & Wheel to replace six refuse trailers at the transfer station
• $371,613 for Cotton Commercial USA for emergency mitigation services

Details about the contracts are not posted on the dashboard. 

When asked why, Buncombe County’s Financial Planning and Analysis Manager Matt Evans said the contracts “are not completed accounting transactions and are more fluid” than actual spending. Evans said that once there is actual spending, the dashboard will include the details.

Like the city of Asheville, Buncombe will seek reimbursements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“We will be requesting reimbursements for expenses, but we will not know the status of those until approved,” spokesperson Lillian Govus said.

When those payments come in, however, they won’t be reflected on the dashboard, Day said, citing FEMA’s lengthy reimbursement process. 

Asheville’s transparency efforts pending

As of Nov. 27, the city of Asheville did not have a public-facing method to show exactly how it’s using taxpayer dollars on Helene recovery. 

After The Watchdog obtained documents that revealed the city’s Helene spending, City Councilmember Kim Roney said the city was working with an emergency management consulting firm, Hagerty Consulting Inc., to create a public dashboard.

Asked this week when the city’s transparency effort would move forward, spokesperson Kim Miller said various arms of the government are working on it but did not provide details. 

“In our continued commitment to transparency with the community, development of the City’s dashboard is currently underway,” Miller said. “City Council will have an opportunity to provide feedback on some of the preliminary data that we plan to make available in a public dashboard at the December 5 Agenda Briefing meeting.”

With Buncombe and the city of Asheville’s expenditures and commitments totaling more than $47 million, area leaders say they need more financial assistance and traveled to Washington, D.C., on Nov. 20 to meet with President Joe Biden and members of Congress to ask for aid. 

Those requests totaled more than $2 billion, The Watchdog reported Nov. 19. 

Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Andrew R. Jones is a Watchdog investigative reporter. Email arjones@avlwatchdog.org. The Watchdog’s local reporting during this crisis is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.

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Asheville Watchdog is bringing you the stories behind the staggering loss of life from Helene, the children, parents, grandparents, multiple generations of a single family, all gone in one of the worst natural disasters to hit the mountains of western North Carolina. This is the eighth installment.  

Asheville native Norman McGahee’s home, just two houses from the Swannanoa River, had only minor flooding in the more than 20 years he’d lived there.

But Tropical Storm Helene on Sept. 27 caused the river and a nearby creek to combine into a torrent.

Read previous installments of The Lives We Lost.

“The flooding wasn’t up to the point that it had overtaken the home,” said his daughter, Kanita McGahee of Charlotte. “Then there was an overflowing rush of water that pushed him out.”

His son, Amaand, made it to safety. A rescue team attempted to reach McGahee, 73, “but the water basically pushed him away,” his daughter said. “Our home was washed away.”

McGahee’s body was found five days later on Oct. 2. The cause of death was “landslide injury,” according to his death certificate.

McGahee’s modular home was one of 10 on his block in Swannanoa. “Most of them are washed away, but [Norman] was the only one that didn’t survive,” said his sister, Jacqueline McGahee.

“Norm,” as he was known, was one of six children who grew up in the Burton Street community of West Asheville and later lived in Montford. A graduate of Asheville High School, McGahee enlisted in the U.S. Navy, assigned to the USS John F. Kennedy.

He served in the Vietnam War and was awarded the National Defense Service Medal, according to his obituary. McGahee suffered hearing loss aboard the aircraft carrier, his sister said, and was honorably discharged.

He returned to Asheville and started a flooring business, specializing in tiling and grout work.

“He did the floors for the Asheville Mall,” his daughter said.

“There are many people in the community and other surrounding areas that have come to me and told me that he retiled their kitchen or retiled their bathrooms,” said his sister, Jacqueline.

McGahee also worked as the maintenance supervisor at the Vanderbilt Apartments in Asheville until his retirement in 2017.

“He was naturally gifted with flooring, woodwork, art, and music skills,” his obituary said.

McGahee’s extensive collection of albums and CDs covered all genres and included Earth, Wind & Fire, Eric Clapton, John Coltrane, George Benson, Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin, his daughter said.

He played guitar and joined his brothers when they were young in impromptu neighborhood performances. “That’s how we grew up, listening to music,” Kanita McGahee said.

McGahee loved the Carolina Panthers. After he retired, he helped take care of his mother and enjoyed gardening.

“He did it all: flowers, plants, vegetables,” his daughter said. “He was definitely a green thumb.”

McGahee helped his sister, Jacqueline, raise her grandson.

“He was just a great person,” she said. “All my life, we’ve been together.”

In recent years, McGahee suffered from dementia, his family said.

He had five children, including a son, Norman Jr., who preceded him in death. “Norman achieved many accomplishments, but the one he was most proud of was being a dad,” his obituary said.

– Sally Kestin, Asheville Watchdog

Bobby Stokely

Bobby Stokely died doing what he loved – helping people. 

Stokely, 57, was struck by a falling tree Oct. 28 while working to clear brush from the storm. His death certificate listed “Hurricane Helene” as a contributing cause.

Stokely was operating heavy machinery in a wooded residential area just east of The Omni Grove Park Inn in north Asheville on the day he died. According to the North Carolina Forest Service, about 40 percent of trees in Buncombe alone were damaged or downed by unforgiving winds.

Stokely’s employer called his wife and told her that her husband had died but did not provide details, according to Stokely’s son, Robert.

Early in November, Robert Stokely talked to the North Carolina Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which had opened an investigation into his father’s death.

“They explained to me that they had been working, and something happened,” Robert Stokely said. “Dad’s boss had went to haul off a load of brush, and evidently dad had got off the machinery… for some reason… and started using a saw, and from my understanding, a piece of wood or something, come off the saw, and got him in the face. 

“And when he kind of stopped sawing for a minute, the tree cracked and broke and twisted on him and squished in between a rock and the tree. And so, from my understanding, it killed him instantly.”

Stokely’s death certificate listed the cause as “blunt force injury of head and neck.”

The family held a private service after Stokely was cremated.

Stokely lived in Maggie Valley with his wife of five years, Linda. He lost his previous wife to COVID, Robert Stokely said. 

Stokely enjoyed hunting and fishing with his grandson, David, and childhood friend Alan Parker, according to his obituary.

“He liked watching John Wayne movies on TV,” Robert Stokely said. “That was like his Western hero. He liked Western films. He liked listening to old music on the radio on the weekend, too.”

Robert Stokely posted a picture on Facebook of his father grinning for the camera, one arm on a steering wheel.

The post garnered more than 1,000 likes as love from neighbors and friends poured into the comments.

“Dad was the kind of person he would help anybody do anything they needed,” Robert Stokely said. “And everybody knows that. I mean, everybody knew. And he was just helping most people get back into their homes.”

– Andrew R. Jones, Asheville Watchdog

Kim Kutscher Stepp

Kim Kutscher Stepp, 65, drowned when Helene’s floodwaters swept away her Fairview home. 

Her body was found Sept. 30,  in the Cane Creek Road area nearly two miles from her home, according to her death certificate. 

Her grandson Langdon Stepp, who lived with her, escaped death by clinging to a tree amid the flooding.

“My family needs your prayers,” her brother, John Kutscher, posted on Facebook just after Helene struck. “This Storm has caused so much pain and destruction to buildings and people. One being my oldest sister Kim. Her and her Grandson got swept up by the river Garren creek i think Miller Rd Fairview. Her grandson Langdon was caught by a tree. Kim was not so lucky. Her and her house were swept away and she is still missing. Please hold the ones you love close u really never know. Please pray for everyone we all need it.”

A friend of Stepp’s also posted on Facebook about her being swept away. 

“This is my best friend, Kim Kutscher Stepp,” Nicole Tedder Rask posted Sept. 30, including a picture of Stepp. “She has been missing since Friday 9/27/24. She was last seen in her home on Miller Road in Fairview when she was swept away with her home. Her grandson was found clinging to a tree after 3 hours. Her family, friends and search teams have been looking for her. Her car was found but she was not with it. The home has been found and she was not there either. Please, if anyone finds her let me know. The picture is a post from her brother. Her family is devastated and would greatly appreciate all your prayers.”

Rask updated the post later that day to say that Stepp’s body had been found.

Asheville Watchdog reached out to Stepp’s friends and family. Most did not respond and those who did declined to speak about her death.

A Buncombe County native, Stepp worked as an office administrator for Asheville Cardiology, according to her obituary. 

She was “a 1976 graduate of Asheville High School and remained a cougar fan all her life,” her obituary said. “She loved Buc-ee’s, her dogs and family, and was a very compassionate person.”

– Andrew R. Jones, Asheville Watchdog

Marsha Ball

Marsha Ball is the final victim to be identified from devastating landslides in Fairview that killed 13.

Ball, 40, lived in the Garren Creek community that was virtually obliterated by landslides from Tropical Storm Helene. A debris flow carrying trees and boulders down a mountainside and into a valley known as Craigtown for the family that settled there crumpled nearly everything its path.

The landslides, among the deadliest in North Carolina history, killed 11 members of the Craig family and two others, including Ball.

Attempts to reach Ball’s family were unsuccessful. Her mother’s maiden name is Craig, according to her death certificate, but Ball was not related to the Craigs, said Jesse Craig, whose parents and nine other family members died in the landslides.

Ball’s house was just across the Fairview line in Black Mountain. 

Ball was a graduate of T.C. Roberson High School’s Progressive Education Program, serving students with physical and intellectual disabilities, according to her obituary. 

“Her hobbies included coloring on her iPad,” the obituary said.

Ball’s body was found Sept. 27. The cause of death was “landslide injuries due to Hurricane Helene,” according to her death certificate.

– Sally Kestin, Asheville Watchdog

Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Sally Kestin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter. Email skestin@avlwatchdog.org. Andrew R. Jones is a Watchdog investigative reporter. Email arjones@avlwatchdog.org. The Watchdog’s local reporting during this crisis is made possible by donations from the community.  To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.

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