Storm Survivors Cut Through Roof, New Film Tells Their Story

When floodwaters trapped Ivan Barnes and JP Thibault inside a volunteer fire station during Tropical Storm Helene, they climbed onto a fire truck and took turns swinging an ax overhead. Breaking through the roof was their only way out.

Once outside, they watched their own furniture and appliances sweep past in the current. Eleven people in Yancey County didn't make it out.

"Scars on the Mountain" tells their story and dozens more from the storm that killed over 100 people in North Carolina on September 27, 2024. Director Christopher Pike and his team from Year 8 Productions spent months in Western North Carolina, interviewing 35 to 40 residents and reviewing 1,200 pages of testimony.

Pike arrived on January 2, 2025, nearly four months after Helene transformed creeks into walls of water. He found destroyed homes, broken roads, and areas still without power. His crew carried equipment into places vehicles couldn't reach, filming survivors on their own properties whenever possible.

The project started when executive producer Michael Foley traveled to the region for search and rescue work. He built relationships with residents before the film crew arrived. That groundwork mattered in a place where, as Pike learned, "everybody knows everybody."

Associate producer Abby Gobler, 23, admitted her first impression was that locals "weren't super keen on outsiders." The 23-year-old from Long Island had never visited Southern Appalachia before. But as interviews accumulated, she recognized pieces of her own friends and family in the people sharing stories of loss and survival.

Why This Inspires

Barnes, now 40, sees the film as proof of something deeper than disaster. "Taking such a horrific event and bringing some light to it through the film shows the competence of the people that live out here," he told reporters. "We take care of each other."

The trust residents placed in the filmmakers transformed how Gobler approaches her work. She learned the importance of sharing stories as people lived them, not as outsiders might want to market them. That authenticity runs through every frame.

Pike said the finished film became less about the storm than the people who endured it and the community they held together through word of mouth, mutual aid, and sheer determination.

An invite-only premiere happens in Burnsville on July 30, with streaming available the same day through Angel, bringing Yancey County's resilience to viewers nationwide.