This video explores the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which struck Florida and broke barriers with its devastating impact reaching as far as western North Carolina. The hurricane caused severe destruction in areas unfamiliar with such storms, with the Appalachian mountains acting as a funnel that destroyed many communities. Witness accounts and rescue efforts highlight the plight and resilience of those affected.
The compelling narrative centers on communities like Green Mountain, where residents recount their experiences during the disaster. Survivors share tales of courage and unity, vividly recalling the damages seen and their reliance on communal strength in the storm's wake. Emergency responders and locals brought rescue and relief efforts under challenging conditions amidst disruptions in communication and hazardous terrain.
Main takeaways from the video:
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Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:
1. remnants [ˈrɛmnənts] - (noun) - The small remaining quantity of something. - Synonyms: (residues, leftovers, remains)
Residents were caught off guard when the Appalachian mountain range that hugs the border of Tennessee acted like a funnel for the remnants of Helene, devastating the communities below.
2. devastating [ˈdɛvəˌsteɪtɪŋ] - (adjective) - Highly destructive or damaging. - Synonyms: (destructive, catastrophic, ruinous)
Residents were caught off guard when the Appalachian mountain range that hugs the border of Tennessee acted like a funnel for the remnants of Helene, devastating the communities below.
3. entwined [ɪnˈtwaɪnd] - (adjective) - Interwoven or twisted together. - Synonyms: (interwoven, intertwined, interlinked)
Residents were caught off guard when the Appalachian mountain range that hugs the border of Tennessee acted like a funnel for the remnants of Helene, devastating the communities below.
4. infrastructure [ˈɪnfrəˌstrʌktʃər] - (noun) - The basic physical and organizational structures and facilities needed for the operation of a society. - Synonyms: (framework, foundation, structures)
The two rivers that intersect with the city swelled to the highest levels in history. The water was so strong it pushed homes off their foundations and lifted a 10,000 pound tractor trailer into the treetops.
5. disinformation [ˌdɪsˌɪnfərˈmeɪʃən] - (noun) - False information spread deliberately to deceive. - Synonyms: (falsehoods, misinformation, propaganda)
Jeff Howell is now dealing with a storm of disinformation.
6. funnel [ˈfʌnl̩] - (noun) - A tube or pipe used to channel liquid or granular substances into a container with a small opening. - Synonyms: (channel, conduit, sluice)
Residents were caught off guard when the Appalachian mountain range that hugs the border of Tennessee acted like a funnel for the remnants of Helene, devastating the communities below.
7. catastrophic [ˌkætəˈstrɒfɪk] - (adjective) - Involving or causing sudden great damage or suffering. - Synonyms: (disastrous, calamitous, ruinous)
We basically just abandoned the emergency operations center and our sheriff's department.
8. trajectories [trəˈdʒɛktəriz] - (noun) - The paths followed by a projectile flying or an object moving under the action of given forces. - Synonyms: (pathways, courses, routes)
The course of Hurricane Helene demonstrated unexpected trajectories through western territories.
9. anthesis [ænˈθiːsɪs] - (noun) - The period during which a flower is fully open and functional. - Synonyms: (bloom, blossoming, flowering)
As the storm descended, the destruction of communities was the anthesis of the peaceful and serene life residents were used to.
10. navigable [ˈnævɪgəbl̩] - (adjective) - Suitable for a ship to sail on or a vehicle to travel on; passable. - Synonyms: (passable, traversable, open)
We made our way 45 miles north of Asheville, snaking around the washed out roads and into the communities Helene tried to wipe off the mountain.
North Carolina continues to search for Helene victims after monster storm - 60 Minutes
In Florida, residents are once again beginning the slow process of recovery. Milton was the second hurricane to take aim at the state in as many weeks. Just 13 days earlier, Hurricane Helene hit Florida, then carved a 500 mile path of destruction north, killing more than 240 people. The deadliest storm to strike the US mainland since Hurricane Katrina.
One of the area's hardest hit was western North Carolina, a region unaccustomed to hurricanes. Residents were caught off guard when the Appalachian mountain range that hugs the border of Tennessee acted like a funnel for the remnants of Helene, devastating the communities below. Tonight you will hear from survivors and about the enormous effort to bring relief to North Carolina. The story will continue in a moment. With the force of a tidal wave, water tore down the Appalachian Mountains, knocked over bridges and sent homes and people downstream.
We made our way 45 miles north of Asheville, snaking around the washed out roads and into the communities Helene tried to wipe off the mountain. 2,000ft up, we saw what is left of Green Mountain, a town tucked above the gurgling North Tow river. Until the remnants of Helene came roaring down the mountain with enough power to snap their concrete bridge in half. 'It sounded like you was at the ocean and it looked like the ocean,' except it was dirtier, muddier. Was there stuff in it? We saw a house float down in front of here. Yes. That way if you've never been through it. Something I never want to see again and I hope and pray that nobody has to.
Jane Whitson Peterson, her husband and 96 year old mother were trapped inside the general store the family has run for more than 60 years. She this video from the second floor. We have two doors down that way outside and then we have this back one and we tried to block them and you don't stop water and it busted through the back door and then it started coming in the front door and the water's coming through the storm. It come three different ways. So when we got up there and we stood on the steps and watched it come in and all we could do is just sit and watch it and pray that it didn't get no higher. It came up to the seventh step.
This is what those answered prayers look like today. Only the skeleton of the family store is left. Her father's old cash register is clogged with mud and her mother's home was destroyed. She's 96. She's raised seven kids and worked 16, 18 hours a day. It's really hard for her. But my mom got up the next morning singing, singing, singing. When the roll is called up yonder. I'll be there. A hymn about the expectations of a home in heaven on her front lawn. 96 year old Parzadie Whitson shared it with us, surrounded by what's left of her home on Green Mountain.
When the roll is called up the oven, for so many, this was their slice of heaven. Living in the hollers, the communities built in the valleys of the Appalachian mountains. What do you do next as a family? We keep going. It's what we've always done. I've not been a whole lot of places, but I would never go nowhere else to live. Everybody knows everybody and if you need a hand, we're there. We'll do anything we can to help you.
This is home. This is home. I call it God's country. I know everybody says that because where they live, but this little piece of western North Carolina is just. The mountains are just, they're magical. Jeff Howe's family has lived in the area for seven generations. Is there a bridge up through here? Howe was the emergency management coordinator for Yancey county, an area that was hit hard by Helene. The devastation caught most residents by surprise. Western North Carolina hasn't seen anything like this since the great flood of 1916, when two storms converged and pushed rivers over their banks.
It's going to hit the pole though, right here. Forecasters say this time the stage was set for disaster well before Helene roared in. Days earlier, a weather front started, stalled over the mountains. Some areas got more than a foot of rain. When Helene arrived, these mountains were already saturated. There had been three days of rain. Creeks and streams rerouted and grew bigger and stronger. There was nowhere for all that water to go but down. And it took everything in its path with it.
We started getting the entrapments, the landslide calls, and the most worrisome thing about it is when the calls stopped because we had no radio communication, we had no cell phone, we had no Internet, you couldn't talk to anyone. And it was. That was terrifying. 45 miles to the south, Asheville, which sits in a valley of the Blue Ridge Mountains, acted as a catch basin for the water funneled down the Appalachians. Get up. Get down. Triggering landslides along the way.
The two rivers that intersect with the city swelled to the highest levels in history. The water was so strong it pushed homes off their foundations and lifted a 10,000 pound tractor trailer into the treetops. Rescue crews wound through the city on boats. Radios, cell phones and the Internet were knocked out. Up in Yancey county, they couldn't call for help or wait for it. We basically just abandoned the emergency operations center and our sheriff's department. They were already out doing rescues. But we would just go in, give me another name. And we'd take off and. And try to find these people and get them.
A local firefighter and his wife were among those rescued. He and his wife were asleep in their house when the flood washed it off the foundation. And they were floating down where the river became and it shoved them through the wall of their house. They hung onto a tree for two or three hours until they were found. But then the next day he was at work. His face was scratched all to pieces, bandaged up, but that's the kind of people we had.
I say we work our way this way, up here. More than 70 search and rescue teams from across the country were dispatched to North Carolina. Locals helped guide them up the treacherous mountain terrain to look for survivors. Forest rangers and paramedics carried a man who broke his back in the landslide three miles down a steep slope in the dark. In the week after the storm, hundreds of people were reported missing.
Some families couldn't reach their loved ones for days. Others couldn't reach them at all. Desperate to connect, some people posted messages on the porch outside the Hotel New Re, a cornerstone of the county for nearly 200 years. Boards filled with the names of the missing and heartbreaking updates. We are alive. House gone.
Dinner is ready, everybody. The new Ray has been feeding hundreds of weary storm victims warm meals every day. This is very nice of you guys. Donations and relief workers have poured in. FEMA set up more than 40 processing center to be eligible for assistance and says so far it has distributed more than $100 million to North Carolina victims. Aid is arriving by helicopters, even mules carrying loads of medicine to areas trucks couldn't reach. More than 500 roads remain closed and more than 100 bridges need to be replaced. A patchwork of dusty routes now holds the region together. And these are the tents we got from the government.
Jeff Howe, who fought with the US army in Afghanistan and Iraq, is now trying to get help to his neighbors. Yancy County Emergency. You hear the phrase you can't get there from here. We have a lot of that part of the community. It's cut off and they have to actually go around through Tennessee to get here. 60 miles one way. So your time in the reserves prepare you for this? It did. It's unlike combat stress because in combat you can shoot back. I can't do anything, and that's very frustrating. But what I can do is working with the people around here and keep the miscommunications down is the best thing I can do right now. But that's a struggle in itself.
Jeff Howell is now dealing with a storm of disinformation. He told us conspiracy theories and false claims about the government's response to the flood have also made their way to the top of the mountain. I don't even know how they make it up. You know, stories about FEMA seizing trailers and draining tankers and they're going, that's just. That is really not happening.
How does that impact workers on the ground? It takes their focus away from what they're supposed to be doing when they're having to debunk this sort of stuff and explain to people, no, the US government did not geoengineer the storm. But like I said, some people, they're going to believe it no matter what. The day after, we spoke to how a neighboring county was investigating reports of an armed militia quote, hunting fema. One arrest was made. FEMA suspended door to door operations in western North Carolina for 48 hours. But the agency reports all operations have resumed.
This is one of the areas still in need of help. A place curiously called relief. This is the old post office. You used to play in here. We did. James Warrick told us the area was named after a medicine the town doctor sold in the 1800s that provided relief to its patrons. The main ingredient was alcohol. Warrick and his mother Jewel have lived in that same doctor's house for the past 55 years. Today it is buried in mud. Less than 1% of residents in the hardest hit areas of western North Carolina have flood insurance.
What was it like before? Life was wonderful. It was wonderful. Where did we see it? Up here somewhere. James and Jewel evacuated days before the storm and say they encouraged their neighbors to leave as well. But by the time they tried, it was too late. There was a wall of water that came down the river that engulfed this area. And that's probably the same wall of water that took our neighbors with it. So we are the only two surviving people here in relief. Six of our neighbors have died.
That is what's left of the car. The couple next door and her two young boys tried to escape in. It was crushed by water so powerful it twisted the train tracks in town. More than three weeks after the storm, crews are still searching the debris along the rivers. In North Carolina, at least 125 people were killed by Helene. More than 50 are still missing. Across the Appalachian mountains, the road to relief will be a long one.
I'm still in shock. I mean, I carry on. I laugh and I joke and I take my time as a moment of crying, but I'm not really let loose. But I have a strong family and we have a strong community and we're all pulling together.
You'll stay here? I think so. This is Mom's home? Yeah, it's my family's home. The girls and James and the grandchildren. Great. Grand. Yeah. We'll survive. You know, it's not giving up. We can't. There's hope. And when you have hope, you move on.
Leadership, Education, Science, Property Destruction, Emergency Management, Community Resilience, 60 Minutes
