BUMPUS COVE, Tenn. (WJHL) — Some residents of Bumpus Cove remain in temporary accommodation one year after their homes were destroyed by the Hurricane Helene floods along the Nolichucky River.

The hurricane struck the area in September of last year, inundating hundreds of homes and forcing many residents to turn to temporary housing and campers.

Rhonda Mango, a fourth-generation owner of property along the Nolichucky River in Bumpus Cove, has three plots that her grandparents bought in the 1950s. Floods swept away three houses on her property, homes that her family built over the years.

“The home I was living in was built in 1954. The house my mom was living in was constructed by her and my dad in 1977, and the home my daughter was living in was built in 2000,” Mango shared with News Channel 11.

Mango lost all of her family valuables, including inherited and her children’s childhood keepsakes and pictures.

Dave Armentrout, another resident of Bumpus Cove, also lost everything and described the event as like nothing he had ever witnessed before.

“I lived here seven years,” Armentrout said. “We’re used to having floods, but this was a tsunami.”

Armentrout said the water backed up so far that the land he lived on is now in the river a year later.

“All of my land is part of the embankment now,” Armentrout said.

Both Mango and Armentrout are still in temporary housing a year later, among the many others waiting on their new homes to be built.

“We are still in the process of rebuilding,” Mango stated. “We have been working on this for a year now, trying to get a home rebuilt. It’s just a very slow, slow process.”

Despite Helene taking their homes and valuables, they are choosing to remain positive.

“There’s nothing we can do about yesterday. We can be negative. We could be bitter. But I choose not to do that,” Armentrout told News Channel 11. “I believe it’s brought the community so much closer together instead.”