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Western North Carolina was hit particularly hard by Helene

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

The death toll from Hurricane Helene keeps climbing. The storm, which hit Florida as a Category 4 hurricane, tore through the Southeast U.S., causing damage as far north as Virginia. In North Carolina, which was particularly hard-hit, local and state officials are grappling with the extensive nature of destruction, particularly in the mountainous western part of the state, which is where NPR's Nathan Rott is. He is in Asheville. Hi there, Nate.

NATHAN ROTT, BYLINE: Hey.

KELLY: Hey. I guess I'll start with the basic question. What are you seeing? What does it actually look like there?

ROTT: Yeah. So, I mean, we just got to Asheville this afternoon. But you know, driving here from Charlotte, you know, even a hundred miles out of the city, there's downed trees, power lines, power outages, stoplights that aren't working. You know, gas stations along the South Carolina border have long lines of cars and trucks because there are very few services that are still working here in western North Carolina. Water is out. Power is out in a lot of places. Cell service is a huge issue.

You know, outside of Blue Ridge Public Radio, where we are now, people are gathering up because it's one of the few places in the city to send texts and to check in on family. And, of course, this is just one county here in western North Carolina. Other counties are struggling with just the same and many other issues.

KELLY: Yeah. I know that facts have been hard to pin down and come by here. But I mentioned the death toll, and I do want to ask, do you have a sense of how many people have died?

ROTT: Yeah, so here in Buncombe County, where Asheville is, the death toll has grown to 45, and that is likely to keep going up. There are still hundreds of people here who have been reported as missing or unaccounted for. We talked to a fire captain in a rural mountain town further north up in the Appalachians who said he's still trying to do wellness checks door-to-door, which, at times, involves doing swift water creek crossings because so many bridges are out.

As of Sunday, there were at least 200 roads still closed in North Carolina. But we should point out that, you know, with cell service outages, the power problems, the road problems, it is possible that many of the missing are actually OK. They just haven't been able to reach family or friends yet...

KELLY: Yeah.

ROTT: ...To check in.

KELLY: Yeah. Fingers crossed. OK. So to rebuilding - the storm was bad, as we've said, but it has been over for days. What is the timing on when things may be restored?

ROTT: Yeah, I mean, that's a question that everyone here in western North Carolina's getting. It's going to take time. There's still flooding in some areas. The rivers that we drove by today were still swollen and muddy and brown. In Asheville, the most pressing issue seems to be water. The city's water system is down, so people can't run their taps or flush their toilets. At a press briefing late this afternoon for Buncombe County, City Manager Ben Woody fielded a lot of questions about the status of the waters. And let's take a listen.

(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)

BEN WOODY: We are still accessing infrastructure that is buried under debris, that is perhaps inaccessible because of water that still remains. We are doing that every day as fast as we can. But, again, I want it known that restoring service to this system could potentially take weeks.

ROTT: And you know, Mary Louise, road access, especially in the mountains west and north of here, is going to be an issue for a really long time too. It's nearly impossible to reach some of these areas, which is why it's going to take a long time to string new power lines, fix infrastructure and, frankly, get a full picture of the devastation that's happened here.

KELLY: About 30 seconds left, Nate. But just talk to me about what all this means for people who are disconnected, who are maybe still trapped.

ROTT: Yeah, they're going to have to hold on. I mean, the National Guard and other agencies are airlifting supplies into some small towns. Asheville started getting water trucked in from outside earlier today, but they're limiting it for now to three gallons per person per day, which county officials expressed some frustration about, that it's taken so long. But this is just going to be a dynamic situation that's going to take some time to resolve.

KELLY: NPR's Nathan Rott reporting there in Asheville, N.C., which, as you heard, is reeling from the effects of Hurricane Helene. Thank you, Nate.

ROTT: Yeah, thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Nate Rott
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