Burleson Brothers

Burleson Brothers Help Restore Avery County Roads After Hurricane Helene's Destruction STORY BY TIM GARDNER

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n the weeks since Hurricane Helene devastated the North Carolina High Country, many stories of hope, help, and community have emerged.

As recovery progresses, residents of its communities continue to rely on faith, local volunteers, and external support to rebuild and restore a sense of normality. They will likely continue to do so for months, and perhaps, even years before things get back to how they were before the catastrophe.

Tony and Randy Burleson have played pivotal roles in the Roaring Creek Community of Avery County's relief efforts. Many people in that area still may not have gotten out if it hadn't been for them! Tony owns Burleson Trucking & Grading and Randy owns Randy Burleson Trucking & Grading, both incorporated and headquartered on Roaring Creek. Their father, Ralph, started a trucking and grading business there around 40 years ago, so it’s a second-generation undertaking. Tony and Randy have spearheaded repairs of many damaged or torn-apart roads there post-Helene.

The main paved road and all its side roads were completely washed out during the category four hurricane and many people who live on Roaring Creek were without electricity, telephone (landline and cell), food, medicine and/or medical attention, and other supplies. Functioning roads are still critical to address the immediate needs of communities in Avery County and other rural sections of the High Country, so Burleson Trucking & Grading and Randy Burleson Trucking & Grading quickly came to help their community, using their salvaged grading equipment to help individual citizens and government entities fix main roads and driveways, enabling them to access required supplies and further assistance.

Tony, Randy, and their employees have operated excavators, repairing portions of Roaring Creek Road below landslides and on bridges, while their heavy-duty trucks have scooped up loads of mud, pieces of pavement, and other debris and hauled it away and then hauled back steaming black soil, gravel, and rocks to replace what the flooding waters of Helene washed away.

Randy and Loretta Burleson with their son, Joshua. Photo submitted.

The Tony Burleson Family (Left-to-Right): Zeb Linkous, Jennifer Burleson, Tony Burleson, Jillian Burleson Linkous, and Michael Linkous. Photo submitted.

My brother and I, as well as our employees, are happy we could help others by providing the needed roadwork. Fortunately, we made big-time progress, fixing what could be fixed of them and even finally repaving them. And we’ll keep working on these projects until we get all the roads we’re repairing completely fixed.

- TONY BURLESON 30

HIGH COUNTRY MAGAZINE

December 2024

Their ongoing repair work has covered the main seven-mile stretch of Roaring Creek Road, plus its offshoot roads of Jerrys Creek, Mollies Branch, also called Buggles Branch, and Martins Branch, and many of its residents' driveways and alongside their homes as well as the parking lots of the community’s three churches—Roaring Creek Freewill and Missionary Baptist and The Peoples Church (Holiness).

Tony, Randy, and their employees have also done repairs to Powdermill Creek Road.

Additionally, Tony and his employees have done or are still conducting repairs to other Avery County roads, including Squirrel Creek, Pancake, Licklog, and Prison Camp. Randy and his employees have done or are still doing repairs to other Avery County roads, including Hickory Nut Gap and many others between Newland and Banner Elk. Their repairs have included or presently include any offshoot roads on each as well as to all bridges on them.

Hurricane Helene destroyed the Randy Burleson Trucking & Grading Company workstation on Roaring Creek Road in Avery County. Photo submitted.

Some of the damaged work equipment and workstation owned by Tony Burleson on both sides of ripped-apart pavement on Roaring Creek Road. Photo submitted.

“My neighbors love the isolation that goes with living in a deep holler such as is on Roaring Creek and the other roads we’ve repaired,” Tony said. “They love being in small communities.

They love being connected through family, friends, and churches.

While much progress has been made in many aspects of recovery after the hurricane, there still are various residents of Avery County, as well as in other places still facing a deep threat right now, with a lot of homes uninhabitable, or gone altogether, and roads so torn up that people still can’t safely get to where they need to go. My brother and I, as well as our employees, are happy we could help others by providing the needed roadwork. Fortunately, we made big-time progress, fixing what could be fixed of them and even finally repaving them. And we’ll keep working on these projects until we get all the roads we’re repairing completely fixed.”

“While I hate that the type of work my brother and I do has had to be done and is still needing to be done in some places because of such a horrible happening as Hurricane Helene, I’m blessed to help others out as much as I can,” Randy said. “This storm has rewritten the history books, and it should make us rethink the carrying capacity of streams, creeks, and rivers and how we need to build more infrastructure so our communities

Randy Burleson operating an excavator removing rocks, mud, and other debris in several feet of flooded roadway from Hurricane Helene in the Roaring Creek Community. Photo submitted.

December 2024

HIGH COUNTRY MAGAZINE

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