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.
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.
