More than 1.5 million U.S. customers are still without power after Hurricane Helene, according to a tracking website.
The governor of North Carolina said that “hundreds of roads” were destroyed and that entire communities were “wiped off the map” because of storm Helene last week and over the weekend.
“Consider the roads closed in western North Carolina,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper told CNN on Sept. 30. “We do not need sightseers coming in to observe the damage. We ask you not to come in unless you are on a specific mission to help with rescue.”
The North Carolina Department of Transportation warned in a Sept. 30 post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that “all roads in Western NC should be considered closed to all non-emergency travel.”
In a separate post, the agency included photos of area roads that were collapsed, washed out, or blocked by debris.
In the Asheville area, which was especially hard-hit by the storm, people who are still seeking to evacuate can use Interstate 40 and Interstate 26 East, the department stated. Residents in other areas need to consult local emergency officials first before traveling.
The mayor of Asheville described the aftermath as a “post-apocalyptic scene.”
Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer told reporters on Sept. 30 that the city is “seeing just piles of people’s houses that were destroyed. Buildings that were destroyed. Cars overturned.”
“The power lines look like spaghetti. It’s hard to describe the chaos that it looks like,” she said.
“We are cut off from highway access from three of the four major highways into Asheville. Some resources are having to be flown in. … I can’t even think about a time frame for how long it’s going to take to recover from this storm.”
The storm killed more than 100 people across North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, and Virginia, and the death toll is expected to rise once rescue teams reach isolated towns and telecommunications are restored.
“We know that death toll will rise,” Asheville’s mayor said. “We’ve heard accounts of people seeing houses floating down the river with people in them.”
