True toll unclear in flooded North Carolina towns, scores try to get in touch with loved ones

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Sunday arrived clear and cool in the North Carolina mountains, but the bright day only illuminated the vast devastation – and the still-unknown extent of the toll from the storm that tore through here.

The French Broad River still flowed brown and fast and far beyond its banks through downtown Asheville and nearby communities. Major roads remained closed in places, and few people had managed to make it to many of the smaller, winding ones that weave along the valleys and rivers of this region.

These small towns in western North Carolina are bearing the heavy aftermath of deadly Helene, which made landfall hundreds of miles away. On Thursday, Hurricane Helene hit Florida’s Gulf Coast as a Category 4 storm. It then spiraled through numerous states, and within hours, its torrential downpours led to catastrophic flooding.

In the days since, cellphone and internet signals in this region have been spotty – if working at all – making communication with the outside world a constant struggle. People shared posts on Facebook looking for friends and loved ones, or asking others to check on relatives. Car lines snaked along roadsides near any open gas station, and many people came on foot with gas cans and water jugs in hand.

North Carolina’s Buncombe County, which includes Asheville, has received more than 1,000 reports from people looking for loved ones, county manager Avril Pinder said in a morning briefing – though Pinder said she believes the number will decrease as phone service and internet connections are restored.

At least 61 people have been killed in five states – Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. South Carolina has reported the greatest loss of life, tallying at least 22 deaths. In North Carolina, there have been 10. Georgia reported at least 17 deaths; Florida, 11; and Virginia, 1.

But here, where the lack of easy communication makes it unclear how many people may be trapped, the sobering expectation is that the toll will continue to rise.

More than 300 roads remain closed in North Carolina, according to federal officials. That includes multiple stretches of Interstates 40 and 26, which are main roadways for traveling in and out of Asheville.

“This is going to be a really complicated recovery,” FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said in an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Criswell visited Georgia on Sunday and said she will be on the ground in North Carolina on Monday.

Meanwhile, power is slowly being restored across affected states. More than 540,000 people remain without power in North Carolina. In South Carolina, nearly 880,000 people still don’t have electricity.

Duke Energy said Sunday nearly all of its customers outside the western parts of the Carolinas should have power again before 11:59 p.m.

“Across the North Carolina mountains and Upstate of South Carolina, major challenges persist and are impeding our ability to assess damage and give estimates for when power is likely to be restored,” the power company wrote in a post on X.

Just outside Asheville in Swannanoa, Fire Chief Anthony Penland said the main area of town is “completely devastated.” Part of Highway 70 that runs through Swannanoa is gone, Penland said.

Search-and-rescue crews have been deployed, but reaching affected areas has been challenging, Penland said. In places where crews have been able to enter, little is left.

“We have complete neighborhoods that are no longer there,” he said. “We’re just trying now to go to where these neighborhoods were and just try to do some sort of search-and-rescue in some of the houses that are still there.”

Access to critical resources, including water and food, also continues to remain limited across much of Buncombe County. County officials have been working to set up food and water distribution sites, but Pinder said Sunday none were open yet.

The county, she said, was told that there would be “several tractor-trailer loads of water” coming into the community. The delay, Pinder said, is likely due to storm-related road closures hindering the transport.

Pinder added officials have been working with state emergency services, noting that state authorities are responsible for coordinating federal assistance.

Water is a major concern, Criswell said on “Face the Nation.” She noted FEMA has sent bottled water to affected areas and that the Army Corps of Engineers is preparing to start assessments to see how water can be restored quickly.

U.S. Fire Administrator Lori Moore-Merrell said FEMA is ready to respond with additional food and water supplies.

“We have commodities that have been staged and we are waiting on, requests from the states or how they want to deploy it so that we can move those commodities into action,” Moore-Merrell said during a Sunday media briefing.

Days after the rain subsided in the Southern Appalachians, numerous flood alerts were still in effect because of continued runoff and swollen waterways. Multiple flash flood emergencies, the most dire flood alert, were in effect Sunday for numerous lakes along the Catawba River in western North Carolina because of both “catastrophic and historic inflows” and dam releases that could lead to “life threatening” flooding downstream.

In some spots in Asheville, such as Amboy Road, the pavement simply disappeared into the river.

A few rooftops could be seen in the distance, and parts of power poles poked out from the rapids.

And there are concerns about the possibility of more rain in the region.

The remnants of Helene, which drifted west into the Tennessee and Ohio valleys, are forecast to shift east through the Mid-Atlantic late Sunday into early next week.

That will bring some more showers to parts of the Southern Appalachians, though amounts are generally predicted to be light.

In the hardest-hit areas of western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee and southwest Virginia, amounts are predicted to be generally under an inch.

“This additional rainfall is not expected to exacerbate ongoing flooding but may lead to excessive runoff due to saturated soils,” said the National Weather Service office serving the western Carolinas.

At the West Asheville River Link Bridge on Saturday evening, overlooking the city’s funky, vibrant River Arts District, residents looked down over the river that had swallowed a city park, railroad tracks, nearby streets and numerous business. Even as the French Broad had receded some in the past day, few had ever seen it this high in their lifetimes.

Mattresses, lumber and other debris floated down the river. A thick layer of mud coated nearby businesses, and several remained underwater.

“That should be a road,” one woman said. “That should be a parking lot,” said another.

Colton Dion, a 28-year-old artist whose nearby studio narrowly escaped the flooding, sat painting the swollen river in the evening light.

“I just wanted to document it,” he said. “It definitely marks an era here.”

Standing alone at a railing above the river, Israel Mayfield looked out over his hometown, marveling at how unrecognizable it was.

He pointed in the distance to a well-known music spot, the Guitar Bar, its structure nearly demolished even as the river still ran through it.

He recalled how there was a memorial service there once, after his father died.

“That’s a memory for me,” said Mayfield, 47.

Looking around, he spoke of the business owners he knew and wondered if they had flood insurance, if some of them would ever recover, if this creative and beloved corner of the mountains would emerge with its unique spirit and its economy intact.

“There’s just no telling,” he said, though he was holding out hope that the people who gave life to this neighborhood before might soon return.

“There’s a glass blower over there,” he said, “and there’s an iron worker down this way. And there’s a heck of a barbecue joint right over there.”

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Video: Officials and residents assessed damage from Hurricane Helene in Woodlawn, N.C., and North Cove, N.C., on Sept. 28.© 2024 , The Washington Post

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