"It's complete carnage here," said Carda, 41, who has been drinking water through a camping filter and cooking over a fire because running water and power remain out in his small town of Swannanoa. "People are just walking around with gas jugs and water jugs, looking for anything that is open."
"This is looking to be Buncombe County's own Hurricane Katrina," said Avril Pinder, the manager of the county, which includes Asheville.
The death toll throughout the Southeast grew as the scope of Helene's devastation came into clearer view. At least 49 people had been killed in five states - Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.
Authorities stressed that the threat of additional flooding was not yet over. Dams were pushed to the brink, forcing residents to flee to higher ground.
[
Collection
]
[
|
...
]