After Helene’s destruction, a mountain town reliant on fall tourism wonders what’s next WSOC TV [Video]

BOONE, N.C. — (AP) — Freddie Pell helps lift a vintage wooden chair off the sidewalk and back inside his art gallery. It’s starting to rain in downtown Boone, and he doesn’t want it to get soaked — again.

Inside, vast muddy puddles spread across the room as workers use mops to push the water out the door. A thin dark line on the wall — about a foot up from the floor — shows how high the water rose when Tropical Storm Helene came barreling through on Friday, Pell said.

“Luckily, most of our art is on the wall,” Pell said Monday, gesturing to the vibrant paintings and prints crafted by local artists.

In the days after Helene razed much of western North Carolina, some store owners in downtown Boone have a lot of cleanup to do and don’t know if they’ll see much business at all for the foreseeable future — a critical problem for a town of …