Western North Carolina residents faced a “post-apocalyptic” landscape Monday in the wake of Hurricane Helene, with hundreds of people still missing and residents struggling amid flooded roads and a lack of basic services.
More than 100 deaths across a half-dozen states have been attributed to the powerful storm that slammed into Florida’s Big Bend region late Thursday before cutting a destructive path through Georgia and into the Carolinas.
As many as 600 people remain missing, U.S. Homeland Security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall said at the White House. However, she noted that the numbers could vary as responders reach more locations.
The death toll was likely to rise, officials said.
Residents in devastated communities were isolated by flooded roads and a lack of running water, power, and cell phone service.
In mountainous Buncombe County, which includes the popular tourist destination of Asheville, 35 people have died, the county sheriff said at a news briefing.
The county was set to begin distributing food and water to residents later in the day. Some supplies had to be airlifted to the region with most major routes blocked by mudslides and flooding.
“They’re running out of gas for ATVs that are helping the rescue, they’re also running out of gas for the chainsaws,” said Colleen Burns, 58, whose house is near Burnsville, in neighboring Yancey County. “We desperately need gas.”
Elsewhere in Yancey, the storm snapped century-old trees around the home of Taylor Shelton, 44.
It took her husband two days with a chainsaw to cut a passage through the felled trees in their driveway and the nearby road so they could drive themselves and their three children out of the darkened house.
