Hurricane Helene: 119 people die and communities are “wiped from the map”

CNN
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The extent of the devastation caused by Helene increases by the hour as search parties uncover more bodies and the floodwaters slowly recede, revealing more storm-ravaged neighborhoods.

The death toll in six states rose to 119 on Monday, just days after Helene made landfall in Florida as a monstrous Category 4 hurricane. Nearly 2 million customers still have no power. And countless families have no idea whether their loved ones survived as Helene’s rampage destroyed communications infrastructure.

Most of North Carolina’s 47 deaths occurred far inland, in Buncombe County, where 35 people were killed, the sheriff said Monday. The county includes Asheville, the picturesque mountain town now inundated by murky, brown floodwaters.

As the water slowly recedes, “all we see are piles of destroyed houses. Buildings that were destroyed. Cars were overturning,” Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer said Monday.

“The power lines look like spaghetti. It’s hard to describe the chaos it looks like. It really feels like a post-apocalyptic scene.”

LIVE UPDATES: The latest on the aftermath of Hurricane Helene

Many survivors who have been in shock cannot even begin the arduous task of reconstruction because they lack basic necessities such as clean drinking water, food, cell phone communications and electricity.

Three tractor-trailers full of water arrived in Buncombe County Monday morning, County Manager Avril Pinder said. However, it is only enough to supply each resident with water for one day.

Making matters worse, some roads and bridges urgently needed to transport relief supplies or reach trapped victims are now impassable or no longer exist.

“We are cut off from access to Asheville from three of the four major highways,” the mayor said. “Some resources need to be flown in. … I can’t even imagine how long it will take for us to recover from this storm.”

Hundreds of people are reported missing. However, it is not clear how many fell victim to the storm and how many survived but had no access to communications.

“We know the death toll will rise,” Asheville’s mayor said. “We have heard reports of people seeing houses floating down the river with people in them.”

In addition to the 47 people killed in North Carolina, Helene also killed at least 30 victims in South Carolina, 25 in Georgia, 11 in Florida, four in Tennessee and two in Virginia.

“Devastation doesn’t even begin to describe how we feel,” Buncombe County Sheriff Quentin Miller said Monday. One of his deputies was among three North Carolina sheriff’s deputies killed by Helene.

Officials urged residents to avoid traveling to the hardest-hit areas so emergency responders can reach those in need.

“Remember that roads in western North Carolina are closed,” Gov. Roy Cooper told CNN on Monday. “We don’t need onlookers coming in to observe the damage. We ask that you do not come here unless you are on a specific mission to help with the rescue.”

While images from western North Carolina look disastrous, “things are even more devastating in person,” Marion resident Krista Cortright said.

She and her boyfriend usually drive 25 minutes to get to his grandmother’s house in Black Mountain. But on Sunday, they drove two and a half hours to deliver supplies to his diabetic grandmother.

When they visited his grandmother, they noticed that their neighbor’s driveway had disappeared. So Cortright and her friend also gave them food and water.

“There are not enough resources to reach everyone,” Cortright said. “My heart is broken for our people here.”

Asheville’s mayor said she looks forward to the governor’s visit on Monday. Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Deanne Criswell will also visit the area on Monday.

But help can’t come fast enough.

“We need emergency help now,” said Manheimer. “We need everything from food (and) water to potties to baby formula.”

Four days after Helene raced through northern Florida and into Virginia, about 1.9 million electricity customers in the region still had no power, according to PowerOutage.us.

But the number of People without electricity is significantly higher because every electricity customer can be a household or a company.

In Weaverville, a town north of Asheville, all power lines were down, local middle school teacher Ben Sharp told CNN.

“We don’t expect to have electricity for a long time,” Sharp said. “I don’t think anyone expected something like this to happen because there’s no such thing in Asheville.”

Asheville’s mayor admitted she doesn’t know how long it will take to restore power.

“This is an unprecedented, catastrophic event,” Manheimer said. “We cannot therefore yet estimate how long it will take until the power supply is restored for everyone.”

President Joe Biden will visit some of the hardest-hit areas later this week “as soon as it does not impact emergency operations,” the White House said Sunday evening.

The president has approved disaster relief and has been in contact with governors where damage was greatest.

In Asheville, strangers showed up to deliver water, diapers and other supplies to neighbors in need – including a family with a five-day-old infant.

Helene’s destruction “is the most devastating thing I have ever seen in our entire city,” said Michelle Coleman, executive director of the Asheville Dream Center.

“Our prayer is that people will not lose hope because our community is coming together. Asheville is a strong community,” Coleman said.

Gary O’Dell, a disabled Vietnam War veteran, embodied this generosity by sharing his oxygen tank with a neighbor.

“They don’t realize that oxygen is very important,” said O’Dell, who has lung cancer. But he did not hesitate to forego some of his vital supplies.

“My neighbor was out of oxygen,” O’Dell said. “He’s worse off than me.”

Helene dropped “staggering” amounts of rain, including 12 to 14 inches in South Carolina, 12 to 16 inches in Florida and 12 to 14 inches in Georgia, said Ken Graham, the director of the National Weather Service.

Showers were possible in large parts of the area affected by Helene on Monday. Most showers are expected to be light, but any new rain could worsen flooding and hamper relief and recovery efforts.

Around 90 river gauges on Helene’s path are still in some form of flood stage, with around 20 river gauges in medium or major flood stage.

It will take days for some river levels to fall below flood stage, regardless of rainfall. Some river levels downstream of the heaviest rainfall are expected to peak later this week and even into this weekend.

Then, after all the rain and flooding has subsided, the cities devastated by Helene can begin rebuilding.

But with “hundreds of streets destroyed” and “communities wiped off the map,” Cooper said, “we need to make sure we…rebuild smartly and do it in a more resilient way.”

CNN’s Andy Rose, Robert Shackelford, Sarah Dewberry, Alisha Ebrahimji, Rafael Romo, Jade Gordon, Raja Razek, Ashley R. Williams, DJ Judd, Sunlen Serfaty, Eric Levenson, Isabel Rosales, Taylor Galgano, Sara Smart, Conor Powell, Caroll Alvarado, Caroline Jaime, Artemis Moshtaghian and Paradise Afshar contributed to this report.