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    • When does recovery begin for Western North Carolina?
    Michigan

    When does recovery begin for Western North Carolina?

    Caradoc Wyn Posted on

    Neighbors grabbed chainsaws.

    They jumped into pickup trucks and trudged through the muddy floodwaters.

    They cleared debris, prepared as much food as they could and went looking for missing friends and neighbors.

    As floodwaters begin to recede on Monday, hope is emerging in the devastated landscape around Asheville. In the most difficult times, communities came together.

    However, recovery from Tropical Storm Helene could take weeks or months. The storm stretched more than 600 miles from Florida to North Carolina and Tennessee, causing devastating damage since Friday. More than 100 deaths in six states were attributed to the Category 4 storm.

    The death toll in Western North Carolina has been steadily rising, with the latest report standing at 35 deaths in Buncombe and six deaths in Henderson and one death in Macon counties, with even higher numbers expected.

    Some of the energy comes back into the homes of more than a million residents who lost it. Some roads on the edges of the most affected towns will be reopened. Some flights have returned to Asheville Regional Airport.

    According to local food organization Food Connection, global relief organization World Central Kitchen will be opening at noon on September 30 at Bear’s Smokehouse, 135 Coxe Ave. in the downtown, South Slope district, distributing free meals to the public.

    WCK will later establish additional distribution locations outside of Asheville.

    Hearts with Hands will continue its relief efforts by distributing food boxes and water until 6 p.m. September 30 at the Outreach Ministry’s outreach camp, 850 Warren Wilson Road in Swannanoa. The organization plans to add hot meal distribution later.

    Asheville City Schools will remain closed at least all week.

    Get updates as we receive them: Sign up to receive text updates and important information about the aftermath of Hurricane Helene

    At a housing project in Asheville, Pisgah View resident Deborah Kincaid, 56, had difficulty speaking as she told Citizen Times that she was unable to clean the nebulizer and tracheostomy tube in her windpipe without drinking water , which ensures that air reaches their lungs. Kincaid said she has been using the nebulizer for two years to clear mucus from her throat after having her larynx removed following throat cancer. She only has a few small plastic bottles of water.

    Kincaid wasn’t even able to use her nebulizer until neighbors in a nearby unit ran an extension cord from her apartment to her unit so she could plug it in. Since nearly 100,000 people were without power in Buncombe County as of 12:30 p.m. on September 12th. 29, some buildings in the residential complex still had it.

    “We just need water,” resident Julie Brown told Citizen Times on Sept. 29. “There are units where four children use the toilet.”

    Flushing not possible, “those are germs, those are bacteria,” said Brown.

    As of Sunday, more than 3,300 federal employees were on duty supporting relief efforts in the affected states.

    In the town of Red Hill, North Carolina, landslides tore away entire mountainsides.

    James Waters watched as Helene’s torrential rains and fierce winds destroyed his farm amid the rolling slopes of the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina, snapping trees, ripping out fences and causing a landslide.

    “The whole side of the mountain collapsed,” he said. “Then it filled the valley with mud.”

    It took him a whole day to dig with a farm excavator all the way to the main road. He found winding roads littered with broken power lines, fallen limbs, thick mud and debris. In some areas, cars were washed into ditches. A neighbor found a body near a river bank, he said.

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is moving generators and additional power generation equipment to the hardest-hit areas of North and South Carolina as flooding recedes and debris removal is permitted.

    FEMA is transporting dozens of trailers of food and water to North Carolina to help the state set up care and distribution sites.

    FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell is expected to assess Helene’s damage in North Carolina on Monday, according to a new press release updating the Biden-Harris administration’s response efforts.

    On Sunday evening, Criswell and Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall briefed President Joe Biden on the ongoing impacts of Tropical Storm Helene in several states, including North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and Virginia. The historic town of Marshall, located on the French Broad River north of Asheville, was hit by flooding that reached the roofs of some downtown buildings. A water treatment plant on the other side of the river was also damaged. The damage also extended to some businesses that have become part of an artistic renewal downtown in recent years. One owner said he plans to rebuild. With excavators and equipment buzzing around him, Chad Adamowski and his friends shoveled mud out of his tattoo and music shop, hoping to rip out the walls before mold grew. “It’s a race against time,” he said.

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    Caradoc Wyn
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