ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Floodwaters pushed by the remnants of Hurricane Helene left North Carolina’s largest mountain city largely isolated Saturday by damaged roads and a lack of power and service cell phones, part of a swath of destruction across southern Appalachia that has left an unknown number dead and countless worried loved ones unable to reach their loved ones.
The storm brought misery to western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, where authorities on Friday used helicopters to rescue dozens of people from the roof of a flooded hospital. In North Carolina alone, more than 400 roads remained closed Saturday as floodwaters began to recede, revealing the extent of the damage. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said supplies were being flown to that part of the state.
Among those rescued from rising waters was nurse Janetta Barfield, whose car was flooded Friday morning as she left her night shift at Asheville Mission Hospital. She said she saw a car in front of her driving through standing water and thought it was safe to continue. But his car stalled and, within minutes, water filled his front seat up to his chest. A nearby police officer who saw her car stall helped her get to safety.
“It was amazing how fast that stream flowed in just five minutes,” Barfield said.
Early Saturday morning, many gas stations were closed because they had no power, and the few that were open had hour-long lines around the block. The tourism and arts hub, home to about 94,000 people, was unusually quiet after floodwaters inundated neighborhoods known for attracting visitors, including Biltmore Village and the River Arts District, home to many galleries, shops and breweries.
More than 700,000 electric customers were without power across North Carolina, including 160,000 in Buncombe County. Interstate 40 and I-26 were impassable in several places, and a state Department of Transportation map showed most roads leading to Asheville and through much of the mountains were blocked.
In Asheville, there was no cell service or timetable for his recovery. Residents were also asked to boil their water.
“We had a loss of life,” county Emergency Services Director Van Taylor Jones told reporters. However, he said they were not ready to give details. Officials were prevented from contacting next of kin due to communications breakdowns.
Jones said the area experienced a cascade of emergencies including heavy rain, high winds and mudslides. Officials said they tried to prepare for the storm, but its magnitude was more than they could have imagined.
“It’s not that we weren’t prepared, but this is going to take it to another level,” Sheriff Quentin Miller said. “To say it took us by surprise would be an understatement.”
Atlanta resident Francine Cavanaugh said she has been unable to reach her sister, son or friends in the Asheville area.
“My sister came to see me yesterday morning to see how I was doing in Atlanta,” she said Saturday. “The storm had just hit her in Asheville, and she said it was really scary out there.”
Cavanaugh said his sister had no idea how serious the storm was. She told Cavanaugh she was going to go see guests at a vacation cabin “and that’s the last I heard from her.” I have texted everyone I know with no response. All phone calls go straight to voicemail.
Across the state line in Greene County, Tennessee, the threat of a troubled dam eased Saturday morning. The Tennessee Valley Authority, which had warned residents overnight that the Nolichucky Dam could fail, said Saturday morning that the river had reached its peak and was receding. TVA said the dam is intact and crews continue to evaluate it.
Meanwhile, TVA said Saturday it was actively monitoring levels at the utility’s Watauga Dam in Carter County, Tenn., where the pool reached about 3 feet (0.9 meters) from previous records. Employees worked to extract water from the reservoir by releasing it from the Watauga and Wilbur dams.
Along the Pigeon River, the small town of Newport, Tennessee suffered heavy flooding.
Kendale Ball, who opened her Simple Cafe in June after moving from Knoxville, said the water was almost thigh-high.
“We never anticipated it would be this devastating,” he said of the storm.
They attempted to move equipment before the flood, but left town when an emergency evacuation was ordered.
“I know we lost our cold room, all the refrigeration. We’ll have to evaluate some of the other things.
In Unicoi County, where people were rescued from the hospital Friday, Elin Fisher and her husband had to move their camper three times to avoid rising waters. They also helped move eight other campers.
“We would move things and say, ‘Oh, we’re 30 feet above the water line,’ go and help someone else move their stuff to that level and say, ‘Oh. We have to move. Again.’ And it was really, really fast,” said Fisher, who with her husband teaches whitewater stand-up paddleboarding on the Nolichucky River. In the middle of the final movement, authorities closed the road.
“All our things and our house are on the other side of the river and we can’t access it,” she said Saturday.
Fisher said they were staying at a USA Raft campground just downstream from Unicoi County Hospital, where the rescue took place. “As soon as I stopped on the road and looked upstream towards the hospital and saw the river was getting more and more out of its banks, I said to myself: ‘Everything is going to be very quickly.’ really terrifying,” she said.
“USA Raft is a rafting company, so we monitor and monitor water levels,” she said. “But it’s a kind of thing where, like, you can’t imagine what a trillion dollars is. It’s like the idea of having so much water is unfathomable. I think we knew it was going to be huge. We didn’t know it was going to be so devastating. »
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Loller reported from Nashville and Walker from Newport, Tennessee.
