Rescue and recovery extend deeper into areas ravaged by Helene

Soon the group, which included a medical team and large-animal veterinarian, was off, trotting toward a mountain road that had flooded and been washed out by mudslides.

“These are folks that just showed up on their own that have horses that can do this,” Doughty said. “They said we knew there was a problem and people were not coming in fast enough.”

Other rescue and recovery efforts continued on Wednesday with crews pushing farther into isolated areas devastated by Helene, their efforts shedding more light on the storm’s true toll.

The number of lives known to have been lost rose again Wednesday to at least 154. Many may still be unaccounted for, though officials have emphasized that many may be safe — but just unable to communicate because of poor cellphone and internet service.

Officials say the death toll will remain fluid, with many saying only that they expect numbers to rise. State officials in North Carolina, for example, said Tuesday that 42 people had died in the storm. But in Buncombe County alone, officials Wednesday afternoon put their latest report of fatalities at 61. In South Carolina, at least 39 people have died; 25 deaths have been confirmed in Georgia; 19 in Florida; at least eight in Tennessee; and two in Virginia.

In Tennessee on Wednesday, the state’s Bureau of Investigation confirmed that law enforcement have opened a criminal probe into an East Tennessee plastics plant where several workers went missing Friday after being carried away by floodwaters.

One employee told The Washington Post earlier this week that he was told to wait about 10 minutes before his request to leave the plant was cleared, and alleged that the company did not have an evacuation plan. In a statement earlier this week, Impact Plastics denied it had prevented anyone from leaving and expressed condolences for the missing and deceased.

As of Wednesday, three of the employees have been found dead, according to families. At least three others remain missing.

First Judicial District Attorney General Steve Finney, whose jurisdiction includes Erwin, where the plant is located, requested an investigation into allegations against Impact Plastics.

“Specifically, I asked that they review the occurrences of Friday, September 27, 2024, to identify any potential criminal violations,” Finney said in a statement. Finney’s office did not discuss specific allegations.

Meanwhile in North Carolina, while more prominent cities such as Asheville are starting to move into a long recovery phase, smaller towns are still struggling to perform search-and-rescue missions with few resources and little road access.

Tyler Banker, the fire rescue chief for Banner Elk, a mountain town tucked between two ski resorts in Avery County, said officials are working through a list of 50 people reported missing. The town is actively rescuing an additional 12 to 15 people, he said, adding that the community does not have any confirmed deaths.

“Truth be told, we are a popular tourist town and will continue to get the help we need until we recover,” Banker said.

His main concern, he said, was for residents in less-well-known towns nearby, such as Green Valley, Plumtree and Spear.

“These are the folks that are getting bypassed in the national stream of resources,” he said.

“We need to remember, this will be a long recovery, and we need to continue our mission to help every human, whether that be in a mansion on top of a mountain or a mobile home in a holler,” Banker said.

As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 1.2 million electric customers still were without power in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia, according to poweroutage.us. Swaths of particularly hard-hit areas are also without safe drinking water, with officials unable to give clear timelines for when service might be restored.

The lack of water is one main reason many schools in storm-battered states remain closed. In western North Carolina alone, schools across more than a dozen counties were not open as of Wednesday.

In a statement shared Tuesday, Asheville City Schools Superintendent Maggie Fehrman said schools in the area would open again “as soon as we are able to safely do so.”

While school buildings and facilities sustained minimal storm damage, Fehrman pointed to citywide water outages and transportation challenges as major barriers to reopening. No campuses have water, she said, and navigating buses through the city “is nearly impossible.”

Remote learning was considered, Fehrman said, but ongoing power and internet outages made the option “untenable at this point.”

On Wednesday, Brenton Benware, director of admissions at Asheville Christian Academy in Swannanoa, where he lives and his children attended school, was trying to find a generator and gas to pump water out of his house. Both were in short supply, he said. The school shuttered.

“It looks like a war zone: homes and cars parked on our athletic facilities,” said Benware, 44.

Allyson McFalls, who teaches sixth grade at a public school in North Carolina’s western town of Blowing Rock, wasn’t sure when they would reopen.

Her two sons, ages 11 and 8, also attend the school, which is closed until at least Friday, along with the rest of the schools in surrounding Watauga County. At least one local school had flooded, she said. The local high school had been converted into an aid distribution center, with electricity and internet for those needing to file FEMA aid applications.

“We’re not only dealing with the aftermath of flooding but also small community mountain roads being inaccessible because of landslides,” said McFalls, 42.

As recovery efforts continued Wednesday, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris headed to storm-affected areas to survey the damage.

Just before 3 p.m., two Osprey aircraft carrying Biden and Gov. Roy Cooper (D) swept low above the Swannanoa River, headed east from Asheville.

Below, in the devastated community of Swannanoa, hardly anyone seemed to pay attention, as the sound of helicopters has become part of the soundtrack of life here in recent days.

Line workers kept working to repair miles of wrecked power poles. Aid workers went door to door, asking what residents needed. Volunteers outside Blunt Pretzels, still serving free meals as they had for days, gave barely a glance to the sky as they spooned out roasted chicken, baked beans, vegetable dumplings and warm pretzels.

Nearby, in Black Mountain, officials had crossed out a word on makeshift signs, so that “Emergency meeting today, 3 p.m.,” had become “Emergency meeting DAILY, 3 p.m.” It was due to convene just as the president and the governor banked back toward South Carolina.