'Surreal' scope of devastation in Asheville, North Carolina: 'Our hearts are broken'

ASHEVILLE, N.C. − The rushing water rose five feet higher in the Swannanoa River than anyone had ever seen.

The ground disappeared on South Tunnel Road, leaving a giant sinkhole full of asphalt soup.

Houses floated away from subdivisions. Bridges crumbled. The flood waters flipped semi-trucks into mangled piles. Mud and tree branches and food from local grocery stores flowed into the streets.

Survivors traipsed through muck to find drinking water, power, wifi and cell service.

Gov. Roy Cooper called Tropical Storm Helene a "catastrophic" and "historic" event with "life-threatening floods and landslides."

The storm stretched from Florida across the southern United States, pounding the South with heavy rainfall and flash floods. But it was in Asheville and across western North Carolina where the storm brought some of the greatest damage.

"Even as the rain and winds have subsided, the challenge for people there increases," Cooper said. "People are desperate for help, and we are pushing to get it to them."

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Helene updates:'People desperate for help' in NC

More than 30 dead in western North Carolina

There were only estimates Sunday evening about the extent of the destruction. Reports came that 30 people had died in Buncombe County, and another five had died in Henderson County. But those early numbers are likely to rise as the full scope of the tragedy becomes clearer. 

"Without more phone and internet access, we cannot share those names without being absolutely certain that we have given their loved ones this information," Buncombe County Sheriff Quentin Miller said. "Our hearts are broken with this news and we ask that folks give our community the space and time to grieve this incredible loss."

Recovery efforts still underway

As of Sunday morning, more than 6,000 calls had been made to first responders pleading with them to find people who have not been accounted for. The majority of those calls came from Buncombe County (3,900) where flash flood warnings remained in effect until Sunday afternoon.

President Joe Biden declared a major disaster in the state of North Carolina.

The president’s action makes federal funding available to affected individuals in 25 counties and on the Qualla Boundary, home to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

People waited outside the emergency room at HCA Healthcare’s Mission Hospital in Asheville, checking the conditions of relatives who were admitted.

Shawn Hensley, 47, of Black Mountain, told the Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network, his 65-year-old mother arrived at the hospital the night before because she was running low on oxygen. Hensley and neighbors had to chainsaw a tree blocking his car so he could get out of his neighborhood.

“It looks like Mother Nature just stomped all over that little town,” Hensley said. “It’s just destruction everywhere you look.”

Getting help to those in need

Getting help to the people who need it has proved to be difficult as at least 200 roads were closed in North Carolina as of Sunday morning, including Interstate 40 and Interstate 26 at the Tennessee-North Carolina border, according to the state's road closures map. The I-40 closure near the state line is termed long-term. I-40 also is closed at Old Fort Mountain. The North Carolina Department of Transportation estimates it will reopen there by noon Tuesday, Oct. 1.

Asheville City and Buncombe County schools will be closed for at least Monday and Tuesday. Henderson County's schools are closed until further notice.

Progress has been made to restore some power to the region. Cooper said nearly 464,000 residents were without power (with a previous high of more than a million) during a news conference Sunday.

The Biltmore Estate, built between 1889 and 1895, is closed for now, partially because some of the roads leading to the popular tourist attraction are too treacherous.

"Due to significant flooding, impassable roads and widespread power outages in our region from Tropical Storm Helene, Biltmore is temporarily closed," read a statement Saturday on the social media account for the historic house and museum.

The nearby Biltmore Village was so filled with water, the tops of trees and the upper windows of houses and roofs were visible. A portion of the village was turned mud brown.

Western North Carolina residents who sheltered from the storm watched in horror as the flood waters ripped billboards from their roots, tore apart businesses and cut a swath as wide as a "giant moat" through a housing subdivision, said Syd Yatteau, who lives near the Swannanoa River.

Even as the flood waters rose, creeping up the side of a hill and onto their driveway, she said they did not receive an evacuation order. The breadth of damage was unexpected.

"It was really surreal," she said of the rapid rise of the Swannanoa River. "Like, at the beginning it was all fun and games. Just watching the water be where it was."

"And then it just kept going up," she said.