Picturesque North Carolina mountain town destroyed by Hurricane Helene as death toll surpasses 100: ‘There’s just nothing left’
Heartbreaking images show how a picturesque North Carolina mountain village was all but wiped off the map by Hurricane Helene — with one local mourning, “What was once a town is now a river.”
Chimney Rock — a tiny tourist town of 140 people just east of Asheville — was reduced to nothing more than mounds of brown sludge and washed-away roadways that hampered rescue efforts. Crews were busy Monday clearing roadways of caved in homes and trees blocking the way.
Tracey Stevens worked at the Chimney Rock brewery — which is gone, the Asheville Citizen Times reported.
“Everything along the river is gone,” she said. “What was once a town is now a river. It’s beyond anything I can imagine.”
It was unclear how many were dead in the small town. But in Buncombe County, which neighbors Rutherford County encompassing Chimney Rock, at least 40 were killed as of Monday night.Chimney Rock initially appeared to have escaped Helene’s wrath — until floodwater overwhelmed a dam on Saturday, overrunning the area and destroying almost everything in sight, the News & Observer noted.
“The village? There’s just nothing left,” rescue crew leader Chris Murray told the outlet.
“I’ve never seen concentrated damage like we’ve seen here.”
Helene tore through six states, first making landfall in Florida as a Category 4 hurricane, and left millions without power and communications. But North Carolina was hit hardest, with at least 30 of the over 100 dead coming from the Tar Heel State, with hundreds still unaccounted for.
In Chimney Rock, photos show the once-idyllic village covered in mud and debris, with about half of the businesses on the southern side of the town near Broad River gone from the massive flooding.
“The damage is unimaginable,” rescue crews from Pamlico County said over the weekend.
Terrifying video set to the sound of blaring sirens showed Hurricane Helene’s violent floodwaters ravaging the village on Saturday.
The clip begins with a powerful wave of muddy water surging across a yard in Chimney Rock, ripping pieces of a home off and sweeping debris in the tide.
“My car’s gone. Everything’s gone. It’s all gone,” the unidentified filmmaker can be heard saying, as a second person hurriedly reassures them, “It’s OK.”
The floodwaters were strong enough to cause SUVs and roadways to be washed away and obliterated.
Meanwhile, other parts of the Southeast were ravaged by the storm — one of the worst in US history — prompting mass rescue efforts.
The death toll topped 130 Monday evening across six Southeastern states spanning Florida’s Gulf Coast to the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia.
Flood waters also ravaged Lake Lure, a vacation destination near Chimney Rock, destroying its pier, the police station and city hall, the Citizen Times reported. The water was left stinking of propane and waste.
“This used to be the most beautiful, most pristine water and now no one will be able to swim in it for years,” said resident Jim Larson, who watched his pal’s business get swept away.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper predicted the toll would rise as rescuers and other emergency workers reached areas isolated by collapsed roads, failing infrastructure and widespread flooding.
Supplies were being airlifted to the region around the isolated city. Buncombe County Manager Avril Pinder pledged that she would have food and water in Asheville by Monday.
“My staff has been making every request possible to the state for support and we’ve been working with every single organization that has reached out. What I promise you is that we are very close,” Pinder said on a Sunday call with reporters.
He asked residents in western North Carolina to avoid travel as more than 50 search teams spread throughout the region to look for stranded people.
One rescue effort involved saving 41 people north of Asheville. Another mission focused on saving a single infant. The teams found people through both 911 calls and social media messages, North Carolina National Guard Adjutant General Todd Hunt said.
Tampa Bay, Florida, was also blasted with a massive storm surge that sent water up to people’s attics.
Atlanta got more than 11 inches of rain, more than any 48-hour period in recorded history. So many trees were toppled in South Carolina that more than 40 percent of the state lost electricity at one point.
Among the more than 20 dead in Georgia were a 27-year-old mother and her 1-month-old twins who died Friday when trees fell on their house in Thomson, just west of Augusta.
“I currently have 2 people on oxygen needing generators & 1 person on dialysis needing one. Anyone with power willing to loan their generators? I’ll organize delivery & return,” South Carolina state Rep. Neal Collins (R-Greenville) wrote on X, imploring users to reach out to him so he could initiate rescue efforts.
President Biden pledged federal help for Helene’s “overwhelming” devastation on Saturday. He also approved a disaster declaration for North Carolina, making federal funding available for affected individuals.
With Post wires
