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To Cory Vaillancourt, the only scene comparable to the one unfolding in western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene is a war zone.
Nearly two years ago, the Smoky Mountain News politics editor reported from a southern Ukrainian city shortly after its liberation from Russian control.
“The conditions that I’m seeing here in western North Carolina are almost exactly the same, minus the gunfire and artillery shells,” he told CNN on Monday from the town hall in Waynesville, 30 miles west of the city of Asheville. “You have people who don’t have water, they don’t have medications, they don’t have personal hygiene products.
“And,” he added, “they don’t have any way to get them.”
Indeed, the idyll that made Asheville a regional tourist hub of artsy flair, bustling breweries and forested mountain majesty – nearly 300 miles from the Atlantic coast – today appears condemned after one of the deadliest hurricanes to strike the US mainland in the last 50 years.
And now, it’s that beloved southern Appalachian terrain isolating the city and many even more remote neighboring enclaves as residents begin the long, hard work of recovering from a storm that dumped as much as 30 inches of rain in the region and left at least 140 dead across six states.
Five days after Helene hit, hundreds in western North Carolina are still missing. And while President Joe Biden has approved the governor’s request to declare a major disaster in 25 counties, the emergency response remains difficult, an operation grappling with decimated roads and complicated by communication outages.
Mike Stewart/AP
Destruction left by Hurricane Helene is seen Monday in Asheville, North Carolina.
What is clear is what people here need: essentials like water, food and gas. And they’re adamant they need it now.
“There’s no help or relief from the government or FEMA right now,” Tyler Kotch, the owner of an Asheville pizza joint, told CNN on Monday. “It’s four days out, and we’re still waiting on that.”
Jonathan Drake/Reuters
Martika Stansell and two of her children help pile debris in front of their flooded house in Canton, North Carolina, on Thursday, October 3.
Erik S. Lesser/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Helicopters use a field in Swannanoa, North Carolina, as a landing zone Thursday to ferry supplies and crews to areas made inaccessible by Helene.
Jonathan Drake/Reuters
A man helps clean out a home's flooded crawlspace in Cruso, North Carolina, on Thursday.
Eduardo Munoz/Reuters
A residential area is flooded in Swannanoa on Thursday.
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A relief group climbs up the side of a hill as they help near Bat Cave, North Carolina, on Thursday. The group was tasked with clearing roads and checking on people isolated because of Helene.
Allison Joyce/AFP/Getty Images
Volunteers load supplies at Ridgeline Heating and Cooling, which was turned into a relief area and community coordination center in Bills Creek, North Carolina, on Thursday.
Allison Joyce/AFP/Getty Images
A police car is stuck in mud in a flooded area of Lake Lure, North Carolina, on Wednesday, October 2.
Mike Stewart/AP
Homes are damaged in Chimney Rock, North Carolina, on Wednesday.
Jonathan Drake/Reuters
People help run a volunteer local community care center in Barnardsville, North Carolina, on Wednesday.
Mike Stewart/AP
A marina is filled with debris in Lake Lure on Wednesday.
Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images
Emily Ogburn, right, hugs her friend Cody Klein after he brought her a meal in Swannanoa on Wednesday.
Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images
Friends help Sam Soughail, third from left, clear out his Casablanca Cigar Bar in Asheville, North Carolina, on Tuesday, October 1.
Josh Morgan/USA Today Network/Imagn Images
Van Hutchins, right, hands Dennis Rector a family photo album that survived the flooding of his wife's business, the Penland & Sons Department Store, in Marshall, North Carolina.
Jonathan Drake/Reuters
Power line poles lean in Lake Lure on Tuesday.
Mike Stewart/AP
A search-and-rescue team looks for victims in deep mud Tuesday in Swannanoa, North Carolina.
Jeffrey Collins/AP
Andy Brown takes a break on top of what remains of a tree that destroyed his SUV in Augusta, Georgia, on Tuesday.
Jeff Roberson/AP
Len Frisbee dumps a wheelbarrow of dirt as he helps with cleanup in Hot Springs, North Carolina, on Tuesday.
Christian Monterrosa/The New York Times/Redux
People evacuate by foot on Highway 64, near the Bat Cave community of North Carolina, on Monday, September 30.
Marco Bello/Reuters
A helicopter flies near damaged buildings in Bat Cave on Monday.
Kathy Kmonicek/AP
Linda Bandy, left, and Carissa Sheehan clean up inside the International Moulding frame shop in Morganton, North Carolina, on Monday.
Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images
Janice Whitley hands her brother Terry Wilson some salvaged items while they remove valuables from their flooded home in Old Fort on Sunday, September 29.
Sean Rayford/Getty Images
People wait in line to access gasoline in Fletcher, North Carolina, on Sunday.
Kathleen Flynn/Reuters
Melinda Segassie wheels possessions she salvaged from her home in Steinhatchee, Florida, on Sunday.
Paul Hennessy/Anadolu/Getty Images
This home in Tampa, Florida, was destroyed by fire during the storm.
Gerald Herbert/AP
Workers clean and gut a flooded property in Steinhatchee on Sunday.
Jonathan Drake/Reuters
Meta Gatschenberger surveys the remains of her collapsed house in Boone, North Carolina, on Saturday, September 28.
North Carolina Department of Transportation
Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images
People gather at a fire station to access Wi-Fi on Saturday after Helene moved through Asheville.
Sean Rayford/Getty Images
People inspect flood damage in Asheville on Saturday.
Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images
An area of Asheville is flooded on Saturday.
Kathleen Flynn/Reuters
Elmira Glover sits on her porch after taking the first look inside her home, which had been completely flooded in Steinhatchee.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Boats displaced by Hurricane Helene sit in front of homes in Treasure Island, Florida, on Saturday.
Marco Bello/Reuters
Light filters into a room of a home that was destroyed by the hurricane in Horseshoe Beach, Florida.
Jonathan Drake/Reuters
Customers crowd a supermarket aisle for bottled water after widespread damage disrupted water supplies in Boone on Saturday.
John Falchetto/AFP/Getty Images
Buildings are left damaged by the storm in Valdosta, Georgia, on Saturday.
Marco Bello/Reuters
People walk among debris from their family's beach house in Horseshoe Beach on Saturday.
Jonathan Drake/Reuters
The Laurel Fork Road bridge is destroyed by floodwaters in Vilas, North Carolina, on September 27.
Greg Lovett/The Palm Beach Post/USA Today Network
Cassandra Randall, right, is hugged by Jessica Downey inside a damaged Maddie's grocery store in Steinhatchee on September 27.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
People work on power lines after Hurricane Helene passed offshore in Crystal River, Florida, on September 27.
Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP
Hailey Morgan, right, surveys the damage to her flooded home after returning with her children, in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, in Crystal River on September 27.
Marco Bello/Reuters
An aerial view shows a flooded and damaged area following Hurricane Helene in Steinhatchee on September 27.
Jonathan Drake/Reuters
A person walks into fast-flowing waters to assist a stranded driver in a stretch of flooded road on the outskirts of Boone on September 27.
Megan Varner/Getty Images
People use buckets to remove water from a home near Peachtree Creek in Atlanta on September 27 after Hurricane Helene brought heavy rain overnight.
Luis Santana/Tampa Bay Times/AP
Sarah Cribbins and her son, Michael, cuddle their dog after being rescued from floodwaters in Crystal River on September 27.
Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/AFP/Getty Images
Debris is seen inside a Cedar Key, Florida, store on September 27.
Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News/USA Today Network
A tree crew cuts up large limbs that fell on East 49th Street in Savannah, Georgia, on September 27.
Mike Carlson/AP
An American flag sits in floodwaters in the Shore Acres neighborhood of St. Petersburg, Florida, on September 27.
Mike Stewart/AP
A tree lies on a house in Valdosta, Georgia, on September 27.
Erik S. Lesser/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Candice Ocvil, left, and Jibri Tolen, right, row through flood waters in Atlanta on September 27.
Cristobal Herrera-Ulashkevich/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
The aftermath of Hurricane Helene is seen in Cedar Key, Florida, on September 27.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Candace Redwine surveys the damage after about 3 feet of water inundated her Spiceman Kitchen store in Tarpon Springs, Florida, on September 27.
Jonathan Drake/Reuters
Flood water washes over Guy Ford Road bridge on the Watauga River in Sugar Grove, North Carolina, on September 26.
United States Coast Guard/Reuters
In this screengrab taken from a
United States Coast Guard body cam, a man and his dog are seen being rescued after his sailboat became disabled and started taking on water off Sanibel Island, Florida, on September 26.
Ricardo Arduengo/AFP/Getty Images
Cars drive over the George G. Tapper Bridge before Hurricane Helene makes landfall in Port Saint Joe, Florida, on September 26.
Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service/Getty Images
Guests put on ponchos at Walt Disney World in Bay Lake, Florida, on September 26 as Hurricane Helene began bearing down.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Carol Poulson uses her phone to document the impacts of Hurricane Helene as it builds offshore in St. Petersburg on September 26.
Andrew West/The News-Press/USA Today Network/Imagn Images
A man walks through a flooded Times Square area of Fort Myers Beach, Florida, on September 26.
Gerald Herbert/AP
Cynthia Centeno, a Tallahassee resident, sits with her family inside a hurricane evacuation shelter at Fairview Middle School in Leon County, Florida, on September 26.
Marco Bello/Reuters
Waves impact a house seawall in Eastpoint, Florida, on September 26.
Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service/Getty Images
Charles Starling, a lineman with Team Fishel, walks by a row of electrical line trucks staged in a field in The Villages, Florida, on September 26.
Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Images
People work at the State Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee, Florida, on September 26.
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A man crosses a flooded area on the coast of Gulfport, Florida, on September 26.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Cars drive through a flooded street in St. Pete Beach on September 26.
NOAA
Hurricane Helene is seen in a satellite photo on September 26.
Marco Bello/Reuters
A woman fills up a container with gas ahead of Helene's landfall in Cross City, Florida, on September 25.
Ramon Espinosa/AP
People in Guanimar, Cuba, traverse a flooded street in a boat on September 25.
Sean Rayford/Getty Images
A Wakulla County firefighter speaks to residents of Panacea, Florida, while making note of those who were not evacuating on September 25.
Paola Chiomante/Reuters
Storm damage from Helene is seen in Puerto Juarez, Mexico, on September 25.
Marco Bello/Reuters
People fill up sandbags in Clearwater, Florida, on September 25.
The sentiment has been echoed by local leaders, including some who’ve also acknowledged state and federal officials indeed are on the ground – but who still feel the pace of recovery is too slow.
“There’s still a lot of folks that we need to be able to reach, so that is the priority,” Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Monday night. “But we also are in a situation where we don’t have water and power in most areas, and we do need resources like drinking water and food and other household supplies and personal supplies people might need.”
Mayor Zeb Smathers of Canton bemoaned the total collapse of cell service in his area, telling CNN it had hampered search, rescue and recovery efforts, forcing the community to make do with “1990s technology – at best.”
“There are families living in turmoil because they can’t make a simple cell phone call 72 hours after this storm,” he said. “We can’t communicate with crisis management to deliver supplies because we don’t know what we have and what people need.”
State and federal officials have signaled they understand the dire circumstances. By late Monday, FEMA had delivered 1 million liters of water and 600,000 meals, Gov. Roy Cooper said.
Federal aid is arriving in Canton, also west of Asheville, but connectivity problems have prevented smooth coordination, Smathers said. And he fears for the people who need help.
Some communities can only get aid by helicopter, officials have said.
“We have beautiful, beautiful mountains in North Carolina, but they are rugged sometimes to get through, even on a beautiful day,” the governor told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Monday night. “After this catastrophic storm, it is very difficult to get to all of those places. That’s why we are relying on air power.”
“This is an unprecedented, massive effort that is being coordinated among local, state, federal, non-profits,” he said. “It’s been amazing to see the work that’s going on. We’ve just got to make sure that it reaches every corner of western North Carolina.”
Pamlico County Special Operations via AP
Rescue workers from Pamlico County navigate Saturday through downed trees on a road in the area of Chimney Rock, North Carolina.
Resources were in place across the Southeast before the storm arrived, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Monday. And more than 3,500 federal workers on the ground – 1,000 of them from FEMA – are working with the state to move resources to the communities that need them.
“We know that there’s still great need, we know that there’s a lot of power that’s out, we know that the waste systems are down,” Criswell said.
“We know there’s areas we haven’t gotten to yet,” Criswell added, “and so we’ll continue to get that information of the places that still need critical equipment, critical food and water.”
Brian Etheridge lived with his family in western North Carolina for more than a decade before moving to Hilton Head, South Carolina. With his teenage sons and a trailer full of supplies, he struck out Sunday to help friends and old neighbors in the disaster zone.
“It’s not just Asheville, it’s everywhere: Brevard, Hendersonville, Highlands, Waynesville, Boone, Blowing Rock, all these areas,” he said, describing a swath of hundreds of square miles where downed trees, landslides and washed-out roads make travel exceedingly difficult.
Etheridge saw utility trucks headed toward the storm wreckage, as well as fire departments and other local authorities out and about as residents wielded chainsaws in their efforts to clean up, he told CNN.
Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images
Terry Wilson's keepsakes lay Sunday outside his mother's home in Old Fort, North Carolina. Their beloved dog's ashes were found after the flooding, Wilson said.
“These people are stuck. They are running out of food, water, there’s no power,” said Etheridge, who returned home Sunday night. “It’s total destruction.”
“The damage is just so vast,” he added. “And people are freaking out and panicking and they are scared.”
From a FEMA warehouse in Fort Worth, Texas, Staff Administrator Steve Reaves on Monday mentioned the challenge of Interstate 40 as he oversaw the loading and shipping of semitrucks to the storm zone.
“We’ve sent every meal we’ve got, every bottle of water we’ve got,” he said, adding his agency has also sent tarps, plastic sheeting and kits for babies and seniors.
But damage to I-40 has created a major bottleneck, Reaves said, between North Carolina and Tennessee.
“That’s the main artery we had there,” said Reaves, also the head of the agency’s union. “Whenever those hurdles like highways, roads, bridges washed out, that delays response to that area. We have to wait for the roads to be rebuilt, too.”
The highway’s eastbound lanes leaving Buncombe County, of which Asheville is the seat, reopened Tuesday, the county said.
West of Asheville, North Carolina is even more rural, isolated and rugged, said Vaillancourt, the journalist.
In Asheville, he said, neighbors can share supplies. That’s much harder in the communities he covers: “You can’t just hop around the corner to a neighbor’s house who lives a mile away and has a washed-out bridge leading to their home.”
“There are folks out here,” he said, “and the need is just as great.”
Officials must now overcome myriad hurdles – communications outages, flooding of the “valleys and hollers,” road closures – complicating the recovery effort, said the North Carolina Division of Emergency Management’s former Director Mike Sprayberry.
Travis Long/The News & Observer via Reuters
A search and rescue team on Sunday examines a van swept into the river in Swannanoa, North Carolina.
“These places, a lot of them are remote and, in the best of times, sometimes difficult to get to,” said Sprayberry, now the senior adviser for emergency management for Hagerty Consulting. But, he added, “It’s hard to say, ‘Be patient,’ especially if you’re running out of food and water, or need oxygen, or you need medication.”
“Doggone, I think everybody’s trying to move as fast as they can,” he said, “and they’re throwing everything we have at it.”
In the meantime, the communities Vaillancourt covers are not strangers to food insecurity and poverty. There have “always been issues in rural, southern Appalachia,” he said.
Now, Helene has made those problems much worse, he said, recounting a run-in Sunday with a woman who runs a local food pantry struggling to get non-perishables into isolated parts of Haywood County.
“Again, these areas already struggle with poverty and food insecurity,” he said. “And the disruption of normal daily life due to this storm has made their plight even more dire.”
CNN’s Ella Nilsen contributed to this report.