Helene survivors in western North Carolina are still in shock but finding hope
Jewel Warrick has lived in Relief, North Carolina, for 55 years. More than three weeks ago, Helene tore through her small community and buried her home in mud.
She and her son James evacuated days before the storm and said they urged their neighbors to leave as well. But by the time they tried, it was too late. Six residents of Relief, including two young boys, died.
The family, like many in the state, wants to rebuild in the wake of the monster storm. Jewel said she's still in shock but carrying on with the help of a strong family and community.
"We'll survive," she said. "It's not giving up. We can't. There's hope. And when you have hope, you move on."
The deadliest storm on U.S. mainland since Hurricane Katrina
Helene was the deadliest storm to hit the U.S. mainland since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It carved a 500-mile path of destruction across six states, killing more than 240 people.
The devastation of Helene caught most western North Carolina residents by surprise. The region hadn't experienced anything like it since the Great Flood of 1916, when two storms converged and pushed rivers over their banks.
Forecasters say that this time, the stage was set for disaster before Helene roared in. Days earlier, a weather front stalled over the Appalachian Mountains. Some areas got more than a foot of rain and were already saturated by the time the storm arrived. The mountain range acted like a funnel for the remnants of Helene, devastating the communities below. Asheville, which sits in a valley of the Blue Ridge Mountains, became a catch basin for the water.
In Relief, located alongside the North Toe River, James Warrick described a wall of water engulfing the area.
"And it's probably the same wall of water that took our neighbors with it," he said.
In North Carolina, at least 125 people were killed by Helene and more than 50 are still missing.
Determination to stay
In Green Mountain, a community tucked above the North Toe River, the remnants of Helene came roaring down the mountain with enough power to snap their concrete bridge in half.
Jane Whitson Peterson said she saw a house float down the river as water ripped through the town. She, her husband and her 96-year-old mother were trapped inside the general store the family has run for more than 60 years. They tried to stop the water from coming in, but as Peterson said, "You don't stop water."
"It busted through the back door," she said. "And then it started coming in the front door."
As the water came up to the seventh step on the stairs, Peterson and her family watched and prayed it wouldn't go higher.
The family store was wrecked. Peterson's father's old cash register is clogged with mud and her mother's home was destroyed.
"She's raised seven kids and worked 16, 18 hours a day," Peterson said. "It's really hard for her. But my mom got up the next morning singing."
She sang "When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder," a hymn about the expectations of a home in heaven.
Despite the destruction, Green Mountain is still home.
"I've not been a whole lot of places. But I would never go nowhere else to live," Peterson said. "Everybody knows everybody. And if you need a hand, we're there. We'll do anything we can to help you."
Workers search for survivors, bring help to communities
Jeff Howell is the emergency management director for Yancey County. His family has lived in the area for seven generations. When Helene hit, Howell was inside the emergency operations center as 911 calls started to come in.
Then suddenly, silence. Radios, cellphones and the internet were knocked out and the calls stopped.
"We basically just abandoned the emergency operations center. The sheriff's department, they were already out doing rescues," Howell said. "But we would just go in. 'Give me another name.' And we'd take off and try to find these people and get them."
One of the rescues that night was a local firefighter and his wife, who hung onto a tree for hours after floodwaters flung them from their home.
More than 70 search and rescue teams from across the country were dispatched along rivers and streams in western North Carolina. Locals helped guide searchers up the treacherous mountain terrain to look for survivors.
In the week after the storm, hundreds of people were reported missing. Dozens are still missing.
Donations and relief workers have poured into the area. FEMA set up more than 40 processing centers and says so far it has distributed more than $100 million to North Carolina victims.
Now Howell, who spent more than 30 years in the Army Reserve and fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, is trying to get his neighbors the help they need.
Helicopters and mules have been deployed to deliver aid to places trucks can't reach. Over 500 roads remain closed and more than 100 bridges need to be replaced. A patchwork of dusty routes now holds the region together.
His time in the Reserves helped prepare him for this, Howell said.
"It's unlike combat stress because in combat, you can shoot back. I can't do anything. And that's — that is very, very, very frustrating…," he said. "Keep the miscommunications down is the best thing I can do right now, but that's a struggle in itself."
Fighting to help while fighting against disinformation
Conspiracy theories and false claims about the government response to the flood have made their way through the mountain communities where Howell works.
The day after 60 Minutes spoke with Howell, a neighboring county was investigating reports of an armed militia "hunting FEMA." One arrest was made and FEMA suspended door-to-door operations for all of western North Carolina for 48 hours. FEMA operations have since resumed.
The disinformation has been a problem for workers on the ground.
"It takes their focus away from what they're supposed to be doing when they're having to debunk this sort of stuff and explain to people, 'No. That is really not the case.' We're not after the lithium deposits at Chimney Rock. You know, it's just the U.S. government did not geoengineer this storm," Howell said. "But like I said, some people, they're going to believe it no matter what."
Donations to support those affected by Hurricane Helene can be made to:
