Shocking Images Of Devastation Continue To Pour In From Western North Carolina
As Hurricane Milton bears down on Florida, Mountain communities in North Carolina have been absolutely devastated by Hurricane Helene, which initially made landfall in Florida on Sept. 26 as a Category 4 - and had not been expected to hit the mountainous regions with such ferocity.
But as Helene moved north, it gathered strength, fueled by unprecedented rainfall that had accumulated after a two-month drought, defying traditional forecasting models.
Local meteorologists and residents struggled to grasp the magnitude of the disaster that has left more than 200 people dead and hundreds more missing. "When you start talking about really specific impacts, it’s hard to have imagination ahead of time that something this extreme could have the impact it did," Steve Wilkinson, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Greenville-Spartanburg, told The Guardian.
The devastation was not limited to North Carolina. Neighboring states saw similar fates, with towns obliterated and critical infrastructure like Interstate 40 and I-26 severely damaged, disrupting major transportation routes.
As the Epoch Times notes further, Asheville, NC has been particularly hard hit.
In most places, the floodwater is gone, leaving large brown spots on the ground, but the suffering it brought persists. The community faces a cascade of problems for which there is no simple solution.
The Water Shortage
Perhaps the greatest irony of Helene is the dire lack of potable water after the floods. The storm completely destroyed Asheville’s water supply system. Water mains and underground pipes were swept away as the ground itself was removed by the torrent. Not a single building in town can access running water, and citizens survive by the thousands of gallons of water being shipped in every day.
“We need portable water ... nobody can flush their toilets, nobody can take a shower, nobody can do laundry. We have no water and the infrastructure for that water is totally destroyed,” Dr. Carly Brown, a primary care physician in Asheville’s River Arts District, told The Epoch Times.
“I haven’t had a shower since last Wednesday. I’m hearing horrible things about [others],” Wendy Feinberg, a 77-year-old retired schoolteacher in Asheville, told The Epoch Times.
“There’s no running water in all of Asheville,” Ryan Austin, an Asheville local and disaster relief worker, told The Epoch Times. “Plenty of people are bringing in bottled water for drinking but there’s no way to use water for [anything else].”
The lack of water has been particularly dire at hospitals and shelters, where many injured and homeless citizens are taking refuge. Mission Hospital, a level-2 trauma center with 1,200 beds in downtown Asheville, was reportedly digging wells to find water for essential services, Brown said.
“There was feces piled up in the toilets, and people had buckets next to their rooms, and they were flushing their toilets that way... [Doctors] couldn’t do procedures because there was no way to clean their utensils,” Brown said.
Access to water is the top demand from Asheville’s citizens.
“The biggest thing right now is that we definitely need to fix the infrastructure for the water. Water is the major need here,” said Rev. Micheal Woods, the pastor of Western Carolina Rescue Ministries in Asheville, whose facilities have become a staging point to accept donations and distribute them to the community. Woods told The Epoch Times he wants President Joe Biden and Gov. Roy Cooper (D-N.C.) to make water restoration their top priority.
“I’m down to four water bottles,” said Yoshida Mills, a resident of Asheville who came to collect free water bottles and supplies at a community center. “Give me everything.”
Crime and Looting
The post-flood destruction has birthed another fear: crime. Several citizens reported incidents of looting to The Epoch Times, claiming that looters are targeting damaged and/or abandoned properties—motivated by desperation amid shortages, and opportunity, given many residents have fled.
Many fear they will be victims of a home invasion and are taking steps to defend themselves.
“I actually own a gun. I have it loaded and sitting by my bed, and I have a butcher knife and a can of wasp spray. I am afraid at night,” said Feinberg, the retired schoolteacher. “It’s totally dark, and nobody’s around, so just in case the looters decide to venture out, I’m there ... We’re a little nervous about looting.”
“We have heard there was looting in Swannanoa and Black Mountain,” said Brown, referring to nearby towns around Asheville. Many who say they’re residents of the area have claimed on social media that looting is ongoing.
Local authorities are cognizant of looting and have issued public messages against it. “We understand that times are tough, but looting is never the answer. We urge everyone to stay calm and patient as resources are on the way to assist those in need,” wrote the City of Asheville on its website regarding public safety. “We’re working closely with local and state partners to distribute supplies and restore order.”
Authorities have surged the police and military presence in Asheville to deter looting, with armed peace officers coming from across the country to provide assistance. Police officers from Louisiana were present in the area, The Epoch Times observed.
“We’re here to keep people out of the unsafe areas and to try to be a deterrent for looting,” said Officer C. Kostel, a North Carolina Probation Officer, who was deployed at Tunnel Road. “They pulled in everyone from the other coast, all the way through.”
Queen described the U.S. military presence in the area as “a combination of search, rescue, and avoidance of people doing stupid stuff, like looting.”
Beyond looting, authorities have warned affected residents to be wary of disaster relief scams, where they may be prompted to pay for emergency services that do not come.
“False websites have been identified as circulating throughout the county. Please vet websites before you provide your information,” read a public safety alert broadcast to phones in Burke County, North Carolina, on Oct. 3.
The Newly Homeless
After the flooding, many citizens returned to Asheville to find that they had lost everything—homes, cars, and all possessions. Many businesses remain closed; their employees suddenly out of work. Many people are now living with friends and relatives as they process the new reality.
“My son and his wife, they lost everything. My mother-in-law lost everything,” said Sharon Parton, a motel operator in Asheville, who has several relatives now living with her. “For the first time in years, I have a full house,” she told The Epoch Times.
“[My grandmother’s] house is condemned. It’s got a big ‘X’ on the side,” said Queen, indicating that the property has been declared dangerous and legally uninhabitable.
The region’s homeless population has grown, and they are relying upon temporary shelters, food banks, and clothes drives to survive. The American Red Cross has set up a temporary shelter for the unhoused at Asheville-Buncombe Technical College.
Randy Stay, a Red Cross volunteer from Arizona, told The Epoch Times that high demand has pushed such facilities to the limit of their capacity.
“It’s full. There’s a waiting list,” Stay said of the Red Cross facility. “We’ve got homeless people from encampments [and] people from houses that aren’t, you know, in the best shape.”
Some community leaders are raising concerns about the latter group of people, who have no previous experience with homelessness. Once shelters close, they say the lack of experience by the newly homeless will increase their suffering.
“This is what most people are not thinking about or seeing. There were people who were housed—they weren’t considered homeless—but they were on the fringe and, now, have lost their housing ... those people are now thrust into the unhoused community,” Woods said.
“That creates a whole different segment of people. That comes with a different mindset ... those that [were homeless] understand how to navigate it ... We’re not set up here locally to handle that [new] segment of the population.”
For now, relief efforts are working to ease that adjustment.
“We are distributing 25,000 meals a day,” volunteer with World Central Kitchen Maria Mora, a food relief organization created by celebrity chef José Andrés, told The Epoch Times.
“We’re going out into the communities and serving them,” her colleague, Erica Burke, said.
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