The trout will come back. But that is little consolation to the families of the hundreds who have died in the path and wake of Hurricane Helene.

Ripping through Florida and  Georgia before pounding the Carolinas, the storm did immense damage to the southern Appalachians.  The usual coastal and flatland issues associated with wind and rain were altered significantly by the terrain. The mountains and valleys supercharged the danger of water.

Consider what anglers enjoy about regions like this: small creeks begin high up on the ridge; they gather volume as tributaries enter during their descent; eventually they join larger rivers. Pragmatically, it means tiny brook trout then larger salmonids then bass. But historic rainfall in a short period of time turns every one of these flows into torrents that accelerate in scope and force. If the problems in the flatland come like a shotgun blast, the damage in the valleys are more akin to a large caliber round.

For fly fishers and conservation allies, this all does factor into resource use and management. Rivers get scoured, taking plant, insect, and trout life right off the map. But with very little human intervention, these at times remapped watersheds become fruitful ecosystems once again. Some rebound within a decade; or even just  few years. Creation is remarkable in that way.

Much will be said about climate change and the intensity of individual hurricanes or hurricane seasons. The data is certainly skewed in modern times, with more information being collected in more ways than ever before. (Financial cost is now a factor in what makes a hurricane “bad” – inflation, it seems, is not taken into account.) Yet the record does show cataclysmic events in the 18th and 19th century. In a not-so-surprising turn of events for the academy, little heed is given to the oral tradition of natural disasters kept by native Americans.

All of this is certainly at the back of the individual and collective minds of those who have lost loved ones and livelihoods. The cultural and commercial centers of these regions are often in the valleys alongside the rivers. Rising, racing waters indiscriminately take fly shops and schools. Those buildings left standing are without electricity, potable water, or access roads. And doubtless many would give it all up to have a friend, a sibling, or a child back today.

Weathering winds and rain is, in hindsight, the easy part. It is surveying the damage and doing what can be done to remediate that is the task. For those in the southeast, like generations before them, the hurricane has dissipated but the storm still rages.

And the trout will come back.