As North Carolina flood survivors take stock of the extreme damage left behind by Helene, some say AccuWeather's advance warning of a flooding danger in the Appalachians was invaluable.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Now helicopters have been crisscrossing over the mountains of western North Carolina, preparing for a presidential flyover tomorrow.
00:10AccuWeather's Bill Waddell is live in Marshall.
00:12This is about 20 miles northwest of Asheville, a little higher up into the mountains there.
00:17And Bill, the president will be in the air to survey the damage after catastrophic inland flooding from Helene.
00:25Yeah, Jeff and Bri, good evening to you.
00:27The damage here is just overwhelming. Days of downpours before Helene even arrived, and then all of the rain and all of the wind from that storm.
00:36Just too much for these mountains in western North Carolina to handle.
00:40Now, we met one woman in this community.
00:42She was watching the AccuWeather Now streaming channel, and she tells us she was not too concerned about this storm
00:48until AccuWeather expert meteorologists issued that catastrophic risk to lives and property here in the southern Appalachians.
00:56That's when she started preparing.
00:58And as you can see from the video, there is a lot of damage left behind after the storm in this community.
01:04Families from surrounding towns are coming in.
01:06They're parking, and they're walking in past the roadblock with their shovels, wheelbarrows, and cleaning gear to help with the recovery and cleanup process.
01:15One business owner tells us she lost everything.
01:18Fifteen feet of water got inside her store, and she does not have flood insurance.
01:22Kathy Tadoan says she is grateful for the team of AccuWeather meteorologists who issued that catastrophic risk alert for the southern Appalachians long before Helene made landfall in Florida.
01:35As preemptive as you all were, I think really gave a lot of people a chance to be as prepared as possible, so that's always invaluable.
01:43We're grateful to you guys.
01:47A day and a half out, it really started to sink in.
01:50Like, yeah, we're going to have a big weather event.
01:55Yeah, Kathy says she cannot believe how bad this record flooding hit Marshall.
02:00There are crews here.
02:01They are cleaning up with heavy equipment, and there are still cars and trucks buried in feet of mud and rocks.
02:08Some of the buildings closest to the river have been washed away.
02:11They're gone.
02:12All that's left is a concrete slab and foundations.
02:15Now, families here in Marshall, North Carolina, tell us that they need more help and they need more resources.
02:21They don't know how long the power will be out.
02:23A little bit of good news, some of the cell phone signal is starting to return.
02:27It's a bit spotty, but again, we're facing a very long recovery ahead.
02:31And on the other side of the river is their wastewater treatment plant, and we're being told that may be a total loss.
02:37So, so much infrastructure has been damaged.
02:39It is going to be a very long time for communities like this to recover.
02:43And locals are telling us it's even worse in smaller towns higher up in the mountains.
02:47All right, Bill.
02:48Well, thank you for your reporting there.
02:50A lot of hard stories there to tell.
02:52Homes just and buildings swept off their foundation.
02:55Incredible.