The river that runs through Asheville, North Carolina, is littered with artwork drifting downstream after deadly floods from Hurricane Helene decimated the mountain city's arts district, a linchpin of tourism in the area that some residents fear will never recover.

I don’t even know how to describe how I feel,” a gallery worker said. “I feel hopeless and helpless, like I need to be doing more to help other people.”

For many business owners in Asheville's River Arts District, the destruction is total due to the record floods.

The future is unknown for RAD restaurants, coffee shops, breweries and more severely damaged by Tropical Storm Helene.

The city and its artists were hard-hit by the storm that tore a deadly path of destruction from Florida through inland Georgia, the Carolinas, and Tennessee.

The hurricane damaged an estimated 80 percent of the buildings in the River Arts District of Asheville, N.C., and upended the lives of artists who had recast the city as a cultural force.

David Sheldon, an artist who showcases his work in Asheville's famed River Arts District, escaped from Helene's devastation to Raleigh with his insulin-dependent cat.