North Carolina mounts massive search and rescue operation in wake of Helene

BAT CAVE, North Carolina — Crews on Monday airlifted emergency food and water into remote North Carolina towns that were cut off and devastated by tropical storm Helene that turned the western part of the state into a “post apocalyptic” landscape.

Helene was a hurricane when it slammed into the Florida Gulf coast on Thursday, tearing a destructive path through southeastern states for days on end, ripping up roads, tossing homes about and severing lines of communication. In its wake, hundreds of people were unaccounted for and many feared dead.

The storm killed more than 100 people in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Virginia. The death toll is expected to rise once rescue teams reach isolated towns and emergency telecommunications assets come online.

Throughout North Carolina, some 300 roads were closed, more than 7,000 people registered for U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance, and the National Guard was flying 1,000 tons of food and water to remote areas by plane and helicopter, officials told the news briefing.

Among the demolished towns was the tiny hamlet of Bat Cave, about 100 miles (160 km) west of Charlotte, where in what climate scientists are describing as a 1,000-year event the Broad River rose to unprecedented levels, washed away homes and broke through the town’s bridge.

In the aftermath of the storm, people gingerly crossed a gap in the bridge on a wobbly plank.

Aaron Smith, 31, his wife and two young sons sat in front of the Bat Cave fire station with one suitcase among them.

It was all they could save after the Hickory Creek rose into a torrent, demolishing three of the four walls of their home and sending a boulder through a bedroom wall.

“There’s no roads, there’s no evidence of roads, there’s no trees, it’s just water and stuff,” Smith said. “When it comes to where we going to go from here, I guess anywhere but here. I don’t see anything to go back to.”

Private helicopters tried to land in Bat Cave to evacuate people, but locals waved them away from a bridge that appeared ready to collapse. Firefighters spray-painted “DON’T LAND” on the structure.

Bat Cave is just upstream from the village of Chimney Rock which was largely destroyed by the wall of water surging down the Broad River, according to emergency responders.

The river flows into Lake Lure, which was full of the remains of homes, trees and other debris.

Charlotte City Councilman Tariq Bokhari posted a video on X showing the devastation at Lake Lure, calling it “post-apocalyptic.”

“It’s so overwhelming. You don’t even know how to fathom what recovery looks like, let alone where to start,” Bokhari wrote.

‘Beyond belief’

The U.S. government, states and localities were engaged in a massive recovery effort throughout the southeast. People were stranded without running water and 1.8 million homes and businesses remained without power on Monday, according to the website Poweroutage.us.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said on Monday at least 25 people in his state had died, including a firefighter responding to emergency calls during the storm and a mother and her 1-month-old twins who were killed by a falling tree. South Carolina reported at least 29 dead.

CNN put the national death toll at 128, citing state and local officials, including 56 in North Carolina.

In North Carolina’s mountainous Buncombe County, which includes the tourist destination of Asheville, 40 people have died, the county manager said at a news briefing.

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper took an aerial tour of the damage and said “significant resources” would be needed in the short and long term.

“The devastation was beyond belief, and even when you prepare for something like this, this is something that’s never happened before in western North Carolina. Search and rescue teams are continuing to work,” Cooper told a news briefing.

Some 1,200 federal personnel were on the ground in addition to state and local responders, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was planning major debris removal.

About 3,000 federal personnel were deployed throughout the region, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell told CNN.

President Joe Biden, attributing the storm’s devastation to climate change, said he would visit North Carolina on Wednesday and Georgia and Florida soon after. He may also ask Congress to return to Washington for a special session to pass supplemental aid funding.

“There’s nothing like wondering, ‘is my husband, wife, son, daughter, mother, father alive?’” Biden said at the White House. “Many more will remain without electricity, water, food and communications, and whose homes and businesses are washed away in an instant. I want them to know we’re not leaving until the job is done.”