Western North Carolina mayor speaks on missing people, ‘apocalyptic’ damage

CANTON, N.C. (WNCN) — As many communities in the North Carolina mountains struggle to recover from the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, one mayor in a Haywood County town described the damage as “apocalyptic.”

Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers said Tuesday in an interview with CBS 17 that there was still no cellphone communication in the town, which had its local paper mill recently shut down in 2021.

“This was apocalyptic for Canton, but this is regional. Western North Carolina, every community, everywhere, has experienced absolute horrific, you know, flooding and now we’re engaged in many regards, still looking for people in recovery,” said Smathers, whose father Pat was a previous mayor of the town.

In 2021, flooding in Canton was caused by Tropical Depression Fred, and in 2004 there was flooding from Hurricanes Francis and Ivan. That devastation was 20 years ago to the month.

Smathers said all of the problems and the recovery have “all been hindered by an absolute breakdown and collapse of our telecommunications.”

Meanwhile, Smathers said he is comforting people who have lost everything but dealing with questions about those still missing.

“And more thing (that’s) heartbreaking is I’m still getting messages from people in the Raleigh area,” Smathers said.

He said people are asking: “Hey, I haven’t heard from my loved ones, you know, in some are in Canton, some are not. Is there anything you can do to help?’

Some people in the North Carolina mountains have turned to Starlink and compact rapid deployable cell towers have been set up in several towns and communities.

“The idea that we have people so many days later still looking for their loved ones because they can’t place a cell phone call is horrific and unacceptable,” Smathers said.

Smathers returned to the issue of communications when it came to working with FEMA and other agencies.

Starlink, compact cell towers deployed in NC mountains with ‘blackout zones’ common after Helene devastation

“The lack of cellular communication has made every aspect of this much more challenging. We have hot meals for people to tell them where to go. We have water, but we can’t get that out other than radio. We have emergency management services trying to communicate with other emergency management services and people coming from other parts of the state, but we can’t place a cell phone or text message to them to tell them where to go. So but I will say this, it’s not because we haven’t tried,” Smathers said.

Smathers also talked about the historic nature of the flooding that hit Canton, Haywood County and the North Carolina mountains.

“I don’t mean to make light of this. And I’ve told several people this — the last time Canton and western North Carolina faced down a flood of this magnitude, you can look it up, it’s in the Book of Genesis. There’s nothing compared to other than Noah and his ark, this is incomprehensible how much water was dumped on the mountains of North Carolina.”

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