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By Dakin Andone and Dianne Gallagher, CNN
6 minute read
Published 1:25 PM EDT, Tue October 1, 2024
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‘Catastrophic’: City manager says his town may never look the same again
02:07 - Source: CNN
CNN —
To Cory Vaillancourt, the only scene comparable to the one unfolding in western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene is a war zone.
Nearly two years ago, the Smoky Mountain News politics editor reported from a southern Ukrainian city shortly after its liberation from Russian control.
“The conditions that I’m seeing here in western North Carolina are almost exactly the same, minus the gunfire and artillery shells,” he told CNN on Monday from the town hall in Waynesville, 30 miles west of the city of Asheville. “You have people who don’t have water, they don’t have medications, they don’t have personal hygiene products.
“And,” he added, “they don’t have any way to get them.”
Indeed, the idyll that made Asheville a regional tourist hub of artsy flair, bustling breweries and forested mountain majesty – nearly 300 miles from the Atlantic coast – today appears condemned after one of the deadliest hurricanes to strike the US mainland in the last 50 years.
And now, it’s that beloved southern Appalachian terrain isolating the city and many even more remote neighboring enclaves as residents begin the long, hard work of recovering from a storm that dumped as much as 30 inches of rain in the region and left at least 140 dead across six states.
Five days after Helene hit, hundreds in western North Carolina are still missing. And while President Joe Biden has approved the governor’s request to declare a major disaster in 25 counties, the emergency response remains difficult, an operation grappling with decimated roads and complicated by communication outages.
Destruction left by Hurricane Helene is seen Monday in Asheville, North Carolina.
What is clear is what people here need: essentials like water, food and gas. And they’re adamant they need it now.
“There’s no help or relief from the government or FEMA right now,” Tyler Kotch, the owner of an Asheville pizza joint, told CNN on Monday. “It’s four days out, and we’re still waiting on that.”
‘An unprecedented, massive effort’
Friends help Sam Soughail, third from left, clear out his Casablanca Cigar Bar in Asheville, North Carolina, on Tuesday, October 1.
Homes are damaged in Chimney Rock, North Carolina, on Wednesday, October 2.
People help run a volunteer local community care center in Barnardsville, North Carolina, on Wednesday.
A marina is filled with debris in Lake Lure, North Carolina, on Wednesday.
Emily Ogburn, right, hugs her friend Cody Klein after he brought her a meal in Swannanoa, North Carolina, on Wednesday.
Van Hutchins, right, hands Dennis Rector a family photo album that survived the flooding of his wife's business, the Penland & Sons Department Store, in Marshall, North Carolina.
Power line poles lean in Lake Lure on Tuesday.
A search-and-rescue team looks for victims in deep mud Tuesday in Swannanoa, North Carolina.
Local farmers offer free food, baby formula and diapers to people in Columbus, North Carolina, as some supplies remain difficult to find in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
Andy Brown takes a break on top of what remains of a tree that destroyed his SUV in Augusta, Georgia, on Tuesday.
Len Frisbee dumps a wheelbarrow of dirt as he helps with cleanup in Hot Springs, North Carolina, on Tuesday.
People evacuate by foot on Highway 64, near the Bat Cave community of North Carolina, on Monday, September 30.
Ashley Dillinger donates water at the Town Hall in Old Fort, North Carolina, on Monday.
A helicopter flies near damaged buildings in Bat Cave on Monday.
Linda Bandy, left, and Carissa Sheehan clean up inside the International Moulding frame shop in Morganton, North Carolina, on Monday.
Janice Whitley hands her brother Terry Wilson some salvaged items while they remove valuables from their flooded home in Old Fort on Sunday, September 29.
People wait in line to access gasoline in Fletcher, North Carolina, on Sunday.
Melinda Segassie wheels possessions she salvaged from her home in Steinhatchee, Florida, on Sunday.
This home in Tampa, Florida, was destroyed by fire during the storm.
Workers clean and gut a flooded property in Steinhatchee on Sunday.
Meta Gatschenberger surveys the remains of her collapsed house in Boone, North Carolina, on Saturday, September 28.
Floodwaters are seen in Asheville in this image released by the North Carolina Department of Transportation on Saturday.
People gather at a fire station to access Wi-Fi on Saturday after Helene moved through Asheville.
People inspect flood damage in Asheville on Saturday.
An area of Asheville is flooded on Saturday.
Elmira Glover sits on her porch after taking the first look inside her home, which had been completely flooded in Steinhatchee.
Boats displaced by Hurricane Helene sit in front of homes in Treasure Island, Florida, on Saturday.
Light filters into a room of a home that was destroyed by the hurricane in Horseshoe Beach, Florida.
Customers crowd a supermarket aisle for bottled water after widespread damage disrupted water supplies in Boone on Saturday.
Buildings are left damaged by the storm in Valdosta, Georgia, on Saturday.
People walk among debris from their family's beach house in Horseshoe Beach on Saturday.
The Laurel Fork Road bridge is destroyed by floodwaters in Vilas, North Carolina, on Friday, September 27.
Cassandra Randall, right, is hugged by Jessica Downey inside a damaged Maddie's grocery store in Steinhatchee on Friday.
People work on power lines after Hurricane Helene passed offshore in Crystal River, Florida, on Friday.
Hailey Morgan, right, surveys the damage to her flooded home after returning with her children, in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, in Crystal River on Friday.
An aerial view shows a flooded and damaged area following Hurricane Helene in Steinhatchee on Friday.
A person walks into fast-flowing waters to assist a stranded driver in a stretch of flooded road on the outskirts of Boone on Friday.
People use buckets to remove water from a home near Peachtree Creek in Atlanta on Friday after Hurricane Helene brought heavy rain overnight.
Sarah Cribbins and her son, Michael, cuddle their dog after being rescued from floodwaters in Crystal River on Friday.
Debris is seen inside a Cedar Key, Florida, store on Friday.
A tree crew cuts up large limbs that fell on East 49th Street in Savannah, Georgia, on Friday.
An American flag sits in floodwaters in the Shore Acres neighborhood of St. Petersburg, Florida, on Friday.
A tree lies on a house in Valdosta, Georgia, on Friday.
Candice Ocvil, left, and Jibri Tolen, right, row through flood waters in Atlanta on Friday.
The aftermath of Hurricane Helene is seen in Cedar Key, Florida, on Friday.
Candace Redwine surveys the damage after about 3 feet of water inundated her Spiceman Kitchen store in Tarpon Springs, Florida, on Friday.
Flood water washes over Guy Ford Road bridge on the Watauga River in Sugar Grove, North Carolina, on Thursday, September 26.
In this screengrab taken from a United States Coast Guard body cam, a man and his dog are seen being rescued after his sailboat became disabled and started taking on water off Sanibel Island, Florida, on Thursday.
Cars drive over the George G. Tapper Bridge before Hurricane Helene makes landfall in Port Saint Joe, Florida, on Thursday.
Guests put on ponchos at Walt Disney World in Bay Lake, Florida, on Thursday as Hurricane Helene began bearing down.
Carol Poulson uses her phone to document the impacts of Hurricane Helene as it builds offshore in St. Petersburg on Thursday.
A man walks through a flooded Times Square area of Fort Myers Beach, Florida, on Thursday.
Cynthia Centeno, a Tallahassee resident, sits with her family inside a hurricane evacuation shelter at Fairview Middle School in Leon County, Florida, on Thursday.
Waves impact a house seawall on Thursday in Eastpoint, Florida.
Charles Starling, a lineman with Team Fishel, walks by a row of electrical line trucks staged in a field in The Villages, Florida, on Thursday.
People work at the State Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee, Florida, on Thursday.
A man crosses a flooded area on the coast of Gulfport, Florida, on Thursday.
Cars drive through a flooded street in St. Pete Beach on Thursday morning.
Hurricane Helene is seen in a satellite photo Thursday afternoon.
A woman fills up a container with gas ahead of Helene's landfall in Cross City, Florida, on September 25.
People in Guanimar, Cuba, traverse a flooded street in a boat on September 25.
A Wakulla County firefighter speaks to residents of Panacea, Florida, while making note of those who were not evacuating on September 25.
Storm damage from Helene is seen in Puerto Juarez, Mexico, on September 25.
People fill up sandbags in Clearwater, Florida, on September 25.
In pictures: Hurricane Helene unleashes its fury
The sentiment has been echoed by local leaders, including some who’ve also acknowledged state and federal officials indeed are on the ground – but who still feel the pace of recovery is too slow.
“There’s still a lot of folks that we need to be able to reach, so that is the priority,” Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Monday night. “But we also are in a situation where we don’t have water and power in most areas, and we do need resources like drinking water and food and other household supplies and personal supplies people might need.”
Mayor Zeb Smathers of Canton bemoaned the total collapse of cell service in his area, telling CNN it had hampered search, rescue and recovery efforts, forcing the community to make do with “1990s technology – at best.”
“There are families living in turmoil because they can’t make a simple cell phone call 72 hours after this storm,” he said. “We can’t communicate with crisis management to deliver supplies because we don’t know what we have and what people need.”
State and federal officials have signaled they understand the dire circumstances. By late Monday, FEMA had delivered 1 million liters of water and 600,000 meals, Gov. Roy Cooper said.
Federal aid is arriving in Canton, also west of Asheville, but connectivity problems have prevented smooth coordination, Smathers said. And he fears for the people who need help.
Some communities can only get aid by helicopter, officials have said.
“We have beautiful, beautiful mountains in North Carolina, but they are rugged sometimes to get through, even on a beautiful day,” the governor told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Monday night. “After this catastrophic storm, it is very difficult to get to all of those places. That’s why we are relying on air power.”
“This is an unprecedented, massive effort that is being coordinated among local, state, federal, non-profits,” he said. “It’s been amazing to see the work that’s going on. We’ve just got to make sure that it reaches every corner of western North Carolina.”
Rescue workers from Pamlico County navigate Saturday through downed trees on a road in the area of Chimney Rock, North Carolina.
Resources were in place across the Southeast before the storm arrived, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Monday. And more than 3,500 federal workers on the ground – 1,000 of them from FEMA –are working with the state to move resources to the communities that need them.
“We know that there’s still great need, we know that there’s a lot of power that’s out, we know that the waste systems are down,” Criswell said.
“We know there’s areas we haven’t gotten to yet,” Criswell added, “and so we’ll continue to get that information of the places that still need critical equipment, critical food and water.”
‘People are freaking out’
Brian Etheridge lived with his family in western North Carolina for more than a decade before moving to Hilton Head, South Carolina. With his teenage sons and a trailer full of supplies, he struck out Sunday to help friends and old neighbors in the disaster zone.
“It’s not just Asheville, it’s everywhere: Brevard, Hendersonville, Highlands, Waynesville, Boone, Blowing Rock, all these areas,” he said, describing a swath of hundreds of square miles where downed trees, landslides and washed-out roads make travel exceedingly difficult.
Etheridge saw utility trucks headed toward the storm wreckage, as well as fire departments and other local authorities out and about as residents wielded chainsaws in their efforts to clean up, he told CNN.
Terry Wilson's keepsakes lay Sunday outside his mother's home in Old Fort, North Carolina. Their beloved dog's ashes were found after the flooding, Wilson said.
“These people are stuck. They are running out of food, water, there’s no power,” said Etheridge, who returned home Sunday night. “It’s total destruction.”
“The damage is just so vast,” he added. “And people are freaking out and panicking and they are scared.”
From a FEMA warehouse in Fort Worth, Texas, Staff Administrator Steve Reaves on Monday mentioned the challenge of Interstate 40 as he oversaw the loading and shipping of semitrucks to the storm zone.
“We’ve sent every meal we’ve got, every bottle of water we’ve got,” he said, adding his agency has also sent tarps, plastic sheeting and kits for babies and seniors.
But damage to I-40 has created a major bottleneck, Reaves said, between North Carolina and Tennessee.
“That’s the main artery we had there,” said Reaves, also the head of the agency’s union. “Whenever those hurdles like highways, roads, bridges washed out, that delays response to that area. We have to wait for the roads to be rebuilt, too.”
The highway’s eastbound lanes leaving Buncombe County, of which Asheville is the seat, reopened Tuesday, the county said.
Storm will worsen poverty, food insecurity
West of Asheville, North Carolina is even more rural, isolated and rugged, said Vaillancourt, the journalist.
In Asheville, he said, neighbors can share supplies. That’s much harder in the communities he covers: “You can’t just hop around the corner to a neighbor’s house who lives a mile away and has a washed-out bridge leading to their home.”
“There are folks out here,” he said, “and the need is just as great.”
Officials must now overcome myriad hurdles – communications outages, flooding of the “valleys and hollers,” road closures – complicating the recovery effort, said the North Carolina Division of Emergency Management’s former Director Mike Sprayberry.
A search and rescue team on Sunday examines a van swept into the river in Swannanoa, North Carolina.
“These places, a lot of them are remote and, in the best of times, sometimes difficult to get to,” said Sprayberry, now the senior adviser for emergency management for Hagerty Consulting. But, he added, “It’s hard to say, ‘Be patient,’ especially if you’re running out of food and water, or need oxygen, or you need medication.”
“Doggone, I think everybody’s trying to move as fast as they can,” he said, “and they’re throwing everything we have at it.”
In the meantime, the communities Vaillancourt covers are not strangers to food insecurity and poverty. There have “always been issues in rural, southern Appalachia,” he said.
Now, Helene has made those problems much worse, he said, recounting a run-in Sunday with a woman who runs a local food pantry struggling to get non-perishables into isolated parts of Haywood County.
“Again, these areas already struggle with poverty and food insecurity,” he said. “And the disruption of normal daily life due to this storm has made their plight even more dire.”
CNN’s Ella Nilsen contributed to this report.
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