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When Hurricanes Helene and Milton hit last year, hearts around the nation went out to Western North Carolina, which endured severe flooding and damage despite being hundreds of miles from the coast. Some cities went months without potable water; thousands of roads and bridges were closed for weeks; entire homes and businesses were swept away — all at the beginning of the “leaf color season,” which the region heavily relies on for tourism revenue.

As district governor-elect of his local Rotary club, Alex “Alpo” Portelli ’81, a retired military counterintelligence agent and Nebo, North Carolina, resident, became one of the faces of the region’s recovery efforts. He was made the “talking dog” when stations like CNN and The Weather Channel reported from the scene, and he has spent the last year organizing aid to emergency operations, rehousing families and clearing debris.

“It was pretty rough there for a while, but we’re getting out of it slowly but surely,” Portelli said recently.

Through the nationwide network of Rotary clubs, many experienced in deadly tropical storms, Portelli and his district received donated materials to aid in the area’s rehabilitation. In some mountainside towns that were cut off by road from flooding or downed trees, aid had to be airlifted by helicopters or even hauled by mules.

Portelli projects that it will take three to five years for the region to reach “total economic return.” They are currently rebuilding, which will take another one to two years, he said, and while larger cities like Asheville are mostly back in business, there are still “a couple of valleys up in our northern counties that look like Day 2.” 

The construction is made more difficult by the lack of hurricane insurance in the mountains: “Everything has to be rebuilt from scratch, out of pocket,” he said.

Even though Western North Carolina has endured a great deal of heartache in the last year, Portelli said he and his neighbors also have been deeply moved seeing people come together to help. They’ve even picked up some new skills on the way — last month Portelli gave a disaster relief workshop with another Rotary district governor in Jacksonville.

Now in the middle of another hurricane season, Portelli and members of his community are armed (literally, with chainsaws) against threats to their recovery timeline.

“North Carolinians, we’re mountain folk, so the resiliency is incredible,” Portelli said.

“After the initial ‘Oh, wow,’ it’s like, ‘OK, we’ll roll up our sleeves, we’ll get going.’”