NC DMV reopening after Helene, but not yet in Western North Carolina’s largest city

Residents and volunteers clean up downtown Marshall on Oct. 1, 2024, after the French Broad River flooded the town after remnants of Hurricane Helene passed through. The state driver’s license office has reopened in Marshall, but the license plate agency there remains closed.

The N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles driver’s license office in Marion will open Wednesday for the first time since Hurricane Helene slammed Western North Carolina with historic wind and rain.

That leaves three DMV driver’s license offices still shuttered as a result of the storm. They include Burnsville, Spruce Pine and the region’s largest in Asheville.

The DMV does not know when those will reopen.

Three license plate agency offices, which are run by private contractors, are also still closed. They’re in Burnsville, Marshall and Waynesville.

Across Western North Carolina, 25 driver’s license offices and 28 license plate agencies were closed on Sept. 27, the day Helene moved through the region.

Many remained closed because of damage or lack of access, power or water, said DMV Commissioner Wayne Goodwin. Getting them back on line has been a priority for the agency and those who provide access and utilities, Goodwin said.

“Everyone’s had their shoulder to the wheel,” he said in an interview Tuesday. “Driver’s licenses are an essential service, and we have approached it as such.”

The Asheville driver’s license office on Patton Avenue was the only one open in Buncombe County before the storm. A smaller express office on Tunnel Road across town was already closed while the building’s roof and HVAC system are replaced.

Like much of the city, the DMV office lacks water, Goodwin said. The agency is looking into some sort of portable water and bathroom system for the office, he said. In the meantime, employees from that office are working in other open offices in the area to increase their capacity.

The offices closest to the county of 275,000 are in Clyde, Hendersonville, Marshall and, starting Wednesday, Marion.

DMV adjusts in other ways

The DMV has asked for the authorization to waive late fees and provide no-cost duplicate licenses and IDs for people who lost theirs in the storm, said spokesman Marty Homan. The agency is waiting for Gov. Roy Cooper to issue an executive order to make that possible, Homan said.

Helene has also disrupted the delivery of driver’s licenses and state IDs to people who order them online or visit a DMV office. The agency has developed alternatives for people who don’t have mail delivery.

People who ordered their license or ID before Oct. 7 and have not received it by mail within 21 days can visit ncdot.gov/WNCcredentialPickup to find out where it can be picked up.

People who live in one of the 45 ZIP codes listed on that website and who ordered their license after Oct. 7 at a DMV office must return to that office after 21 days to pick up their card if it can’t be delivered by mail.

Those who ordered their credential online and can’t get it by mail must pick it up after 21 days at the office that corresponds with their ZIP code on the website.