Wilmington photographer documents long recovery of residents in western NC after Hurricane Helene

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Hurricane Helene hit the western part of North Carolina more than a year ago and Wilmington-based photographer Allison Joyce documented the efforts of residents trying to recover and rebuild.

While Joyce is actually camera-shy and would not speak with WWAY on camera, she told us she’d rather let her photos do the talking.

For months, Peggy Williams and other volunteers searched for her partner, Lenny Widawski, a violinist and musician, who was swept away along with his house by floodwaters.

Allison met Peggy during her search and showed how Peggy kept Lenny’s memory alive.

“If I can’t live on the property, at least what I can do is just give him real flowers and let him know he surrounded by hummingbirds and all the wildlife that’s going to come up there,” Williams said. “I said it gives me some relief that Lenny’s spirit is out there and I’m not giving up on trying to find him and bring him home.”

Joyce also captured images of Eugene Hensley attempting to repair the washed-out road leading to his home on Ball Mountain, leaving his family and dozens of other residents trapped.

He thought the images Joyce published in the Washington Post, which showed him caring for his disabled nephew and several elderly loved ones, would resonate with readers, but that sadly was not the case.

“When I seen the pictures that Allison took of us and stuff, or took of me, um, I thought we finally would get, get some attention and stuff to our area and stuff,” Hensley said. “And after she did that, we got some calls from people that offered to help. And then nobody, you know, actually, nobody followed up after that.”

Despite that, he praises her poignant work, as does Steven Santos, a member of Air Force Special Operations Command, who took leave to volunteer with his father, whom Allison met as they assisted with the cleanup.

An image Allison took of a piece of the World Trade Center particularly resonates with Santos.

What I’m holding here is a piece of glass from September 11th,” Santos said. “And I carry this with me everywhere I go, every firefight, every jump, every dive, every deployment, this goes with me everywhere I go. This is important to me because I’m from New York. And this was my father’s badge. He’s NYPD. He’s obviously still alive, he made it through 9-11, but…um, that was by… by chance, I’d like to say, because he should have been in the second tower, would have went down. But she took these photos of me holding these out there, those photos really hit hard. I thought it was the coolest thing.”

Allison is currently on assignment in Vietnam, so be on the lookout for more photos from her soon.