A line painted on the side of a building in Asheville, North Carolina’s River Arts District marks how far waters rose in 1916, when massive floods ravaged what was then the city’s bustling warehouse hub. As Hurricane Helene inundated the western part of the state last week, floodwaters met that line and kept rising.

Today, the district is home to a thriving arts and cultural scene that has been a major tourist draw and economic driver for Asheville for decades. As local artists, museums and gallery owners survey the damage, many worry about how long it will take to rebuild and even whether some displaced creatives will come back.

“My entire portfolio is in the river somewhere,” said Max Trumpower, a visual artist whose East Asheville apartment building collapsed and floated away on Friday.

Renewed interest in Appalachian art, music and culture has been drawing tourists to western North Carolina in recent years. Visitors to Asheville’s Buncombe County spent nearly $3 billion last year, accounting for 20% of the county’s annual economy.

“Arts and culture is certainly a big part of that,” said Vic Isley, the president and CEO of Explore Asheville, the Buncombe tourism board.

“It has been a very vibrant tax base” as well, added Nadine Charlsen, who owns Northlight Studios on Depot Street and served as president of the River Arts District from 2018 to 2021.

But the arts sector was still recovering from a pandemic-era downturn when the storm hit. After contributing over $68 million in countywide revenue in 2017, that figure topped out around $51 million in 2022 even as Asheville’s visitor numbers rebounded.

Katie Cornell, executive director of ArtsAVL, the city’s arts council, said she’s concerned that the community won’t be able to afford to rebuild.

“We were already losing artists because of the high cost of living in the area,” she said.

Many artists say it’s hard to think beyond the next few days or weeks. Andrea Kulish Wilhelm, an artist and teacher who specializes in pysanky, or Ukrainian Easter eggs, has been walking down to the River Arts District every day since Helene swept through.

“With each level of it receding, we’d see more and more of the damage,” she said.

But Kulish Wilhelm counts herself fortunate for working out of Pink Dog Studio, which was spared flooding. Many of her friends can’t say the same. Most art studios closest to the French Broad River, west of the railroad tracks that divide the district, were affected, Charlsen said. Cornell estimates two-thirds of buildings in the district were completely destroyed.

“The whole district will change drastically,” Charlsen predicted. “A number of the artists who have been there awhile are probably not going to reopen. A number of the artists will try to rebuild something.”

Trumpower works in Southside Studios, a collective workspace run by a fellow artist on the bank of the Swannanoa River in South Asheville. Trumpower, who spent the run-up to the storm packing up pottery and other local artists’ pieces, said no one at the time expected the flooding to be as severe as it was.

The next morning, Trumpower drove to the studio owner’s home and found that “she was gone to go check the studio. She came back, she was like, ‘Our entire studio is gone.’”

The owner posted video of the floods on Instagram, writing, “I am in complete shock.”

Sara Legaski, who owns House of Kismet on Foundy Street, said the vintage clothing shop and art gallery was destroyed, and her insurer has told her none of her losses will be covered.

“There should have been a more urgent call for people to be prepared,” she said, echoing growing criticism in the hurricane’s wake. “If you really want to get down to it, let’s address climate change,” she added, referring to “more water entering the river every time it rains.”

At least 70 people have died in Buncombe County because of the storm; many more remain missing or displaced. The mountainous region known for its winding and narrow roads remains largely unnavigable due to road closures and collapses. Many residents without electricity are still waiting for food, water and medical supplies. Legaski and others Asheville residents say there has been looting as essentials remain scarce.

“The devastation was beyond belief, and even when you prepare for something like this, this is something that’s never happened before in western North Carolina,” Gov. Roy Cooper said during a visit to the area on Monday.

Staff members at the Penland School of Craft near Bakersville, North Carolina, a prominent center for students and visiting artists, said a whitewater rescue crew showed up at the facility in the aftermath of the storm. “They needed a place to sleep and a warm meal,” said Penland’s executive director, Mia Hall. So the facility, which includes housing, a dining hall and a self-contained water system, put the rescuers up for the night.

“Organizations like ours are crucial for these small communities, because it’s often the glue that holds this creative community together,” she said.

Hall said a group of artists based out of Penland got together to deliver supplies to neighbors, in some cases chainsawing into nearby houses to access trapped residents.

The Blowing Rock Art and History Museum in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, didn’t suffer any damage, but its neighbors did. So museum employees began visiting shelters for displaced residents, delivering art kits to families, said its director, Stephan Dragisic.

“We’re at a vulnerable point where any act of kindness is so appreciated, any act of humanity is so necessary,” he said. “The museum exists to do this kind of work, where we reach beyond the walls.”

Dragisic couldn’t say what the future of the region might look like, but he’s already thinking about how to bring visitors back.

“Come and fall in love with this area, and help us share the stories of this area, and help us protect the area, too,” he said.