ASHEVILLE, N.C. − Search and rescue operations across Western North Carolina made some headway Tuesday as authorities worked to clear roads and provide electricity, running water and cellular service to communities struggling since the furious assault of Hurricane Helene and its remnants.
The storm killed more than 100 people across North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Virginia, and the death toll is expected to climb as recovery efforts progress. On Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that figure as upwards of 150, and Buncombe County Sheriff Quentin Miller said confirmed fatalities in the county have risen to 57. That brings the total in western North Carolina to 64.
Although hundreds of people have been reported missing, that number is expected to decline as more telecommunications come back on line and emergency workers access remote areas.
President Joe Biden is scheduled to visit North Carolina and South Carolina on Wednesday for briefings with local emergency management officials and first responders. Biden, who will take aerial tours of the devastation, also pledged on social media to travel to Georgia and Florida “as soon as possible.”
In North Carolina, more than 1,500 state transportation workers were rolling Thursday in 1,500 trucks armed with 1,000 chainsaws working to clear roads. Duke Power said crews are “assessing the damage and making repairs.”
Still, for some residents of western North Carolina, power, water and WiFi likely won’t be restored for weeks. Landslides have taken away mountain properties. Sinkholes have claimed other homes. Asheville and the surrounding communities face long-term trauma.
“And I’m not talking about days,” Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer told the Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK. “We want them to plan for longer than that.”
Tropical storm tracker: Hurricane center watching Kirk, 2 other disturbances in the Atlantic
Developments:
∎ Former President Donald Trump’s fundraiser to benefit victims of Hurricane Helene has raised over $3 million as of Tuesday. Read more here.
∎ About 1.5 million homes and businesses across Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia remained without power early Thursday.
∎ Officials in North Carolina’s Buncombe County, home to Asheville, said 40 deaths have been confirmed there so far. The Associated Press reported the national death toll from Helene was at least 133.
∎ The North Carolina Department of Adult Correction said all inmates were safe. Several facilities were operating on generator power but none had flooded, the department said.
Biden to visit North Carolina: Will tour Helene damage as Trump chides response
Vice President Harris to travel to Georgia, NC
Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Georgia on Wednesday to survey the impacts of Hurricane Helene and receive an on-the-ground briefing about the continued recovery efforts that are occurring in communities across the state. Harris will also provide updates on federal actions that are being taken to support emergency response and recovery efforts throughout the Southeast.
In remarks at FEMA headquarters in Washington this week, Harris pledged the Biden-Harris administration “will continue to do everything we can to help you recover and to help you rebuild – no matter how long it takes.”
A White House official confirmed Harris will also travel in the coming days to North Carolina, where the western part of the state including Asheville was battered by the storm.
− Joey Garrison
Hurricane ‘will not stop how we do elections’
North Carolina election officials are scrambling to ensure over 7 million registered voters can cast ballots on Nov. 5 despite overwhelming damage to homes, businesses and infrastructure across the western part of the state. North Carolina is electing a governor, congressional representatives, a state Legislature and is one of several battleground states that could determine the next U.S. president.
“The destruction is unprecedented, and this level of uncertainty, this close to Election Day is daunting,” Karen Brinson-Bell, head of the state’s Board of Elections, said Tuesday.
She said she expects to have a full assessment of the storm’s impact on election facilities and other issues by the end of the week. But she said Helene will not “stop how we do elections. Just because there’s been a hurricane, we might have to do it a little differently.”
Tourist draw in Blue Ridge Mountains encounters another calamity
The small town of Spruce Pine, North Carolina, has recovered before, and it will recover again, according to Spencer Bost.
The executive director of Downtown Spruce Pine,near the Blue Ridge Parkway, Toe River and Appalachian Trail describes the small town as “heaven on Earth,” a place where manufacturers of furniture and other goods once provided good jobs, but where residents now have a median household income of about $44,600. A 2007 arson that destroyed a large section of the downtown district and later the COVID-19 pandemic were big blows to the town.
Now Spruce Pine is making a name for itself as a tourism destination and as a source for high-quality quartz − a key component in the manufacturing of silicon chips that power electronics as well as medical and solar devices. But Helene has disrupted all of that with devastating floodwaters. He said October “pays the bills for a lot of our businesses,” when tourists come to Spruce Pine to camp, hike, fish and take in the autumn colors of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Bost is concerned and thinks companies that mine the area should pay more to support the small communities where they draw their raw materials. He has set up a fundraising effort on the town’s website in hopes that a post-hurricane spike in web traffic will translate into assistance for its businesses.
“Every time we find a way to build back, but how many times after you’ve been punched can you get back up?” He then answered his own question: “We will get back up.”
− Phaedra Trethan
Hurricane one-two punch too much for some
SUWANNEE, Fla. − Billie Mincks loves this small coastal community. But after the battering of Hurricane Idalia last year and now Hurricane Helene, he thinks it’s time to go. When he spoke to the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida after Idalia, he didn’t know how long he’d be displaced. Unlike some residents of the Dixie County community of about 300, his rental home repairs had been completed and he was again living in it with his wife, Tori Johnston. Then came Helene, and when he returned to his house he found it destroyed.
“I just can’t do this again,” Mincks said while waiting to receive food and other supplies being issued by relief organizations. “Helene was so much worse, it made Idalia look like a small thing.” Read more here.
− Douglas Soule, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida
Helene floodwaters swept factory workers away
In hard-hit Erwin, Tennessee, a group of employees at Impact Plastics clung to spools of flexible yellow plastic pipes on the back of a semitruck for hours Friday waiting for help as the swollen Nolichucky River raged around them. But the truck toppled over, and at least seven people were swept away and remain missing or have died.
Jacob Ingram, who has worked at Impact Plastics for almost eight months, said as waters rose outside, managers wouldn’t let employees leave. Instead, managers told workers to move their cars away from the rising water, Ingram said. The company denied ordering workers not to leave.
“We are devastated by the tragic loss of great employees,” founder and CEO Gerald O’Connor said in a statement.
− Tyler Whetsone, Knoxville News Sentinel
Factory employees’ harrowing tale: Helene floodwaters swept them away
Mountain terrain, monstrous rain triggered catastrophic flooding
Forecasters had warned that Hurricane Helene would become a “once-in-a-generation” storm for portions of the Appalachians, and the forecast proved tragically accurate. Helene’s rainfall would have been enough to cause flooding anywhere, but it was exacerbated by a weather front that had stalled over the Appalachians before then-Tropical Storm Helene arrived, said David Easterling, a rain expert with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Environmental Information in Asheville, North Carolina.
The mountains themselves in some places further enhanced the rainfall because they contribute to the lift that produces more rain in thunderstorms, Easterling said. High winds were taking trees down and knocking out power lines, as well as the mudslides and landslides that were taking poles down throughout the area, he said.
“You just get a mudslide and you might end up with 5 to 10 feet of mud,” he said. “There’s no telling how much loss of life there has been.” Read more here.
− Doyle Rice and Dinah Voyles Pulver
Helene’s brutal toll: More than 100 dead; Biden to survey damage: Monday updates
Town’s promising revitalization devastated by Helene
MARSHALL, N.C. – Marshall was a bustling Appalachian town with big department stores before its fortunes waned and buildings became vacant. But in recent years, it had undergone a revival, renewed by an influx of art, music and dining. The once-dilapidated jailhouse has been turned into a boutique hotel and restaurant.
Now the downtown has been shattered by Hurricane Helene: Streets full of thick mud. Mangled debris. Twisted train tracks and overturned vehicles.
Residents in Marshall − like elsewhere in Western North Carolina just a couple of days after the storm − are scrambling to find what they needed without power or phones as National Guard helicopters buzz above the area.
“It’s a tragedy,” said Keaton Griffin, as he shoveled mud and debris into a wheelbarrow. Read more here.
− Chris Kenning
On the waterfront of destruction: North Carolina town tries to stay afloat
They came to Asheville for healing. All they see is destruction
Taylor Houchens moved to Asheville about four years ago for healing. The mountains, the forests, the lakes − they all called to the licensed professional counselor, as they have to countless others who’ve journeyed to the North Carolina city looking to relax, reset and rejuvenate. As a result, Asheville has drawn a thriving local wellness community, one that includes all manner of mental health practitioners, holistic coaches and healers.
Now, in the wake of Hurricane Helene, that community has been devastated − and Houchens says he isn’t sure where to go from here.
“It’s devastation. It’s apocalyptic. It’s tragic,” Houchens, who specializes in trauma therapy, says on a phone call while driving to stay with his family in Savannah, Georgia. Read more here.
− Charles Trepany
Contributing: Kelly Puente, Evan Gerike, Asheville Citizen Times; Reuters
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Helene live updates: Grueling search operation resumes in N.C.
