BURNSVILLE - For many residents in Yancey and Mitchell Counties, waiting around for a road destroyed in Tropical Storm Helene to be fixed isn't an option, as they require basic necessities like food and water.
So in the interim, remote mountain communities have lived by a " Neighbors helping neighbors " mantra.
On Oct. 8, traffic was backed up along U.S. 19 crossing into Yancey County from Madison County. Numerous law enforcement from around the state and region manned the roadway as food, water, supplies and eager volunteers poured in from throughout the country.
The News-Record & Sentinel spoke with Yancey County Sheriff Shane Hilliard Oct. 8, who said the county death toll was at 14 as of 2 p.m. Tuesday. The sheriff said the county has recovered nine bodies and continues to look for another six bodies of victims who died in Hurricane Helene's destruction.
"We're constantly doing welfare checks to make sure, because you've got families from out of state that can't talk to loved ones," Hilliard said. "We're being that middle. Every day, there's more and more and more. But most of those people, we're able to account for."
Hilliard said he did not have an estimate how many residents were still unaccounted for.
Additionally, water and sewer service to the town of Burnsville are not operational, as the town's treatment plant was compromised, according to local officials.
According to Hilliard, phone service, which was often spotty even before Helene's devastation, continues to present obstacles for search and rescue/recovery teams.
"One of our biggest hurdles is people still can't call 911 or call to tell us if they need help. It's all face-to-face, person-to-person contact, pretty much," Hilliard said, adding that cell service around town has improved in recent days thanks to a number of Starlinks brought to town.
More: Helene in Western North Carolina: Everything you need to know from help to recovery efforts
Communities hit hard, but 'Neighbors helping neighbors'
At the Burnsville Fire Department, where Gov. Roy Cooper met with local officials Oct. 8, U.S. 19 in Burnsville and down the road, the town almost resembled a war-torn area, as helicopters whirred from above, a field hospital was established at the fire department and makeshift food and supply tents lined parking lots.
Only a few city blocks down the hill and up the street from the Burnsville Town Square, numerous tents lined the perimeter of the Rose's Discount Store parking lot, where local residents had erected a supply distribution center for food, water and other supplies, as well as some emotional support in the way of trauma bonding.
The Enloes, including mother Roxanne and son Jesse, live along Roaring Fork Road in Yancey County, where, as with so many other Yancey and Mitchell County roadways, their road was destroyed in Helene's destruction.
"From Highway 19, it's about 10 minutes up a mountain road," Roxanne Enloe said. "The last mile or so is dirt and rock, and the residents have to maintain it. So we do, but it's in bad shape already. Now with this, we lost it completely."
Roxanne Enloe is from Miami, and remembers Hurricane Kate in 1985.
But Kate doesn't compare to Helene, Enloe said.
"It was bad, but nothing like this," she said. "We only lost power for three days. Here, they said it could be weeks or months before they get the electricity back on."
According to Jesse Enloe, the family has been using ATVs to bypass the roadways. But the property sits at 1,000 feet in elevation, and is "way out in the woods," he said.
Fortunately, all of the family's neighbors are accounted for.
"We've got ATV access to the next hollow," Jesse Enloe said. "Jim Creek's the one next to us, and the one's on either side of us we know are all accounted for.
"Our road is completely gone, but not a single house is damaged, thank God. So, we're a lot better off than a lot of folks. We just have to bum rides into town."
Roxanne Enloe said she was grateful the family had access to water with their spring water as well.
"Some people don't have water, so we're blessed with that as well," she said.
But many of their Roaring Fork neighbors are older, which adds to the urgency of the road repairs, Roxanne Enloe said.
The Enloes and nearby Roaring Fork neighbors have started a GoFundMe to help raise money for repairs to the road.
The Enloes were visiting the Burnsville Fire Department Oct. 8 to grab food and water.
"Thank the Lord this is open," Roxanne Enloe said. "It's been a real blessing. Because we have a generator, we're able to help our neighbors with insulin which they needed refrigerated when they lost power. We're blessed."
More: How to find help: Madison County emergency resource guide in the wake of Helene flooding
More: Madison County Hurricane Helene victim was law enforcement leader, but everybody's mom
More: Madison County Schools closed 'until safe to reopen' as some families still without power
Yancey County Sheriff Shane Hilliard, Burnsville Mayor Russell Fox and numerous state and federal officials appeared alongside Cooper for appearances at the Burnsville Fire Department. The team also visited Spruce Pine Oct. 8, and Cooper told The News-Record & Sentinel he planned to be in Madison County Oct. 10.
Heather Sayer lives in Spruce Pine with her husband and two children.
"My driveway washed out. There's a 4-foot crater," said Sayer, who was picking up cookware at Rose's with her children in tow.
"But our house is fine. Just a lot of flooding, and a lot of trees down in the roadway. Trees are down everywhere."
Still, as has been the experience throughout Yancey and Mitchell Counties, neighbors helped neighbors in Sayer's Spruce Pine community to reassemble the road, she said.
"Locals fixed the road with their own equipment," Sayer said.
As for the makeshift supply distribution center, Sayer said she felt it was a vital resource for many.
"There's a line of people getting things that they need. We were OK. We were ready," she said, adding that she found out about the donations center on Facebook.
"But a lot of people weren't, which is why the line is so long. It's all been donated."
'Every day is a struggle'
Cheryl Crowe lived with her husband in the Bluff community of Hot Springs in Madison County, but moved to live with her son in Bakersville just days before Hurricane Helene, and is dealing with the loss of her husband, who died in August.
She moved in with her son on Thursday, Sept. 26, as Hurricane Helene was moving in.
"I still don't have my furniture from my house," she said. "Our son's whole yard is gone. It came in the house and ruined the carpet. It's got to be pulled up."
She said she wasn't sure if the home was going to be a total loss.
Crowe recalls watching the storm with her daughter on the family's patio, and being in disbelief.
"We saw this wall of water coming towards us. There's a creek that runs right through the property and in front of it. This wall of water was just coming towards the house, and we were in shock," she said. "Then, across the street, all these trees just started snapping.
"My son came and grabbed us and made us go inside. When we came back out, it was total destruction. Somebody's house was half in the creek and half in our yard. There was a dam that broke, and it just tore their house apart."
Amid all the chaos and moving around, Crowe said the process of grieving her husband has been interrupted.
"I really haven't had time to grieve because every day is a struggle just trying to make it through the day," she said.
"Every day, it's running around trying to find places like this to get what we need, because we have no power and no water. Mostly, it's just trying to survive. We've got a bunch of animals to take care of."
Relief efforts like the one at Rose's Discount Store in Burnsville have been a lifeline for people like Crowe.
The Rose's distribution center was started by Stephanie Johnson, who said Hurricane Helene left devastation which required her, her husband and their daughter to put in three days of working cutting trees at their home, located near the Bald Creek area of Yancey County.
"After that, we got to town, no internet, no water in town and no sewer, because the sewer system was compromised," Johnson said. "Everybody's doing great up in the holler, and everybody is OK in that holler. But we're still pulling people out from other hollers.
"They're still coming out."
When they do, Johnson said she and her team will be waiting for them with relief and supplies on hand.
The distribution center started Oct. 1, but later grew into a much bigger operation.
"First it started in my holler," she said. "My neighbors didn't have bottled water. That started it, and we were getting them going. I looked over and there was no help. We stopped at the gas station and there was a woman over there, a momma, and she was buying gas with quarters.
"I just couldn't take it."
Johnson, who is a local realtor, said she cannot go back to work until the people in her mountain community she loves so much, as well as the mountains themselves, can heal.
"These mountains are very important to me," Johnson said. "Like, my soul loves these mountains, and I cannot go back in them just yet, because I'll lose it. So, the best way to help was to just get food and supplies to them. We just started with one little trailer just trying to feed our little community. Then, my friends from Harrisburg and Charlotte started sending me stuff."
Johnson said Rose's has supported the team throughout its efforts.
"As long as I'm serving my community," she said. "I never imagined it would have turned into this."
To donate to assist Jesse and Roxanne Enloe and their Roaring Fork Road neighbors to help them rebuild their road, click here or visit https://gofund.me/5b745768.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: 'Every day is a struggle': Mitchell, Yancey residents helping each other despite setbacks
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