Hurricane Helene made her presence felt as she passed through North Carolina and dumped months’ worth of rain across the region. In anticipation of the storm, schools had closed on Friday which alleviated one major headache that would have hampered emergency responses or worse, created more by having school busses on the road.
By Friday evening, many locales were seeing the sun but the storms impact on a normal Friday, to say nothing of Mayberry Days, was already complete.
Some of the most severe local impact from the storm was found in Elkin. Clean-up efforts there got underway quickly in downtown Elkin in the wake of flooding caused by heavy rains. Standard Street and Bridge Street had been closed on Friday as flood waters from the Yadkin River blocked access to the Gwyn McNeil Bridge.
On Saturday morning bridge access was reopened but Standard Street in front of the Heritage and Trails Center remained closed due to flooding. There were reports from local business owners of damage to buildings from the flooding and the Yadkin Valley Pumpkin Festival had to be cancelled.
Surry County Emergency Services Chief Eric Southern said Monday that the county stands by to assist neighbors in need to the west, “As the efforts in Western North Carolina continue, Surry County will continue to send resources and assets.”
He shared data from N.C. Emergency Management’s Monday morning update where officials reported 182 roads closed in Western North Carolina. “All- access to the area is closed to the public because of trees and washed-out roads.” The report said that communication in the mountains is still limited in many areas and that no donations are being accepted at this time as there is not collection point available.
Crews from Mount Airy Rescue Squad and Elkin rescue squads were sent to assist in Ashe County, Surry County telecommunicators were sent to aid Avery County, and Surry County Emergency Manager Byron Isaacs was deployed to the area as well. On Monday, the Surry County morgue trailer was sent to the Black Mountain to assist.
Southern said he knows that people are looking for a way to help in any way they can but urges residents to heed the advisories from the department of transportation and resist the urge to just drive west looking for ways to pitch in. “Very grateful for the desire to help but the state has closed all roadways into Western North Carolina, and they will be turned away at the checkpoints. Search and recovery efforts are still on-going,” he said.
The Surry County Emergency Services Department provided an update to residents before the storm had moved completed moving through the area. Surry EMS reported 332 calls related to the storm since Thursday night into Friday morning.
They reported there had been no injuries during Friday’s extreme weather incident.
The most pressing issue for the majority of Surry County residents during the storm were a lack of power and downed trees and limbs blocking roadways.
Even Monday morning there were still calls being received by Surry County Central Communications about downed trees on power lines including in the 800 block of East Pine Street in Mount Airy. Resident Cindy Martin observed online that there had been limbs dangling above power lines in that area all weekend, “Just glad they didn’t fall on anyone while driving.”
The majority of local schools were closed to students for class on Monday but Surry County Schools and Mount Airy City Schools both announced meal service would be available. Some county schools even opened up access to locker rooms for those without power who may have needed access to a hot shower following the storm.
ReadyNC.gov reported Surry County still had 633 outages as of 11 a.m. Monday while Wilkes County was reporting 8,351. Stokes and Yadkin counties were both reported to have under 20 outages each.
Duke Energy said there were approximately 40 outages in Surry County keeping some 450 customers in the dark as of late Monday morning. The company’s website gave an estimated time of restoration to services in Surry County as 7:30 p.m. Monday. Their data concurred with state info stating under 20 customers each in both Stokes and Yadkin counties were still affected.
Wilkes County still bore the brunt of the regional damage with over 5,600 customers still with power due to 1765 active outages. The estimated time to restoration for residents of Wilkes County is 11:45 p.m. Monday.
Surry-Yadkin Electric Membership Corporation reported 173 customers without power in Surry County and 783 in Wilkes County.
Blue Ridge Energy said in Alleghany County that 2,484 of their 9,835 served customers, or 25.25 percent, are waiting for their power to be restored following Helene.
Statewide there were still 463,087 outages reported across the state with Buncombe County, where hard hit Asheville is found, reporting the highest total of outages with 98,559. The website PowerOutage.us reported Monday that South Carolina still had over 760,000 customers without power, Georgia had 571,000, and Virginia had nearly 100,000.
Appalachian Power told its customers the utility is bringing in crews from outside the area to work to get service restored but as of 9 a.m. Monday, 117,500 customers remain without electric service.
Given the number of outages Appalachian Power is facing, they have released a rolling schedule of restoration estimates adding that as power is restored in their services areas, crews are moving over to the next area in need.
In Carroll County alone the company reported 227 outages affecting 11,154 customers including 2,093 in the area around Cana which has an estimated restoration time of 11 p.m. on Tuesday. Appalachian Power said, “Most customers without service will have power restored before the above estimates.”
Nationally there have been over 100 deaths reported as a result of Hurricane Helene; 35 of those were reported in Buncombe County, home of Asheville. Areas of North Carolina’s mountain communities saw record amounts of rainfall, some experts estimated that nearly four to five months of rain fell in some mountain communities in the 72 hours Helene’s impact was felt.
The National Weather Service office based in Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina, offered a sobering assessment of the storm calling it, “the worst event in our office’s history.”
Local News
