Helene leaves North Carolina in ruins, hundreds unaccounted for

North Carolina resembled a “post-apocalyptic” wasteland on Monday afternoon following the aftermath of Helene. Hundreds of individuals remained cut off from communication and unaccounted for due to flooded roads and a lack of essential services. Officials confirmed over 100 fatalities across several states due to the powerful storm, which hit Florida’s Big Bend region as a major hurricane late Thursday before wreaking havoc through Georgia and the Carolinas. U.S. Homeland Security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall reported that as many as 600 people were still unaccounted for at the White House. Flooded roads and downed cellphone towers isolated these devastated communities. Despite the rising death toll, officials hoped emergency responders would locate most unaccounted individuals as more areas became accessible and emergency mobile telecommunications were restored.

Throughout North Carolina, approximately 300 roads were closed. Over 7,000 people registered for U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance. The National Guard delivered 1,000 tons of food and water to remote areas by plane and helicopter, officials stated during a news briefing. Helene struck Florida’s Gulf Coast on Thursday night as a Category 4 hurricane, causing days of relentless rain and destroying long-standing homes throughout the South. The U.S. government, states, and localities launched an extensive recovery effort. Many people were left without running water, and 1.8 million homes and businesses were without power on Monday, according to Poweroutage.us.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp reported at least 25 deaths in his state, including a firefighter responding to emergency calls during the storm and a mother and her one-month-old twins killed by a falling tree. South Carolina reported at least 29 fatalities. State and local officials cited by CNN placed the national death toll at 128. In North Carolina’s Buncombe County, which includes Asheville, 35 people died, the county sheriff said at a news briefing. The county began distributing food and water later on Monday, with some supplies airlifted due to blocked major routes by mudslides and flooding. Colleen Burns, 58, from Burnsville in neighbouring Yancey County, said, “They’re running out of gas for ATVs aiding the rescue and also for chainsaws. We desperately need gas.”

North Carolina was a ‘post-apocalyptic’ landscape in the wake of Helene, with hundreds of people still cut off from communications and unaccounted for amid flooded roads and a lack of basic services https://t.co/ccYl9f1bOY pic.twitter.com/iJIBfTZL6x

Related Articles

• 
  U.N. leaders warn of escalating global conflicts

  41 mins ago
• 
  Hurricane Helene claims 128 lives, devastates Southeast

  1 hour ago

— Reuters (@Reuters) October 1, 2024

In Yancey, century-old trees snapped around Taylor Shelton’s home. Her husband spent two days clearing the driveway and nearby road with a chainsaw so they could leave with their three children. With no phone service, they relied on a neighbour, an emergency medical technician with a radio, to find passable back roads out of the mountains. “It looks like ‘War of the Worlds.’ Very big trees are down everywhere. We saw houses washed away,” Shelton said in a phone interview.

Lake Lure, around 20 miles southeast of Asheville, was covered with floating debris from homes and businesses washed away by nearby mountain streams, as seen in a video posted on X by Charlotte City Councilman Tariq Bokhari. “It’s hard to describe, never seen anything like this, post-apocalyptic,” Bokhari wrote. “It’s so overwhelming. You don’t even know how to fathom what recovery looks like, let alone where to start.”

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, after an aerial tour of the damage, stated that “significant resources” would be needed for both short-term and long-term recovery. “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. Search and rescue teams continue their work,” Cooper said at a news briefing. Around 1,200 FEMA personnel were on the ground, alongside state and local responders, with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers planning significant debris removal. Buncombe County officials were checking 150 “priority” households, including those with older residents or medical problems.

Heartbreaking story
"There were bodies in the trees. They are finding bodies under the rubble" said local woman.. 😔😔

Hurricane Helene de*th toll has risen to over 130 as survivors in western North Carolina describe the situation on the ground prayer for those towns … pic.twitter.com/JuEO1hMlaV

— Chuckyfamous! (@Nem_Famous) October 1, 2024

The National Guard and emergency workers from 19 states, along with FEMA personnel, were deployed to assist. President Joe Biden, attributing the storm’s devastation to climate change, announced he would visit North Carolina on Wednesday and then Georgia and Florida. He might also call Congress back for a special session to pass supplemental aid funding. “There’s nothing like wondering, ‘Is my husband, wife, son, daughter, mother, father alive?'” Biden said at the White House. “Many more will remain without electricity, water, food, and communications, and whose homes and businesses are washed away in an instant. I want them to know we’re not leaving until the job is done.”

Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris cut short a campaign trip in Nevada on Monday to participate in briefings in Washington on the hurricane response. She will visit the region when it does not impede response efforts, a White House official said. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump visited a heavily damaged furniture store in Valdosta, Georgia, on Monday.