CHIMNEY ROCK, N.C. — Hurricane Helene’s devastation across western North Carolina led to the temporary closure of 21 post offices in the region.
Five are still temporarily closed, resulting in longer commute times for people wanting to send mail.
But the village of Chimney Rock just got its post office back on Monday. This means people like Barbara Milkeski can pick up the mail from their own P.O. box for the first time since the September 2024 storm.
“This is our community, and it was just important to us to get it open,” said Barbara Milkeski, a Chimney Rock resident and owner of the building.
But there are still communities waiting on their turn to welcome back their post office, like in Swannanoa.
“All of a sudden we don’t have a place to go check our mail, the P.O. box especially. And, we did without an office,” Dan Slagle, a volunteer with Swannanoa Grassroots Alliance, says.
Slagle retired as a window clerk from the Swannanoa Post Office in 2003, after a 25-year run.
“It was a treat just to see people. It was a community place,” Slagle said. “You know, people go to the mailbox and they run into neighbors, and they end up standing and talking.”
After the Swannanoa Post Office flooded during Helene, the U.S. Postal Service reassigned Swannanoa residents to a different home post office.
It’s in North Asheville, which is a 25-mile round trip.
“I don’t know how the businesses in this area really function the way they used to function, especially if they depend on the mail, to pick up and deliver and, send and receive their mail,” Slagle said.
Slagle and many others have sent more than 600 postcards to local, state and national elected officials as part of a campaign to get theirs back.
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