Major roads including Interstate 40 East from the mountains have reopened, providing renewed access for badly needed supplies and assistance after Tropical Storm Helene swept through North Carolina’s western counties on Friday, leaving a trail of destruction.
Despite claims to the contrary from some prominent politicians and impatience on the part of some local officials, federal, state and private assistance in material, personnel and funding has been flowing into the state’s 25-county disaster area.
As the flood waters recede, communities of all sizes are staggered by the devastation and beginning to deal with big questions. Where will they live? How will they get supplies? Where will they work?
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Even as recovery efforts gets until full swing, rescue efforts remain ongoing. Many people remain unaccounted for and some badly damaged areas remain isolated with difficulty in accessing homes and no reliable communication. In the area’s most populous county, Buncombe, the death toll was at 57 Tuesday and expected to rise. Henderson County has reported six deaths. More are expected as time goes on.
Many areas are without power and running water. Boil water orders are in effect in many locations. Supplies of water have been coming in.
Hospitals and other health services are operating but under strained conditions. One of the largest hospitals in the region, Mission Hospital in Asheville, has been operating without running water. Some provisions are being made for those in need of advanced care to transfer outside the area.
Local road repairs have begun in some places. Many residents are voicing understandable frustrations and fears amid the crisis and uncertainty. But as help arrives, difficult conditions are often bringing out the best in people as well.
What follows is a roundup of news and information about the crisis in Western North Carolina as the situation stands on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024.
Federal emergency relief from Helene
President Joe Biden has directed FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell to stay in Asheville until the situation is stabilized. Buncombe County manager Avril Pinder says the most urgent needs from FEMA are restrooms and shower facilities, large-scale generators to power those sites, and cots for shelters.
“We are committed to be there every step of the way, and it’s going to be a long way,” FEMA director of the Individual Assistance Division Frank Matranga said in a Tuesday press briefing.
FEMA will be conducting an assessment of the damages in order to estimate financial loss associated with the disaster.
Individuals can now apply for disaster assistance from FEMA here. FEMA has already disbursed $12 million to 150,000 households across impacted states, and FEMA says that they expect those numbers to rapidly increase. The agency encourages all survivors to apply for assistance, even if they are unsure whether they are eligible.
“Conditions continue in the western part of North Carolina and in adjacent counties in Tennessee and South Carolina, in an area that spans approximately 600 square miles,” FEMA urban search and rescue spokesperson Charles Lubowicki said in a Tuesday press conference.
“This area has been severely affected by flooding and mudslides, resulting in debilitating infrastructure damage.
The Massachusetts Task Force, one of multiple search-and-rescue teams that FEMA has activated from across the country, is using the territory of Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in Swain and Jackson counties as a staging area.
Personnel from the task force are helping Cherokee leadership to strengthen their emergency management programs and incident management system and holding classes.
A U.S. Coast Guard flood response team is currently providing rescue support in Mitchell County with shallow-water boats.
The widespread presence of various forms of federal assistance across Western North Carolina hasn’t stopped complaints.
Former President Donald Trump claimed in recent days that the Biden administration is only sending aid to areas with large populations of Democratic voters and preventing aid from reaching heavily Republican areas. Biden angrily disputed this claim as false and irresponsible.
In heavily Democratic Asheville, which is surrounded by heavily Republican areas throughout the rest of mountain counties, local officials said Wednesday that they were upset over delays in some federal and state assistance.
The water given out at distribution sites on Monday and Tuesday was privately purchased by the city, though it was originally supposed to be supplied by State Emergency Management.
“As the delay in the water delivery began to impact our community, we took a proactive action and purchased it ourselves,” Asheville city manager Deborah Campbell said at a Monday press briefing.
Campbell says that this emergency purchase of water cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. She expects federal and state entities to supplement that supply in the coming days.
Water will be distributed today at Pack Square Park in Asheville and Asheville Middle School until 7 p.m. Wednesday or when supplies run out.
“We were frustrated that it took so long for us to get resources,” Buncombe County manager Avril Pinder said in a Monday press briefing.
“We were expecting to be flying them in because all the roads were closed. It took us so long to get (federal and state entities) to realize that we were isolated and needed air support. We had to prove that, but once we did, we started to see resources coming in on Sunday.”
Survivors of the storm can apply for disaster assistance with FEMA. People can apply online by visiting FEMA’s disaster assistance webpage, which is also available in Spanish. Alternatively, they can call 1-800-621-3362 or apply through the FEMA App.
A devastated economy after Helene
The NC Division of Employment Security announced Tuesday that the 25 North Carolina counties under a disaster declaration, as well as the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, have been approved for Disaster Unemployment Assistance.
Those who face unemployment as a direct result of Hurricane Helene, including business owners and self-employed individuals, have 60 days from Oct. 1 to file an application for unemployment assistance. The assistance could last up to 26 weeks.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is currently assessing the impacts to agriculture and forestry across the region. USDA spokesperson Robert Bonnie said the greatest damage was done to corn, soybeans, cotton, peanuts and orchards.
“We know there will be short-term impacts, and we also know that the impacts of farmer livelihoods will last for potentially years,” Bonnie said in a press briefing Tuesday.
“The USDA is prepared to be with farmers in the weeks, months and years ahead.”
The USDA is working to get its field offices back online, connecting them to generators and bringing in personnel from headquarters and elsewhere.
The USDA’s disaster policies cover up to $7 billion in liability.
“That’s only a portion of the impacts that we think agriculture will suffer,” Bonnie said. “Our Farm Service Agency is streamlining our programs, requiring less documentation from farmers and removing some of the environmental requirements, so that we can help with livestock, orchards and uninsured crops.”
Once commercial channels of food distribution have been restored, the Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance program (D-SNAP) will provide support to impacted households.
A group of lawmakers from Southeastern states, including Republican and Democratic representatives from North Carolina, are urging congressional leadership and the Biden administration to ensure farmers have access to adequate disaster relief.
“To prevent deep and lasting economic damage to the agricultural industry in the southeastern United States, it is imperative that Congress make appropriations as soon as possible upon the completion of damage assessments to fully fund unmet agricultural disaster relief needs in our states and across the nation,” lawmakers wrote.
“Farmers and growers nationwide, not only those damaged by Helene, have now faced multiple growing seasons without sufficient federal support. Our constituents are counting on us to act swiftly.”
The North Carolina Department of Justice is monitoring complaints of price gouging related to the storm. Attorney General Josh Stein provided an update on those complaints in a press release Monday afternoon.
The DOJ received 64 complaints alleging price gouging in Western North Carolina, according to the release. Most complaints were about hotel rates, grocery prices and fuel prices and were most frequently about businesses in Watauga, McDowell and Cleveland counties.
“Thank goodness many businesses out west are generously helping their neighbors in need. North Carolina has an anti-price gouging law to make sure that no bad actors try to take advantage of people’s desperation,” Stein said in the press release.
“My team and I aggressively enforce that law and won’t let them. We are taking a close look at the complaints we receive. We are already investigating some of the complaints we’ve received and are sending out three civil investigative demands.”
Under state law businesses cannot unreasonably raise the price of goods or services to profit from a state of emergency. Residents can file price gouging complaints at 1-877-5-NO-SCAM or at the DOJ’s price gouging webpage.
Public health and medical services
Mission Hospital in Asheville is operating under crisis protocol, according to Greg Lowe, CEO of Mission Health and president of HCA’s North Carolina Division. HCA operates Mission Health in Asheville as well as rural hospitals in surrounding mountain counties.
The hospital in Asheville currently has no running water. There is word that FEMA may be digging an emergency well to provide water to the hospital.
“Our greatest concern right now is city water — have no pressurized water at Mission Hospital,” HCA spokesperson Nancy Lindell wrote in a statement Tuesday evening.
“We are hopeful that the Asheville community’s infrastructure will be restored soon, but we have contingency plans in place and will continue to evaluate how best to take care of our patients and our colleagues.”
“HCA Healthcare has supplied more than 20 tanker trucks daily so that we can maintain operations at the hospital,” Lowe said.
“However, without pressurized water, we are significantly challenged in some operations, such as hot food preparations, and toileting and showers for those who are staying on site. To say that our teams are making the best of rough circumstances to provide care for our patients is an understatement.”
Mission asked staff to come into their shifts before they started on Thursday evening, and sleep on site in order to be available to care for patients. One of those staff members was Hannah Drummond, a Mission Health nurse in the cardiac department. The hospital lost power overnight Thursday as the storm moved into the area. Drummond says constant alarms prevented any hope of rest.
Drummond was deployed to the ER, since the hospital is essentially only handling emergency cases.
As of Monday afternoon, Mission Hospital has more than 700 patients. More than 250 patients have been admitted to the hospital since the storm. More than 30 babies have been delivered in that time. The hospital’s emergency room has seen more than 900 patients, 200 of which were then admitted to the hospital. At the time of Tuesday morning’s press briefing, Lowe said more than 80 patients in need of admission to the hospital were being held in the ER.
When 911 service came back online Saturday after cell service came back, more than 1,000 calls were backed up on the line, Drummond said. Mission Hospital is double-bunking beds in the ER, Drummond said, in what she describes as a cramped space even under normal conditions.
HCA employees from around the country are arriving to provide support. “On Sunday, two bus loads of nurses arrived from Nashville, South Carolina, and Texas to support our patient care teams,” Lowe said.
“Patient emergencies happen every day in normal settings, but then you have to consider that the entire region has no water, no electricity, and no food,” Drummond told Carolina Public Press.
“We’re having people come in with dehydration and other things from not being able to eat for days on end. We have patients who have been trapped under structures from being washed away by flood water. We have patients who have been exposed to all kinds of chemicals in the water.”
The hospital ran out of food on Saturday, she said.
“A nurse on staff in the ER found one of our very few open grocery stores and spent their own money to go buy hot dogs and chicken patties to feed the staff,” Drummond said.
“The last few days, the community has been posted up outside of our ambulance bay with a gas grill just cooking for us. And since Sunday, they have brought in some food trucks. But resources are very limited.”
In early September, after months of unproductive bargaining sessions with HCA and working under an expired contract, 97% of nurses at Mission Hospital in Asheville voted to authorize a strike.
The union says three major areas of concern are improved nurse-to-patient ratios, efforts to reduce patient violence against nurses and wages that keep up with the rising cost of living in Asheville. Nurses also want fair meal and rest breaks, improved health benefits and recognition of more federal holidays.
“At this point, negotiations are ongoing,” Drummond, who is a member of the union’s bargaining team, told CPP.
However, Drummond is frustrated by the way HCA is handling operations at Mission Hospital. After working in an overrun ER without running water for days on end, she feels that Mission Health could have done more to prepare staff for an event like this.
“I worked in the ER for three years, and not once did we have a disaster drill or a mass casualty drill,” Drummond said. “I believe there were plans in place to run a drill later this year. But it’s too late. The disaster is here.”
The relief nurses who came in on Sunday were not given access to the computer systems and patient information, and their ID cards weren’t authorized to scan into any locked rooms, limiting their abilities to actually relieve Asheville nurses.
“They’re paying a premium service for these nurses to come in from out of state, and there are people who haven’t left the hospital for four or five days to even check on their homes or their families,” Drummond said.
Drummond also says HCA has told nurses that if they leave the hospital, their disaster pay stops.
Some patients in need of an advanced level of care have been evacuated from Mission Hospital by helicopter, but Asheville fire chief Michael Cayse said helicopter evacuations will not be widespread across the county.
Buncombe County Medical Director Jennifer Mullendore said ABCCM Doctors’ Medical Clinic is accepting donations of medications from 9 a.m. to noon each day this week through Thursday. The clinic, which offers its services for free to the uninsured, is located at 155 Livingston Street in Asheville.
Donated medications must be in sealed manufacturer bottles that are not expired and do not require refrigeration. They do not accept controlled substances or cancer medications.
The clinic is also providing primary health care to all adults right now, regardless of whether they are insured.
Mullendore added that the North Carolina Board of Pharmacy is maintaining an online list of pharmacies in Western North Carolina that are open. This list is updated every 30 minutes. Any area pharmacies that are open but not on the list should contact [email protected], she said.
Southwest of Asheville, the Cherokee Indian Hospital Authority maintained power, internet, and cell service throughout the storm. Its biggest struggle is with staffing.
“We have employees who travel from Asheville, Rabun County (in Tennessee), even some in Western Tennessee, many of whom either couldn’t safely report to work or we were unable to communicate with to check their availability,” hospital spokesperson Brittney Lofthouse told CPP in an email.
Mission My Care Now-Biltmore Park in Asheville reopened for walk-in care Tuesday morning. On Monday, Mission My Care Now locations in Clyde and Marion reopened. Mission Community Primary Care in Highlands is open, as is Mission Health Center in Rutherfordton.
Pardee Rx in Hendersonville will be open to fill emergency prescriptions. Pardee Cancer Center will partially open, seeing patients with urgent needs or scheduled infusion and lab appointments. Pardee Urgent Care and their outpatient and specialty offices remain closed. FastMed also resumed operations in Hendersonville on Tuesday.
Catawba Valley Medical Center in Hickory was unaffected by the storm despite some damage in the area. The system closed 22 primary and specialty practices on Friday, but all services have reopened this week.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Disaster Medical Assistance Teams began providing care to patients in Spruce Pine on Tuesday. They initiated patient care in Asheville a day earlier. The department is staging resources in Charlotte and working with the state to assign them to locations across the state.
A disaster portable morgue and disaster mortuary affairs team will be moving into North Carolina shortly.
“It is a signal that we are concerned about fatality management, but not that it is a large-scale fatality event,” HHS spokesperson Jon Greene said in a press briefing Tuesday.
“We do not yet have confirmation on where that facility will be located. The last time such a facility was deployed was in the Maui wildfires (in August 2023).”
Public schools after Helene
Many school systems across Western North Carolina are closed through at least Friday.
Systems are still assessing damage to school buildings and confronting the transportation and supply difficulties that will likely plague them for weeks to come. In the meantime, some schools are being used as emergency shelters, distribution centers and Internet providers.
Buncombe County Schools, Transylvania County Schools, and Haywood County Schools are currently closed until at least Friday, Oct. 4.
Asheville City Schools are closed indefinitely, as are Henderson County Schools.
Rutherford County Schools are officially closed through Tuesday, though school system spokesperson Richard Garland said that on Tuesday afternoon, they will be announcing an extended closure.
One of the main issues, Garland said, is securing food for school lunches and other meal services schools are expected to provide. All the food already at the schools is lost due to warm freezers and refrigerators.
Challenges to communities and residents
Savannah Parrish, the town manager of Montreat, a small town in eastern Buncombe County, provided updates during a county press event Tuesday on the status of the town of about 700 people. Montreat sits along several creeks that are tributaries to the nearby Swannanoa River, which was the site of some of the region’s worst flooding.
Three bridges in Montreat that were damaged in the storm are now passable, Parrish said, but she had no update on when running water might be restored. Montreat College, a private college that has fewer than 1,000 students, has been completely evacuated.
Parrish encouraged residents to leave the community if they are able to do so as rescue efforts continue.
Helene was particularly devastating to smaller, rural communities like Montreat. About 30 miles to the south in Rutherford County, the town of Lake Lure and Village of Chimney Rock are considered “unsafe for travel of any kind,” according to a recent update on the Town of Rutherfordton’s Facebook page.
Both Broad River Water Authority and the Town of Forest City have tested their water supply and all drinking water is safe, according to Rutherford County’s EMS Facebook page.
Problems also remain in larger communities.
Asheville and many surrounding areas still do not have running water. Buncombe County opened five sites to distribute drinkable water and ready-to-eat meals. Residents must bring their own containers for water. Those sites are located at:
- William W. Estes Elementary School – 275 Overlook Road, Asheville
- Sand Hill Elementary – 154 Sand Hill School Road, Asheville (Please enter via Acton Circle)
- North Windy Ridge Intermediate School – 20 Doan Road, Weaverville
- Fairview Elementary School – 1355 Charlotte Highway, Fairview
- Ingles Black Mountain – 550 NC-9, Black Mountain, NC 28711 (this site is operated by the Town of Black Mountain with support from County warehouse distribution)
The City of Asheville is also distributing water at Pack Square Park at 80 Court Plaza and Asheville Middle School at 211 S. French Broad Ave. Residents must bring their own containers to Pack Square Park. The site at Asheville Middle School is distributing bottled water via a drive-thru line.
One group of residents in the flood-devastated area of Swannanoa in Buncombe County has been moved to new accommodations. The state evacuated some 360 offenders from the Western Correctional Center for Women to either Anson Correctional Institution in Polkton or the North Carolina Correction Institution in Raleigh.
Evacuations also relocated 45 residents at Black Mountain Substance Abuse Treatment Center for Women in Black Mountain, just east of Swannanoa, to the North Piedmont Confinement in Response to Violation center in Lexington.
Charitable efforts
Many charities and foundations are gearing up efforts to send various types of aid to survivors of Tropical Storm Helene.
The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina announced Tuesday that is working with Dogwood Health Trust and WNC Bridge Foundation to mount a coordinated response to the crisis.
The CFWNC has activated its Emergency and Disaster Response Fund to accept and disburse funds supporting a regional response and relief efforts in 18 counties of Western North Carolina including the Qualla Boundary. Funds will ensure that frontline nonprofit organizations have the resources they need for the critical early response and continuing recovery.
They asked that anyone wishing to support aid donate to the Emergency and Disaster Response Fund at www.cfwnc.org. Administrative fees are waived so that every dollar goes directly to assistance, the organization announced.
The Red Cross continues to be a key part of relief efforts across the region.
While shelter populations across all states impacted by Helene decreased by 9% overnight to 2,400 survivors total, the Red Cross said Tuesday that shelter populations in Western North Carolina continue to increase.
The Red Cross’ focus in the state is stabilizing shelter operations, and communicating with local partners to identify which shelters are full and where new shelters are opening up.
HCA, the owner of the Mission Health hospital system, has said it is contributing $1 million to Asheville relief efforts.
News items from across the region
DuPont State Recreational Forest in Cedar Mountain, Holmes Educational State Forest in Hendersonville, and Tuttle Educational State Forest in Lenoir are closed for extended periods, according to the North Carolina Forest Service.
The White Oak Landfill in Haywood County reopened Tuesday at noon.
Mountain Mule Packer Ranch is stationed in Montreat, delivering supplies up otherwise impassable roads — including in Black Mountain, where very little progress has been made — via mule. These mules specialize in hauling heavy loads up extreme mountain terrain.
In Rutherford County, the public transit system, TriCity Xpress, resumed normal operations Tuesday morning.
One resident of Bald Creek Road in northern Haywood County, Kit Gruelle, told CPP she was so excited to see a Department of Transportation crew fixing the massive hole in the road at the end of her drive Tuesday morning, that she promptly made them biscuits with butter and molasses.
She shared a photo indicating the state crew appreciated what she described as “biscuit diplomacy.”
Carolina Public Press staff members Jane Winik Sartwell, Lucas Thomae and Frank Taylor contributed to this report.
Western NC battered but defiant, a photo essay
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