Hurricane Helene did something few events in Lake Lure’s nearly century-long history have done: it forced us to reconsider, almost all at once, the physical and economic foundations of our community.
The storm damaged roads, bridges, utilities, businesses, homes, parks and waterfront infrastructure. It filled portions of the lake with extraordinary quantities of sediment and debris. It disrupted tourism and changed the landscape along the Broad River and throughout Hickory Nut Gorge.
The recovery since then has been remarkable. Lake Lure has reopened. Parks and trails have returned. Washburn Marina has been rebuilt. More than 1.2 million tons of silt and debris have been removed from the lake, according to the Town. At the same time, work continues on bridges, sewer infrastructure, and the design of a replacement for the nearly century-old Lake Lure Dam.
But as Lake Lure moves from recovery toward rebuilding, we should ask a larger question:
Are we trying to recreate the Lake Lure that existed on September 26, 2024—or are we building the Lake Lure we want to leave to the next generation?
Those are not necessarily the same thing.
Recovery Should Become Resilience
The natural instinct after a disaster is to put everything back where it was.
Sometimes that is exactly what should be done. Lake Lure’s character is worth preserving. The lake, mountains, small-town atmosphere, parks, historic structures, local businesses and distinctive architecture are part of what makes this community different from countless other tourist destinations.
But rebuilding does not have to mean simply replacing what was destroyed.
That makes the recovery an opportunity that communities rarely receive: the chance to rethink multiple pieces of infrastructure at the same time.
The standard should not simply be, “Can we rebuild it?”
It should be, “If we were designing Lake Lure today, knowing what we now know, would we build it this way?”
Infrastructure for the Next Storm
Helene cannot be treated as an event that could never happen again.
That does not mean attempting to make Lake Lure immune from natural disasters. No mountain community can eliminate that risk.
It means considering resilience every time we spend significant money rebuilding.
The replacement Lake Lure Dam is perhaps the most obvious example. The Town has reported that schematic design has been completed and engineering has progressed into more detailed design work.
The same thinking should apply to water, wastewater, communications, bridges and roads.
Every major project should be evaluated not simply against yesterday’s conditions, but against the conditions Lake Lure might face in 2050 or 2075.
Protect the Lake Itself
There is another piece of infrastructure that we sometimes forget to call infrastructure: Lake Lure itself.
Without a healthy lake, virtually everything else changes.
Property values, tourism, recreation, businesses and the identity of the town are all tied to the health and appearance of the lake.
Helene demonstrated dramatically how quickly sediment can alter the Lake. Even after the extraordinary cleanup effort, sediment management and dredging should remain ongoing concerns.
The community should also continue systematic monitoring of water quality. During the recovery, the Town conducted regular sampling and reported results within normal limits.
That practice should not disappear simply because the immediate emergency has passed.
Lake health should become one of the community’s most visible long-term measurements of success.
Local Businesses Must Have a Seat at the Table
There is another form of infrastructure that is sometimes overlooked: Lake Lure’s local businesses.
Restaurants, lodging establishments, shops, contractors, marinas, service companies and other locally owned businesses do much more than generate income for their owners. Collectively, they help fund government through taxes, provide employment, maintain properties, support community organizations and deliver many of the services that residents and visitors depend upon.
For a tourism-dependent community, this relationship is particularly important.
The Town may maintain parks, roads and public facilities, but much of a visitor’s actual experience of Lake Lure is delivered by private businesses.
Where do visitors eat? Where do they stay? Who rents them equipment, repairs their property, maintains vacation homes, provides transportation, sells supplies or gives them another reason to return?
Local businesses do.
That means businesses should not simply be viewed as entities affected by government decisions. They should be partners in making those decisions.
As Lake Lure considers redevelopment, infrastructure projects, zoning, events, parking, signage, lake access and tourism promotion, the Town should actively seek input from the businesses that interact with visitors every day.
Those business owners possess information that is not captured in a planning report. Local business owners know what visitors ask for. They know why customers return. They know what frustrates them. And they see quickly when a policy or infrastructure problem affects the visitor experience. Local business owners have no choice but to react quickly to meet visitor’s demands and, in most cases, do so much faster than the government does.
That does not mean business interests should override the interests of residents or the environment. It means recognizing that a healthy Lake Lure requires all three.
Residents, government and businesses are not competing constituencies. They are partners in the same community. We should treat them as such.
Preserve What Makes Lake Lure Different
Building for the future does not mean turning Lake Lure into something unrecognizable.
In fact, the opposite should be true.
One of the dangers following a major disaster is that rapid redevelopment gradually erases the character that made a community attractive in the first place.
Lake Lure does not need to become another heavily commercialized mountain destination.
Growth will occur. Properties will be redeveloped. New residents will arrive. Businesses will change. Those things are inevitable and should be welcomed and encouraged.
But development decisions made over the next decade will determine whether Lake Lure in 2050 still feels like Lake Lure.
It means enhancing the relationship between the mountains, the lake and the community. There is room for economic development and preservation. The challenge is making the two complement each other.
Help Local Businesses Recover—and Stay
The economic effects of Helene did not end when the floodwaters receded.
A road can be repaired in months. A business that loses its customer base for a year may never reopen.
That distinction matters.
Lake Lure’s recovery should therefore be measured not only by whether the lake is open or whether infrastructure has been repaired, but also by whether the businesses that helped create the community before Helene are still here afterward.
Local government cannot—and should not—guarantee the success of individual businesses. But it must create an environment in which businesses have a reasonable opportunity to succeed.
That means communicating clearly about road and lake access. It means coordinating construction projects when possible to minimize unnecessary disruption. It means making permitting understandable and efficient. It means considering the economic consequences of regulations. And it means aggressively communicating to the outside world that Lake Lure is open for business.
Perhaps most importantly, it means talking with businesses rather than simply communicating decisions to them.
A regular business advisory group or structured forum between Town leadership and local business owners could help identify problems before they become larger ones.
Build an Economy That Can Survive Disruption
Helene demonstrated how dependent the regional economy is on visitors being able to reach and use the lake.
When roads close, the lake closes or news reports convince tourists that Western North Carolina is inaccessible, businesses suffer immediately.
Tourism will always be central to Lake Lure, and it should be.
But the community should think about how to make its economy more resilient.
That could mean encouraging businesses capable of operating year-round, expanding outdoor recreation beyond boating, supporting remote workers and small professional businesses, strengthening connections with neighboring communities, and creating reasons for visitors to come during traditionally slower seasons.
A stronger economy does not necessarily mean a bigger economy.
It can mean a more diverse and resilient economy.
And maintaining a strong base of locally owned businesses keeps more economic activity within the community while preserving the personal character visitors associate with Lake Lure.
Think Beyond the Next Budget
Perhaps the greatest challenge is financial.
Lake Lure is a relatively small community facing infrastructure needs more typical of a much larger municipality.
Federal and state assistance can accomplish extraordinary things, as the Helene recovery has demonstrated. But grants will not pay for everything forever.
That makes maintaining a healthy local economy even more important.
Businesses, property owners, residents and visitors ultimately provide the economic foundation that allows a community to maintain services and infrastructure. Policies that encourage responsible private investment and a healthy business climate therefore aren’t separate from infrastructure planning—they help make infrastructure possible.
A Rare Opportunity
Lake Lure is already undertaking a new Comprehensive Plan intended to guide physical, economic, environmental and social development and specifically address vulnerabilities revealed by Helene.
That process could prove every bit as important as the physical reconstruction occurring around us.
Because the greatest legacy of the Helene recovery should not simply be that Lake Lure reopened.
It should be that Lake Lure learned.
We learned where infrastructure was vulnerable. We learned how essential the lake is to our economy. We learned how quickly roads and communications can disappear. We learned how important local businesses are to the visitor experience and to the economic health of the community. And we learned the importance of neighbors, businesses, volunteers, emergency responders and government agencies working together.
Perhaps most importantly, we learned that the things we assume will always be here can change overnight.
Lake Lure will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2027. That makes this an unusually appropriate moment to think about its second century.
Fifty years from now, most people will not remember every decision made during the recovery from Hurricane Helene.
But they will live with them.
They will drive across the bridges we build. They will depend on the water and sewer systems we design. They will live downstream from the dam we construct. They will inherit the development patterns we approve. They will eat in the restaurants, shop in the stores and visit the businesses that today’s decisions either helped preserve or allowed to disappear. And they will swim, boat and fish in the lake we leave behind.
Our responsibility, therefore, is greater than simply restoring what was lost.
We should preserve what was special about the Lake Lure of 2024 while having the courage to improve what was vulnerable. And we should recognize that government, residents and local businesses will have to do it together.
Helene forced Lake Lure to rebuild.
What we build next is our choice.
