By Staff Reporter
BAT CAVE, North Carolina, Sept 30 (Reuters) – Crews on Monday airlifted emergency food and water into remote North Carolina towns that were cut off and devastated by tropical storm Helene that turned the western part of the state into a “post apocalyptic” landscape.
Helene was a hurricane when it slammed into the Florida Gulf coast on Thursday, tearing a destructive path through southeastern states for days on end, ripping up roads, tossing homes about and severing lines of communication. In its wake, hundreds of people were unaccounted for and many feared dead.
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The storm killed more than 100 people in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Virginia. The death toll is expected to rise once rescue teams reach isolated towns and emergency telecommunications assets come online.
Throughout North Carolina, some 300 roads were closed, more than 7,000 people registered for U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance, and the National Guard was flying 1,000 tons of food and water to remote areas by plane and helicopter, officials told the news briefing.
Among the demolished towns was the tiny hamlet of Bat Cave, about 100 miles (160 km) west of Charlotte, where in what climate scientists are describing as a 1,000-year event the Broad River rose to unprecedented levels, washed away homes and broke through the town’s bridge.
In the aftermath of the storm, people gingerly crossed a gap in the bridge on a wobbly plank.
Aaron Smith, 31, his wife and two young sons sat in front of the Bat Cave fire station with one suitcase among them.
Source: Reuters
