Yancey County is one of the last school systems in western North Carolina to get its schools back open. Students in the rural district northeast of Asheville have not been to class since Sept. 25. Teachers and staff at Burnsville Elementary spent Thursday getting their classrooms ready and hosting an open house for families.

Heavy rain fell across parts of western North Carlina on Thursday for the first time since the devastating flooding event from Hurricane Helene and many continue to rebuild their homes.

Three rivers that swelled to deadly levels during Hurricane Helene on Sept. 27 – the French Broad, Nolichucky and Pigeon – start in North Carolina and empty into Douglas Lake. They transformed the waters of the popular recreation and fishing destination to brown muck and left a one-square-mile island of wreckage after the historic floods.

Officials with the North Carolina Department of Transportation estimate that a portion of I-40 in the Pigeon River Gorge will be open to traffic by the start of the new year.

A coastal storm, combined with King Tides are causing flooding problems for the Carolinas heading into the weekend. The rain event is also bringing the first substantial rainfall to western North Carolina since Hurricane Helene.

On Thursday at 7:29 a.m. a coastal flood advisory was issued by the NWS Wilmington NC. The advisory is for Coastal Pender, Coastal New Hanover and Coastal Brunswick.