Cadaver dogs and search crews trudged through knee-deep mud and debris Tuesday searching the mountains of western North Carolina for victims of Hurricane Helen, days after the storm made a deadly and devastating path through the Southeast.
As the death toll in Helen exceeded 150, searchers fanned out across the area, using helicopters to cross washed-out bridges and hiking through the wilderness to reach isolated homes.
Many who lived through one of the deadliest storms in U.S. history were left without power or any way to call for help. Some people cooked food on charcoal grills or climbed to higher ground in hopes of finding a signal to contact their loved ones.
“Communities have been wiped off the map,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said at a news conference Tuesday.
A search and rescue dog and handler search for victims in deep mud in the aftermath of Hurricane Helen, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Swannanoa, North Carolina.
AP Photo/Mike Stewart
The devastation was particularly bad in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where at least 50 people died in and around Asheville, a tourist haven known for its art galleries, breweries and outdoor activities.
Outside town, in the small community of Swannanoa, receding floodwaters revealed cars piled on top of each other and trailer homes that had floated away during the storm. The roads were covered in mud and debris and full of potholes.
Exhausted emergency crews worked around the clock to clear roads, restore power and phone services and reach those still stranded by the storm that killed at least 152 people in six states. Nearly half of the deaths occurred in North Carolina, while dozens more occurred in South Carolina and Georgia.
President Joe Biden is scheduled to survey the devastation in the area on Wednesday.
Frank Matranga, a representative of the agency, said that more than 150,000 families have already signed up for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a number that is expected to rise rapidly in the coming days.
He added that nearly two million ready-made meals and more than one million liters of water were sent to the most affected areas.
The death toll in North Carolina included one horrific story after another of people trapped by floodwaters or killed by falling trees. Among the dead were a couple and a 6-year-old boy who were waiting on the roof when part of their house collapsed.
Search crews around Asheville first screened the most vulnerable people.
Len Frisbie rids a wheelbarrow of dirt while helping clean up in the aftermath of Hurricane Helen Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Hot Springs, North Carolina (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson).
“We went door to door to make sure we could monitor people and see if they were safe,” said Avril Bender, the county manager for Buncombe County, which includes Asheville. “We know there are places that are still difficult to reach.”
How are some of the most affected areas coping with the situation?
The storm unleashed the worst flooding in a century in North Carolina. Rainfall estimates in some areas have exceeded more than 2 feet (61 cm) since Wednesday, and several major roads into Asheville were damaged or closed by mudslides.
Part of one of the region’s main arteries, Interstate 40, reopened Tuesday after a mudslide was cleared, but a collapsed stretch near North Carolina’s border with Tennessee remained closed.
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Joey Hopkins, North Carolina’s Secretary of Transportation, asked people to stay off the roads so emergency and recovery crews can reach the area.
At a grocery store in Asheville, Elizabeth Till Fleming stood in line hoping to find nonperishable food, because her home had no electricity. She planned to heat canned foods on a camp stove for her family.
“I’m glad they’re open and able to let us in,” she said.
She was surprised by the ferocity of the storm: “Just seeing what little news we were able to see was really shocking and sad.”
Helen blew ashore in Florida late Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane and quickly moved north. The storm turned life upside down in the southeast of the country, as deaths were also reported in Florida, Tennessee and Virginia. Officials warned that the rebuilding process would be long and difficult.
Cell phone service went out
The FCC said widespread damage and outages affecting key communications infrastructure left many people without stable access to the Internet and cellular service.
Teams from Verizon are working to repair collapsed cell phone towers and damaged fiber cables and provide alternative forms of communication across the region, the company said in a statement.
A person enters a badly damaged building as cleanup begins in the wake of Hurricane Helen on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Hot Springs, North Carolina (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson).
Meanwhile, AT&T said it launched “one of the largest mobilizations of our disaster recovery assets to support emergency connectivity.”
David Zumwalt, president and CEO of Broadband Without Borders, said efforts to restore service have been made more difficult by the area’s topography and spread of population.
Why Western North Carolina was hit so hard
Western North Carolina suffered relatively greater devastation because this is where Helen’s remains encountered the higher elevations and cold air of the Appalachian Mountains, causing more rain.
Asheville and many of the surrounding mountain towns are built into valleys, making them particularly vulnerable to devastating rains and floods. In addition, the ground was already saturated before Helen arrived, said Christian Patterson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Climate change has worsened the conditions that allow such storms to flourish, intensifying quickly in warm waters and turning into powerful hurricanes, sometimes within hours.
Devastation from Florida to Virginia
Across Georgia, power outages ripped through the Inland Helen Road and devastated the lives of people from Valdosta to Augusta, where a line of cars waiting for water Tuesday wrapped around a shopping center and stretched at least a half-mile (0.8 kilometer) down the road.
“It’s been tough,” said Christy Nelson, who had no idea when power would be restored. “I’m just dying for a hot bath.”
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee traveled to the eastern part of that state to inspect the damage on Tuesday. As they paused to look at what remained of a destroyed high school, residents said the governor and his entourage were the first help they had seen since the storm hit.
Sarah Calloway enters her restaurant to assess damage from Hurricane Helen on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Hot Springs, North Carolina (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson).
“Where was everyone? We were here alone,” said one frustrated local.
With at least 36 people dead in South Carolina, Helen surpassed the 35 people killed in the state after Hurricane Hugo made landfall north of Charleston in 1989.
Tropical Storm Kirk could become a major hurricane
Tropical Storm Kirk is moving in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and is expected to become a hurricane late Tuesday. The US National Hurricane Center said the hurricane could become a major hurricane on Thursday. The storm was about 1,010 miles (1,630 kilometers) west of the Cabo Verde Islands, and had maximum sustained winds of 70 mph (110 kilometers per hour). There were no coastal warnings or advisories in effect, and the storm system did not pose a threat to land.
—Collins reported from Asheville. Associated Press journalists Gary D. Robertson in Raleigh contributed to this report. Kimberly Crossey in Hampton, Tennessee, Rebecca Santana in New Orleans, Shawn Chen in New York; and John Sewer in Toledo, Ohio.
