WNC Update - It’s Even Worse Than It Looked Saturday Night

Helene is hellacious.

The situation in Western North Carolina, which we reported on Saturday morning, is only now starting to come into focus. The rains from what was left of Hurricane Helene have been devastating. Towns like Swannanoa and Black Mountain are almost entirely destroyed. Asheville is cut off as all the interstates into town are not just flooded but broken, washed out in multiple spots. The French Broad River is 21 feet above flood stage and has reportedly not yet crested. Boone has also suffered heavy damage.

Basically, everything is ruined or washed away. Dwellings, power, water, internet, cell service - it’s all gone and it may take a very long time for it to come back (Starlink could help restore communications but obviously even that depends on power, and fixing the lines is going to take longer without functional roads).

There’s no way to know yet how many people have died but the reports are grim.

Here’s the other bad part: the people of Western NC have very little food. The weather is starting to turn and they have very little shelter, much less warm (or even clean) clothes and bedding.

They can’t really get out, help can’t really get in yet and it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

The stories are legion and Katrina comparisons have emerged. ETSU football coach Tre Lamb talks here about somehow getting to Charleston to play The Citadel Saturday. Give this a listen - it’s amazing they even tried - it was a harrowing journey. To get back to Johnson City, Lamb says they’ll have to circle up through North Carolina and Virginia then cut over, which is going to be a very, very long bus ride.

WNC can’t count on the Cajun Navy or boats to get in, partly because of the geography and partly because the roads are just so broken. They won’t be able to get close enough to do much, unfortunately. It’s probably difficult for them to accept this since they’ve done such brilliant work around the country in other disasters.

The damage reports continue to roll in. Haywood City is trashed. Canton saw a flood level of 25.82 from the Pigeon River. Hendersonville is underwater, Cullowhee too.

The area has also seen mudslides, sinkholes and tornadoes. It just seems endless and very much, as some people have said, Biblical in scope.

This video is from Tennessee and it’s absolutely terrifying. One of the dangers of flooding that most people don’t realize is debris, and by debris we don’t mean the big stuff, though that’s surely dangerous. The small bits are just as dangerous if not more so because it can get in your eyes and then you can’t see. And then the big stuff and the currents will have their way with you.

The immediate problems are going to be finding shelter and food for the displaced. Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has his own Helene problems, has very kindly sent aircraft to North Carolina to help with relief. You don’t have to like him or agree with his politics to be grateful, because the help is desperately needed.

We are asking again: if you can afford to help, if you can in any way pitch in locally, perhaps at your church, synagogue or mosque, please do. There are cold and hungry people in the Western part of our state who are growing desperate. There are children who have lost their mothers and fathers and parents who have lost their children. There are bodies that need to be recovered and prepared for burial. We live in a time of political and social divide, but it’s time to put all of that away and act like Americans.

It’s time to help, in any way that you can.