Fairview, North Carolina – Hurricane Helen caused damage of “biblical proportions” across parts of Appalachia, drawing comparisons to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, according to volunteer search and rescue group officials.
The death toll from the hurricane is at least 200, and that number is expected to rise in the coming weeks as authorities continue rescue and recovery efforts.
“I personally lost everything I owned in Hurricane Katrina, which was one of the reasons I took this action,” said Cajun Navy 2016, a search and rescue organization based in Louisiana. said Ben Hasser, vice chairman of the board.
“I can tell you it's going to take time. It's not going to be an overnight recovery. We're talking years and years, but these people are going to continue to hurt. They need every resource available to them and… It's going to be a long and tough battle to recover from this.'' ”
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Roads destroyed by Hurricane Helen. (Water Mission)
Husser said Helen is “absolutely” comparable to Katrina.
“These are hard-working people. They're just trying to live from day to day. Most of them won't be adequately prepared for this devastation. This is in Biblical proportion. … People I've heard people compare it to Katrina. “Absolutely.” In a way, I think this is even worse because we're talking hundreds of miles. ”
“This is a Biblical ratio.”
Fairview resident James Latrella told Fox News Digital that a neighbor gave him cash and gas after his home was destroyed in the hurricane. Other local residents have come into town to collect water and food from their mountainous neighborhoods for elderly residents and young mothers with babies in need of diapers and milk.
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“We're pretty strong guys here, but this thing is not us. It’s bigger than everyone else.” Streams used by residents for flush toilets and other plumbing purposes.
The Fairview Fire Department stores non-potable creek water that residents can use to flush toilets and other plumbing uses. (Fox News Digital)
Volunteer pilots provide civilian helicopters to deliver supplies and rescue people. Other volunteers are delivering Starlink systems to remote locations without power, roaming data, or cell phone service.
“I think people are really… kind of in shock and still wondering, 'Where do I start? What's going on?'” There are still people missing… in North Carolina. “The thing about people and people in the western part of the state is that they're not like, 'Okay, let's give up.'” Charlotte, North Carolina. , City Councilman Tariq Bokhari, who traveled with friends who live in Lake Lure over the weekend, told Fox News Digital. “It's really easy to think, 'This is too much. I'm giving up.'”
Bokhari added that “hundreds, if not thousands, of Charlotte residents have reached out and asked how they can help people in the western part of the state.”
“It's a resilient group, a very positive group,” Bokhari said of those affected by Helen. “This means that no matter how bad something is, and no matter how bad it seems, no matter how bad it is as some of the people I've seen around here, that spirit ultimately ends up in them. It shows that it is a driving force for adapting and understanding.”
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James Broyhill walks along his parents' dock in Lake Lure, North Carolina. (James Broyhill)
Since the weekend, numerous volunteer groups from around the state have been stationed in western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, and parts of Georgia and Florida.
Emergency workers and military personnel from across the United States are also visiting the disaster-stricken areas to provide relief, recovery efforts, and the delivery of donations.
Hurricane Helen floods the banks of the Swannanoa River in Asheville, North Carolina, Friday, September 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Verduzco)
Samaritan's Purse, a Boone-based Christian humanitarian organization that has volunteers working in multiple hurricane-hit states, has set up 20 beds in Linville for patients in need. An emergency field hospital was set up.
“This devastation is truly heartbreaking, and so many families are without power or water, and so many cell phone towers are being destroyed,” said Caitlin Josten, a spokeswoman for the group. “It's hard to reach out and communicate with people because it's down. It's really overwhelming.” he told FOX News Digital.
“People have lost their homes both to flooding and mudslides and wind damage that causes trees to fall and crush homes. So it's different than ever before. I'm from North Carolina. What I've seen there so far It's different.”
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Samaritan's Purse volunteers are helping with destruction and debris removal after Hurricane Helen. (Samaritan's Purse)
Josten added that people are still stuck in their homes “especially in mountainous areas, and in some rural areas, where roads are already gravel and may not be able to get out.”
“I think it's difficult at this point to know exactly the extent of the damage that we're dealing with,” she said.
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Samaritan's Purse is first and foremost asking Americans to pray for those affected by the storm. The organization is also recruiting more volunteers to work at five different response sites. Volunteers are welcome to come help on the day if they live locally or stay overnight with other Samaritan's Purse staff.
Since the worst of the storm Friday morning, local and state officials, as well as local and out-of-state volunteer rescue groups, have been working to send people and supplies to the rugged mountains in western North Carolina that were severely damaged by Helen. Continuing. (Samaritan's Purse)
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) arrived in western North Carolina on Monday after Gov. Roy Cooper announced that President Biden had authorized federal resources.
Roads in Fairview and nearby towns including Swannanoa, Black Mountain, Biltmore Forest and Boone were completely washed away by floodwaters, leaving some residents trapped in their mountainside homes and unable to reach loved ones or emergency personnel. There is no way to get it.
Curtis Drafton, a military veteran and founder of the Veterans Hall of Fame, has been responding to natural disasters with other veteran volunteers for 13 years.
Drafton was initially sent to Florida to respond to the local disaster, but when calls began to arrive in his home state of North Carolina, he and other volunteers regrouped and headed back north.
“We had to evacuate probably 50 people within 90 minutes, which is very unusual.”
“So when we got down to the ground, there was probably … six people, to say the least, six feet of water still flowing and the current was fast,” Drafton recalled. “So we know we're probably going to need a water rescue, a quick water rescue. We started unloading, we started preparing the raft, we ended up at the sheriff's office. And the sheriff asked us to go to a specific area off the coast of the 26th. We had to evacuate maybe 50 people within 90 minutes. This is very unusual.”
Mr Drafton described destroyed roads and bridges, landslides and rockfalls.
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A car is abandoned in a flooded area of a used tire store as a result of Tropical Storm Helen on September 27, 2024 in Hendersonville, North Carolina. (Ken Ruinard/USA Today Network via Reuters)
“If you think about this, every training we've done in any type of terrain except desert training has been done in heavy downpours at one time,” he said. “So we had to go through a tremendous amount of obstacles to get to these people…but that's what we were used to.”
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He said people in areas affected by Helen had lost “everything”.
“America needs to come together. Imagine if these people lost everything, everything. So when I do donations, I ask people, 'Do they need this?' “They need food, water, hygiene supplies, medical supplies, tents, tarps, all nine,” Drafton said.
