Philly woman says experiencing Helene in NC was "horrifying"

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Fury Basso-Davis, a native of East Falls in Philadelphia, had never experienced anything like what she saw or felt last week when the remnants of the devastating Hurricane Helene took aim at western North Carolina.

"I think it was like 4 in the morning, the power completely went out. And it was like really, really bad," Basso-Davis said. "Outside my dorm, I could hear trees literally cracking and falling. And then in the morning, it was just…it was horrible."

Basso-Davis is majoring in communications and sociology at Warren Wilson College in the small town of Swannanoa. It's about 10 miles east of Asheville, and one of the areas hardest hit by the storm. As of Thursday, the Buncombe County Sheriff confirmed at least 61 people are dead in the county.

Basso-Davis couldn't believe what she was seeing once she stepped out of her dorm.

"I think it was on Teller Road and it was completely washed away. Like we drive that road all the time to get places. And to see all the damage that happened was really horrifying," Basso-Davis said.

While she rode out the storm in her dorm room, Basso-Davis spent the next three days primarily in the school's dining hall. But students and neighbors had to contend with no electricity and no running water.

"You'd get a bottle of water with breakfast, lunch and dinner, which was normal. But you couldn't get more than that. And all the water was not working and neither was the electricity," Basso-Davis said.

But Basso-Davis said that even being surrounded by intense flooding, landslides and infrastructure destruction, students around the school all pitched in to help. Some, she says, worked to clear debris from the small campus. Basso-Davis worked with the wellness team, trying to bring comfort to those in need.

"I needed emotional support," Basso-Davis said. "Because I was like if I'm feeling this way, there's probably a bunch of people feeling this way."

Four days after the storm started in western North Carolina, Basso-Davis and her roommate left the area when her aunt, who lives in Charlotte, was able to get them out.

"I keep thinking about how lucky I am to have gotten out and that I could do that," Basso-Davis said.

Now, back home in East Falls, Basso-Davis said she's grateful to her school for doing the best they could to keep them safe under those extreme circumstances.

She said Warren Wilson College is scheduled to reopen on Oct. 14, and moved students' fall break up a week to account for the storm. But Basso-Davis isn't sure they'll all be heading back to campus in a few weeks, given the recovery efforts still underway.

One thing she does know: she will be returning to Swannanoa.

"Oh, 100%. I will be going back to Warren Wilson College," Basso-Davis said.

And she expects to be going back to a school community that she believes has grown closer through this devastating ordeal.