The death toll from Hurricane Helena reached 200 on Thursday and could rise further as searchers hit the hardest-to-reach places in the mountains of western North Carolina, where the storm washed out roads and knocked out power, water and cell networks.
Officials in Georgia and North Carolina added to their states’ grim reports, adding to the total that already made Helene the deadliest storm to hit the continental US since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
A week after the storm came ashore in Florida before carving a path of destruction across the Southeast, connections between friends, neighbors and even strangers offered hope in the hardest-hit areas.
As government cargo planes delivered food and water to those areas and rescue teams waded through streams looking for survivors, those who made it through the storm leaned on each other for support.
Sarah Vecasi, who makes and sells pottery from her Sarah Sunshine Pottery store in Black Mountain, North Carolina, said she is struggling with the trauma of Hurricane Helena and uncertainty about the future of her business.
“All I can say is that I’m alive. I’m not doing well. I don’t like it. But I’m extremely grateful to be alive, especially when so many people aren’t,” Vekasi said.
One thing that makes her feel a little better is socializing at the daily town meeting in the square.
“It’s amazing to be able to meet in person,” said Wekasi, who was cut off by impassable roads for days. More than 150 people gathered for Wednesday’s session as local leaders stood atop a picnic table and shouted news.
In pictures: The fury of Hurricane Helen
Martha Sullivan took careful notes so she could share the information — reopened roads, progress in power restoration, attempts to restore water — with others.
Sullivan, who has lived in Black Mountain for 43 years, said her children invited her to come to Charlotte after the storm, but she wants to stay in her community and take care of her neighbors.
“I’ll stay as long as I feel I’m useful,” Sullivan said.
In remote mountainous areas, helicopters lifted the stranded to safety while search teams moved downed trees so they could search door-to-door for survivors. In some places, houses swayed on hillsides and washed-out riverbanks.
Power is slowly being restored as the number of homes and businesses without power fell below 1 million for the first time since last weekend, according to poweroutage.us. Most of the outages were in the Carolinas and Georgia, where Helena struck after it made landfall over Florida’s Gulf Coast on Sept. 26 as a Category 4 hurricane. Deaths were reported in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia, in addition to the Carolinas .
Robin Winn lost power at her Asheville home early last Friday and was able to grab a bag of canned goods and water before reaching a shelter despite the water up to her knees.
“I didn’t know where I was going, I didn’t know what was going to happen next. But I got out and I’m alive,” Wynn said Wednesday.
Now that she’s back home, her neighbors look out for each other. Quite a few people came to make sure everyone had hot food and water, she said.
Eric Williamson, who works at First Baptist Church in Hendersonville, usually makes home visits to members who cannot physically make it to church. This week he is their lifeline, delivering food that meets dietary restrictions and throwing away spoiled food.
In addition to checking off the essentials, he says it’s important to just reach out to people at a time like this to help them know they’re not alone.
He has a handwritten list of everyone he needs to visit. “They don’t have phone service, even if they have a landline, a lot of them don’t work,” Williamson said. “So we bring them food and water, but we also just bring them a smile and a prayer with them, just to comfort them.”
Volunteers in Asheville rallied Wednesday before heading out to help find people who were unavailable due to phone and Internet outages. They took with them cans of drinking water and instructions to return in person with the results.
Even notifying relatives of people who died in the storm was difficult.
“That’s been our challenge, frankly, no cell service, no way to contact next of kin,” said Avril Pinder, an official in Buncombe County, where at least 61 people have died. “We have a confirmed body count, but we do not have identifications of all or notification of next of kin.”
Thursday marked the seventh day of search and rescue operations, Pinder said, adding that the county does not have an official count of people who are missing or missing.
“We are still looking for people. We know we have groups of people who are isolated because of landslides and bridges,” she said. “So they are interrupted, but not missing.”
President Joe Biden spoke with survivors and first responders and surveyed the damage Thursday in Keaton Beach, Florida, passing mountains of broken wood, destroyed homes and massive pieces of siding crumpled like paper. Biden met with people who lost homes; a couple lived in a trailer near the remains of their home, and their personal belongings were scattered on the ground.
The president was also scheduled to visit Georgia on Thursday.
Biden flew over the devastation in North and South Carolina on Wednesday. The administration announced a federal commitment to foot the bill for debris removal and emergency protective measures for six months in North Carolina and three months in Georgia. The money will deal with the impact of landslides and floods and cover the costs of first aid, search and rescue teams, shelters and mass meals.
Workers at a plastics factory in rural Tennessee who continued to work last week as water flooded their parking lot and power went out at the plant were among the dead. The downpour swept away 11 workers, and only five were rescued. Two are confirmed dead.
State officials in Tennessee said they were investigating the company that owns the factory after some employees said they were not allowed to leave in time to avoid the impact of the storm.
Hospitals and health care organizations in the southeast remained open despite dealing with power outages, wind damage, supply problems and flooding. Many hospitals suspended routine procedures, while only a few closed completely.
In Florida, officials turned to “low-risk” state inmates to help clear mountains of debris left behind.
“The Department of Corrections, they do prison labor anyway. So they’re being brought in to clear the debris,” Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters Wednesday.
Published – 04 Oct 2024, 02:50 AM IST
