Residents in one mountain county continued to rely on each other to untangle themselves from the mess left by Hurricane Helene even as help from the outside arrived en masse.
Will Stricklin, an Iraq War veteran and former Daily Reflector photographer who is now a volunteer firefighter in Mitchell County, said late last week that the main challenge continued to be communications.
Stricklin reached his old newspaper Thursday thanks to an emergency cellular signal established for rescue workers by state and federal teams that first reached the isolated area between Boone and Asheville on Sept. 30, about three days after Helene hit.
Otherwise, he and other rescue workers had been relying on the Starlink satellite system, which Stricklin said has been patchy but still useful with all other communications down.
“So I view communication as the biggest problem,” he said. “Like we said in the army ... if you don’t have communications, you’re dead. You can’t call in air support, you can’t do anything. So comms are always, to me, the biggest problem. From there, you can manage everything else.”
Gov. Roy Cooper on Monday reported with FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell that more than 2,500 soldiers and airmen are now working in the state with approximately 500 more on their way to aid in rescue and recovery. They join 1,300 responders from 35 state and local agencies from across the country, plus teams from nonprofit organizations and an army of civilian volunteers coordinated by FEMA.
National Guard and military personnel are operating more than 40 helicopters and more than 1,100 specialized vehicles, Cooper said. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is helping to assess water and wastewater plants and dams. Cooper reported earlier that 80 percent of cellular communications have been restored in the region, but many areas are still lacking.
Stricklin said he drove up on a neighbor near Bakersville last Wednesday as the man was building a makeshift bridge from storm debris and recycled lumber to replace a bridge at the end of his driveway wiped out by flooding.
The man’s wife has serious health issues, he said. Without cell service, he would have to carry her across the bridge in an emergency, then get her up a set of stairs and over to his car, and then drive to the fire department where rescuers could facilitate a move to a medical facility.
“Imagine if she’s having a stroke or a heart attack or some severe diabetic problems,” Stricklin said. “That’s a big move for a guy who’s 80 years old. But if he had a cell phone and he could call 9-1-1, then the fire department with the right extrication equipment could get to them and we could facilitate that with a bunch of young men with strong backs.”
After The Daily Reflector published an initial report from Bakersville on Oct. 1, five people who read the story from as far away as Washington state and Maryland called or emailed the newspaper asking for help to reach loved ones they had not heard from. Two of the people were later confirmed safe, but Stricklin said confirming the status of all the missing will take time.
Search and rescue efforts are ongoing, and federal emergency managers who have taken over the response want to be sure they are releasing accurate information about damage and loss of life, Stricklin said.
“They want the right information going out at the right time with the right numbers and everything, so that it’s not a guessing game,” he said.
He said he has seen teams scour hillsides, houses and hollers. They have done a very good, thorough check of everybody who’s alive, he said, but grim discoveries continue and the final toll won’t be known until even after the rescue stage ends and recovery begins.
“That’ll be a whole process, because it could be that you go and check every house and there’s not someone in the house, but a group of linemen might find a body trapped under a bridge that they’re working near. So that process could take a really long time,” Stricklin said.
As of Tuesday, at least 77 people had been confirmed dead by the storm, according to Cooper’s office, and the toll is expected to rise. The Associated Press was reporting a total of 230 deaths across four states, with 76 in Asheville alone, all while a new storm, Hurricane Milton, barreled toward Florida.
The area around Bakersville, like much of the mountains, remained largely inaccessible. Large helicopters were delivering food and water, including military ready-to-eat meals, Stricklin said. A steady supply of food and water will be crucial as the water infrastructure is compromised and people have eaten much of the food they had on hand before the storm — much of what was frozen or refrigerated had to be eaten or go to waste because electricity had not been restored and fuel for generators was not available.
{p class=”p1”}{span class=”s1”}Meanwhile, neighbor continues to help neighbor, clearing roads and trees, building bridges to reach homes, cooking communal meals and sharing gasoline.{/span}
Young’s Fuel Service in downtown Bakersville was rationing its last supplies to residents through the week, Stricklin said Thursday.
“Basically their whole operation was like, just is under mud,” but two men were pumping fuel from their tanks and filling 5-gallon jugs for a line of vehicles.
In the nearby community of Toecane, an enclave of artists tucked away in a mountain cove, residents were cut off from the main road until they built a bridge.
“When we went out there, everybody building that bridge, I bet you, was over the age of 60. ... They were all out there with their few bottles of water,” Stricklin said. “They had built a little bridge, literally pulling lumber out of the washed-up river banks, just so if one of their older (community) members needed to get out — which they did. There were two, it was an older wife and husband that needed to get out.”
Stricklin called the experience humbling.
“I’ve never seen people step up to the plate like they have,” he said. “... When we were driving around during the hurricane with the fire department, one of the guys made a joke. He said, ‘Y’all realize that like every man in Mitchell County owns a chainsaw. Like these roads will be cleared in no time.’ Just for the simple fact that, you know, people have the will and the determination to return back to normal as quickly as possible.”
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