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North Carolina is reeling after Hurricane Helene as crews rush to deliver relief
Albany

North Carolina is reeling after Hurricane Helene as crews rush to deliver relief

Hurricane Helene devastated western North Carolina over the weekend, leaving a trail of death and devastation in its wake. At least 44 people died across the state, most of them in a mountainous county where the storm caused massive flooding, inundating homes, destroying businesses and knocking out power to thousands of people.

Emergency responders from North Carolina set out Monday to deliver water, food and other essential supplies to areas hit hardest by Helene. Hundreds of people remain missing and more than 450,000 customers remain without power, according to the website Poweroutage.us.

“This is an unprecedented tragedy that requires an unprecedented response,” said Governor Roy Cooper said at a news conference Sunday, adding that some areas had been drenched by up to 29 inches of rainfall.

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At least 35 people were killed in Buncombe County, home to the thriving mountain town of Asheville, law enforcement officials said. Asheville, a mecca for artists and a popular tourist destination, was isolated by the storm’s impact: power and cell service were disrupted; roads and bridges in ruins; Cars and trucks submerged.

Mark Goldthwaite, the owner of Asheville Guitar Bar, said he feared his business would be virtually destroyed. “It’s not just months of recovery,” he told NBC affiliate WRAL. “It’s been years.”

While people in Asheville reckon with the destruction, others in remote areas have yet to be located as first responders struggle to access areas isolated by washed out roads. The breakdown in communications has left relatives of missing locals panicking and pleading for scraps of information.

Buncombe County Sheriff Quentin Miller described the storm’s chaotic aftermath as a “historic event” and acknowledged that some officials were surprised by the sheer intensity of Helene, which also struck parts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.

“I don’t know if we can ever properly prepare for everything. That was new for all of us. “It puts pressure on us in places we didn’t know existed,” Miller said. “To say this surprised us would be an understatement.”

The storm left many people in the area reeling from another devastating hurricane. Far less common is for a weather event like Helene to hit the Appalachian mountains, an area just hours from the coast and where residents are not accustomed to catastrophic hurricane weather.

Photos and videos from Asheville, home to about 95,000 people, showed harrowing scenes and showed neighborhoods left unrecognizable by Helene’s impact.

Friends talk after a canoe ride on the flooded South Fork New River on September 27, 2024 in Boone, North Carolina.
Parts of Boone, North Carolina were completely washed out. Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images

Houses washed away. Refrigerators and other appliances are floating in the dirt. Restaurants and cafes were torn to pieces. Dazed locals stroll through rubble-lined streets. Residents surveyed the damage while paddling kayaks in the murky brown floodwaters along flooded roofs.

The historic Biltmore Village, a popular attraction at the entrance to the Biltmore Mansion, was submerged. Built in the first Golden Age, the property regularly attracts crowds of visitors.

In an interview on NBC’s “TODAY” show early Monday, Buncombe County’s communications director described the shock of returning to her own home the night before.

“I went home last night for the first time since the storm and I live in Black Mountain and to say it’s decimated would be an understatement,” said Lillian Govus. “Roads are so impassable…so we actually have to fly stuff in and take other routes.”

President Joe Biden called the storm’s impact “breathtaking” and vowed to visit the area this week as long as it does not hinder recovery and rescue efforts.

“Your nation stands behind you and the Biden-Harris administration will be there until the job is done,” he said from the White House on Monday.

Biden added that he may call a special session of Congress to address the hurricane’s devastation, but that “no decisions have been made yet.”

Helene made landfall late Thursday in the Big Bend region of Florida as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 140 miles per hour. The storm, weakened but still fearsome, swept through Georgia and then inundated the Carolinas and Tennessee with heavy rains.

In total, there have been more than 100 weather-related deaths in the Southeast, including at least 12 in Florida, at least 17 in Georgia, at least 25 in South Carolina and at least four in Tennessee, according to an NBC News tally based on local officials.

The approximately 44 deaths in North Carolina represent a third of the storm’s total fatalities.

Jessica Drye Turner took to Facebook on Friday and pleaded with someone to rescue four of her family members who were stranded on the roof of her Asheville home.

“You watch 18-wheelers and cars drive by,” she wrote.

But before help could arrive, the roof collapsed. Turner said in a subsequent Facebook post Saturday that her elderly parents and 6-year-old nephew drowned.

“I have never felt such loss, devastation and emotional pain,” she wrote.

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