Asheville, North Carolina, devastated by Helene, state faces ‘unprecedented tragedy’

A crisis arose Asheville, North Carolinaas officials vowed on Monday and days after to bring more water, food and other supplies to flood-hit areas without power and cell phones Hurricane Helene ripped across the southeastern United States. More than 115 deaths in six states have been attributed to the storm as of Monday morning, according to CBS News.

A North Carolina county that includes the mountain town of Asheville reported at least 35 people killed, officials said Monday.

“Devastation doesn’t even begin to describe how we feel,” Buncombe County Sheriff Quentin Miller said during a news conference.

Meanwhile, overnight sites are full, drinking water is in short supply and misinformation has been a problem, district officials said. There was a “hoax” that a dam was in danger of failing, leading to unnecessary evacuations of hundreds of people and diverting the attention of first responders.

“Please do not provide our staff with misinformation as this will delay our response,” Miller said.

Gov. Roy Cooper predicted the death toll would rise as rescuers and other emergency responders reached areas isolated by collapsed roads, failing infrastructure and widespread flooding.

“This is an unprecedented tragedy that requires an unprecedented response,” Cooper said at a news conference Sunday. He added that “we know there will be more deaths” as rescuers reach remote areas.

Supplies were airlifted to the region surrounding the isolated city of Asheville. Buncombe County Manager Avril Pinder promised she would have food and water in the city by Monday.

“We hear you. We need food and we need water,” Pinder said in a Sunday call with reporters. “My staff has made every possible request for assistance to the state and we have worked with every single organization that has come forward. I promise you we are very close.”

Officials warned that reconstruction was widespread Loss of homes and property would be lengthy and difficult. The storm upended life across the Southeast. Deaths have also been reported in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia.

Cooper urged residents in western North Carolina to avoid travel, both for their own safety and to keep roads clear for emergency vehicles. More than 50 search parties spread across the entire region in search of stranded people.

41 people were saved in a rescue operation north of Asheville. Another mission focused on rescuing a single infant. Teams found people through both 911 calls and social media messages, said Todd Hunt, adjutant general for the North Carolina National Guard.

President Biden described the storm’s impact as “amazing” and said he would visit the area this week as long as it did not affect rescue or recovery efforts. In a brief exchange with reporters, he said the administration was giving states “everything we have” to help with their response to the storm.

Hurricane Helene barreled ashore in Florida’s Big Bend region late Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 140 miles per hour. A weakened Helen moved quickly through Georgia and then inundated the Carolinas and Tennessee with torrential rains that flooded streams and rivers and overwhelmed dams.

There have been hundreds of water rescues, including in rural Unicoi County in East Tennessee, where dozens of patients and staff were plucked by helicopter from the roof of a hospital on Friday.

More than two million homeowners and other utility customers were still without power Sunday night. South Carolina had the most outages and Gov. Henry McMaster asked for patience as crews struggled with widespread broken power poles.

“We want people to stay calm. Help is on the way, it will just take time,” McMaster told reporters outside the Aiken County airport.

The storm triggered the worst flooding in North Carolina in a century. One community, Spruce Pine, was flooded by more than 2 feet of rain Tuesday through Saturday.

The state sent water supplies and other goods to Buncombe County and Asheville, but mudslides that blocked Interstate 40 and other highways prevented the supplies from getting there. The county’s own water supplies were located across the Swannanoa River, away from where most of Buncombe County’s 270,000 people live, officials said.

Law enforcement planned to send officers to locations where there was still water, food or gas because there were reports of arguments and threats of violence, the county sheriff said.

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell traveled through southern Georgia on Sunday and planned to be in North Carolina on Monday.

“It is still an active search and rescue mission” in western North Carolina, Criswell said. “And we know that there are many communities that are cut off just because of the geography of the mountains, where damage to roads and bridges has cut off certain areas.”

Criswell said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”“The historic flooding in North Carolina is beyond what anyone in the area could have expected.

“I don’t know if anyone could be fully prepared for the extent of the flooding and landslides they are currently experiencing,” she said.

Biden promised federal government help for Helene’s “overwhelming” devastation on Saturday. He also approved a disaster declaration for North Carolina and made federal funding available for affected individuals.