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Aid pours into North Carolina; dozens still missing

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From The Center Square

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Tragic stories continue to flow from western North Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene slamming the Appalachian Mountains nearly two weeks ago.

So, too, is the assistance. The General Assembly convenes Wednesday, with disaster assistance legislation expected to swiftly be passed.

Gov. Roy Cooper toured the area on Monday with Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Personnel are in the area from neighboring states, sent by other governors and the federal government.

The death toll is at least 230, according to published reports. The Asheville Citizen Times on Tuesday afternoon reported 62 missing persons cases are active in the Lake Lure and Chimney Rock communities.

Eight hurricanes since 1950 have killed 100 or more people. Helene is only eclipsed – so far – by Katrina (2005, deaths 1,392), Audrey (1957, deaths 416) and Camille (1969, deaths 256).

Cooper and Criswell, along with U.S. Northern Command Gen. Gregory Guillot and Dual Status Commander Brig. Gen. Wes Morrison, went through Lake Lure and Chimney Rock.

In a release, the state Department of Public Safety said 2,500 soldiers and airmen are in the area with about 500 more coming. The Joint Task Force-North Carolina, led by the state’s National Guard, is paired with armed forces from 12 states, two units from the 82nd Airborne out of Fort Liberty near Fayetteville; the 101st from Fort Campbell in Kentucky; and a number of civilian entities.

More than 6,100 National Guardsman are present, a release from White House said. The Biden administration said it has already supplied more than $137 million in assistance, and more is expected.

Cooper’s administration said more than $33 million in FEMA assistances to individuals had already been paid to more than 109,000 people. More than 2,100 are housed in hotels through FEMA transitional sheltering. Nineteen shelters are open, with an estimated 780 people and 95 pets.

The Department of Public Safety said more than 1,300 responders from 35 state and local agencies have executed 107 missions of response and recovery. Cooper said North Carolina has used 417 specialized vehicles and 26 aircraft to help in search, rescue and supply delivery.

“These communities are home to family-owned businesses and neighbors who are helping one another,” Cooper said. “We will continue to work with western North Carolina to respond and recover from this catastrophic storm.”

In addition to the government aid, scores of churches and other organizations have sent tractor-trailer loads of supplies.

Tuesday midday, there were 622 road closures because of Helene across the state. This includes three interstates, 50 federal highways, 51 state roads and 518 secondary roads.

Published reports say the grim findings have included corpses discovered as landslides are cleared. Swannanoa and Hot Springs are two communities reportedly “obliterated.” Chimney Rock, a popular tourist attraction, was also hard hit with rushing water through the main thoroughfare.

“It has been a long 11 days for the people of our mountains, and it’s reaching the point where folks are just tired,” U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., said in a release. “We will get through this.”

Many in the region remain without running water, electricity and even the ability to travel. Eighty-six water systems, Edwards said, are on a boil advisory; 15 treatment plants have no power; and 27 systems are out of water.

Helene made landfall in the Big Bend region of Florida the night of Sept. 26. Its remnants sped through Georgia and soaked the higher altitudes of North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains. Helene had tropical storm force wins stretching 420 miles, larger than the state of Georgia.

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Daily Caller

‘There Were Bodies In Trees’: Rural South Decimated By Hurricane Helene As Death Toll Rises Above 130

Published on October 1, 2024

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From the Daily Caller News Foundation 

 

By Mariane Angela

Hurricane Helene has continued to cause destruction and claim lives in the Southeast since Thursday night when it made landfall, leaving a combined death toll of 132 and nearly 600 missing as of Monday.

The catastrophic aftermath that became fully apparent on Monday left a scene of utter devastation with homes shattered, cargo containers crushed and highways engulfed in mud, according to The Associated Press. Infrastructure failures in Western North Carolina have plunged the area into crisis, cutting off roads and disrupting power and communications, forcing residents to queue for fresh water and to send messages to their loved ones to confirm that they were alive.

The storm affected Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee, the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) stated. White House homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall reported during Monday’s briefing that as many as 600 individuals were unaccounted for, some feared dead, AP reported.

President Joe Biden is scheduled to visit North Carolina on Wednesday to assess the damage and coordinate federal response efforts, the AP reported. Efforts to deliver relief to the affected regions are underway, with government and aid organizations attempting to reach isolated communities by various means, including air and truck deliveries, and even by mule. (RELATED: FEMA Lists ‘Equity’ Among Top Goals Even As Americans Face The Aftermath Of Hurricane Helene)

Relief efforts are ongoing in Asheville and Western North Carolina following the devastation of Tropical Storm Helene, according to the Citizen Times Monday. The full extent of the damage remains unclear, with more updates expected.

“There were bodies in trees. They were finding bodies under rubble,” Alyssa Hudson from Black Mountain, a village significantly impacted just 12 miles from Asheville, said, the New York Post reported Monday. “We started seeing videos of our house posted to Facebook. Our floors are caved in, our walls are gone. We had a shed in our backyard that they found two miles away.”

Couple Kimberly and Jimmie Scott navigated through the devastated Black Mountain to rescue their daughter from Montreat College, where 1,000 students were stranded without power.

“All along the road, there were downed trees, downed power lines, structures collapsed, cars pushed over, train tracks destroyed. Buildings collapsed on the road,” Kimberly said, The Post reported.

GOP national committee member and local homeowner Ed Broyhill reported that storm damage has devastated Chimney Rock, North Carolina, washing away the community’s tourism-driven businesses into Lake Lure, Fox News reported Monday.

“The saddest thing in the world is that a lot of the folks have etched out a living catering to tourism … They have everything from hotels and motels and restaurants and nice stores and souvenir stores and clothing stores, and all of that was washed away. Every bit of it, all of it, was washed into the lake,” he said, Fox News reported.

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Disaster

Helene’s cost could be 600 lives, $160B in damages

Published on September 30, 2024

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From The Center Square

By 

AccuWeather recorded more than 30 inches of rain in two locations and estimated damage between $145 billion to $160 billion, up from weekend estimates by others of $95 billion to $110 billion.

Six hundred people are unaccounted for, and one of North Carolina’s hardest-hit counties by the remnants of Hurricane Helene on Monday said at least 35 have died.

Six states total at least 121 fatalities, many places in the Blue Ridge Mountains have yet to be checked because of failed infrastructure, and critical aid is being rushed to survivors of historic flooding. Buncombe County, where Asheville is county seat, had withheld a fatality number pending notification of kin, a protocol made more troublesome by lack of power, internet and cellphones in many big pockets throughout the region.

Twenty-five years to the month after people in the mountains of the state and elsewhere sent resources to eastern North Carolina for the 500-year flood caused by Hurricane Floyd, convoys of bottled water, cleaning supplies and necessities were heading west. AccuWeather recorded more than 30 inches of rain in two locations and estimated damage between $145 billion to $160 billion, up from weekend estimates by others of $95 billion to $110 billion.

South Carolina and Georgia each lost 25 lives, and Florida 11, according to published reports.

Asheville has been like many other locales along North Carolina’s stretch of the Appalachian Mountains – only reachable by air. At 4 p.m. Eastern on Monday, DriveNC.org reported 432 total road closures due to Helene – nine interstates, 25 federal highways, 42 state highways, and 356 secondary roads.

More than 150 have been cleared since the storm began, U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., said in a release. He also shared that his district – the southern-most part of the mountain range bordering Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina – should have most of its service from Duke Energy operable by Friday.

More than 600 National Guardsmen have been deployed to western North Carolina, their mission bolstered by high-water vehicles, palletized load systems and forestry support teams for debris clearance. They were expected Monday.

AccuWeather said rainfall totals were 32.51 inches in Jeter Mountain, 31.36 inches in Busick, and 26.65 inches in Hughes. From Asheville, Jeter Mountain is about 40 miles due south not far from South Carolina, Busick is about 40 miles northeast just off the Pisgah National Forest, Hughes about 70 miles northeast near Sugar Mountain.

Gov. Roy Cooper said he expects, as crews reach more areas that are yet to be accessed, the fatalities total will rise. White House Homeland Security Adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall said Monday, “It looks like there could be as many as 600 lost lives. We know there are 600 who are either lost or unaccounted for.”

President Joe Biden, before departing Dover Air Force Base aboard Air Force One, on Monday said, “It really is amazing. You saw the photographs. It’s stunning.”

The 81-year-old, besieged from the public by health questions halting his attempt for reelection on July 21, said he would visit the North Carolina areas when safe and not an intrusion on recovery and relief efforts.

Vice President Kamala Harris, No. 2 in charge of his incumbent administration, changed her campaign plans so she could visit the Southeast this week, newswire Reuters said.

The images Biden referred to have blitzed the internet many in the region can’t access. Some structures floated off foundations and went down roads in whole; others were torn apart by the downhill rapids, splintered and spread as if dropped by a tornado. In published reports, residents were aghast at the magnitude and offered “never seen anything like it” over and over.

They would have had to remember July 1916, when six straight days of rain started July 5. It was associated with a hurricane coming out of the Gulf of Mexico that weaved from the Mississippi-Alabama line to eastern Tennessee, and a second one that made landfall in Charleston, S.C., on July 14.

Asheville, at 94,589 easily the largest city in the state west of Winston-Salem near the Virginia border and Charlotte toward South Carolina, has a city water system damaged and has been cordoned by a mudslide blocking Interstate 40. Going west, I-40 is closed because two eastbound lanes fell into the Pigeon River along a mountainside about 4 miles from Tennessee.

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