Greenville, SC, Faces Hurricane Helene Recovery With Resilience and Community Strength

Courtesy of Conestee Nature Prserve

Greenville, SC, is known for many things, from its friendly, vibrant culture to its growing culinary and arts scenes to its roots in the textile industry. But what seems to stand out the most about this city is its resilient spirit. 

This was seen in 2024, when Hurricane Helene brought extreme rainfall, damaging winds and flash flooding to the area. Homes and property were damaged and lost, roads and infrastructure suffered, and some of the city’s most beloved attractions, like Conestee Nature Preserve, were devastated. However, the city and its residents remained strong, turning to help one another and developing plans to deal with the aftermath. 

City of Greenville

Stepping Up

Shannon Lavrin, Greenville city manager, says that following Helene, the city’s No. 1 priority was the community’s safety and well-being. She and her team worked to maintain uninterrupted essential services, like police, fire protection and public works. Plus, they worked with local, state and federal partners to provide water distribution, community centers for charging stations, and city facilities for meals, showers and power access for first responders and city staff. 

For as well-trained and focused as city staff were, she says, it was the community and its resilience that were truly remarkable, and the community did an incredible job communicating and coordinating with the city. 

“Residents began identifying and reporting hazards, volunteering, providing information about areas that were hard to get to and assisting where they could,” Lavrin says. “In every corner of the city, we saw people stepping up, not because they were asked, but because that’s who they are.” 

City of Greenville

Ready to Repeair

In addition to the initial support from the city and its residents, work is still being done to pick up the pieces dismantled by Helene. For example, the Leadership Greenville Class 51 chose to dedicate one of its class projects to the rebuilding of Conestee Nature Preserve. Leadership Greenville is the Greenville Chamber’s 10-month flagship program, where participants work on a volunteer project to make them more informed, committed and equipped leaders. 

Donnice Wilkerson, a team lead and Leadership Greenville graduate, says volunteers chose Conestee for their project because of its iconic status and the vital space it provides more than 6,000 Greenville County students annually for field trips, summer camps and programs. 

As a Greenville native, Wilkerson says the hurricane showed that her hometown is giving and generous. 

“A lot of people and local charities came together and had food drives and all kinds of things to actually help people out,” she says. “I felt like our community showed true resilience by coming together and providing for our neighbors.” 

City of Greenville

Creating Change

While Conestee Nature Preserve suffered devastating damage from Hurricane Helene, thankfully, the Lake Conestee Dam did not fail. However, the surrounding damage amplified long-standing community concerns about the century-old dam’s stability. Having long outlived its lifespan, if the dam were to break, it would contaminate drinking water and decimate approximately 400 acres of land. 

According to Josh Zalabak, advancement director for Conestee Nature Preserve, the dam has been a concern for downstream residents for decades because of the contamination in the sediments. After managing the area around the lake for two decades, the organization sold the old dam to the Lake Conestee Dam Restoration Project, which is working to address the dangerous condition of the existing dam across the main stem of the Reedy River. They remain involved as a consultant, and Zalabak says they’re “thrilled to see the project progressing and the new dam taking shape.” 

Even more outstanding, though, has been the resilient spirit he’s seen from Greenville residents. “Greenville’s response to the destruction of Helene is a true testament to the generosity and community-mindedness of those who live here,” he says. “When facing the worst natural disaster we’ve experienced, the outpouring of support was immediate, demonstrating how cherished Conestee Nature Preserve is within our community.”