Image: https://www.ncdps.gov/
The state of North Carolina has established a Hurricane Helene information and resources page at Hurricane Helene | NC DPS.
Death toll/damage
Officials continue to assess and respond to the widespread human and physical damage that Hurricane/Tropical Storm Helene inflicted in North Carolina. At last count, 133 people are known to have died from the storm across the southeastern U.S. with as many as several hundred still unaccounted for.
Buncombe County – one of the hardest hit areas – reported its death toll at 40 as of Monday evening. The Washington Post has reported that property damage in the impacted region could total as high as $26 billion – a figure only slightly lower than the state of North Carolina’s general fund budget for an entire year.
Will Ray, the state’s emergency management director, told elected officials during a Council of State meeting Tuesday morning that Helene had “significant, devastating impact” on 25 counties in western North Carolina.”
There are communities that were built along the river that we saw yesterday are no longer there,” Ray told the group, gathered virtually.
Cooper, who called the storm the “worst catastrophe in modern history in western North Carolina,” said “the long-term recovery will be significant.”
The White House has announced that President Joe Biden will travel to North Carolina and South Carolina on Wednesday. He will take an aerial tour of areas impacted by Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina, receive operational briefings, and greet first responders and local officials. He will also engage with first responders and state and local officials in South Carolina en route to North Carolina.
Power
As of midday Tuesday, the state Department of Public Safety website indicated that power providers were reporting a total of just over 374,000 western North Carolina customers were still without power. This includes customers of Duke Energy, Dominion Energy, N.C. Electric Cooperatives and ElectriCities.
On Sunday, western North Carolina Congressman Chuck Edwards reported that 360 electric substations had been knocked out of commission by Helene and that “There is a high likelihood that the substations are not reparable, and replacement of the substation equipment will be necessary.”
Water
Southeastern Buncombe County; South of N.C. 9 (Photo: NCDOT)
Several water systems remain severely damaged by the storm. State Rep. Lindsey Prather of Buncombe County told NC Newsline Tuesday afternoon that fresh water remains the Number One need in her community. Relief personnel are working hard to establish water distribution sites in numerous communities.
Roads
Roads are slowly beginning to open in western North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper shared at a press conference Tuesday morning.
I-40 East from Asheville is now open, and I-40 West into Asheville will reopen today.
“We continue to ask people to stay off the roads in western North Carolina unless travel is necessary,” Cooper said. “Conditions on the ground remain extremely dangerous.”
The North Carolina Department of Transportation is working to reopen more roads by clearing debris and finding ways around major damage until repairs can be made, he said.
North Carolina transportation secretary Joey Hopkins said I-26 is open throughout the state, and I-421 is open to Boone and westward towards the Tennessee line. Part of I-40 near Tennessee will remain closed for some time.
“Our top priority is to open as many roads as we can so residents can get the supplies they need, and our utility partners can reach areas to repair their own infrastructure,” Hopkins said.
The state is still discouraging anything other than emergency travel.
Schools
As western North Carolina reels from the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene, many of the region’s schools remain closed due to flooding, power outages, and infrastructure damage.
Nearly all schools across the 25 counties where a federal major disaster has been declared were closed Monday, with a few counties leaving open the option to reopen schools on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Many schools throughout the region have transformed into emergency shelters and distribution centers for food, water, and other basic supplies. Several counties in the region opened their doors early in the week to provide hot meals to students and affected residents, including Jackson and Watauga counties.
At a Cleveland County elementary school, those in need of meals lined up in the parking lot Monday for a free hot dog lunch. Gymnasiums in some school districts, like Ashe County, are lined with foodstuffs and sleeping mats to help provide for residents who cannot return home.
The timeline for students to return varies substantially, with some already back in class and others with no idea of when they might be able to.
Schools in eight counties — Alleghany, Ashe, Buncombe, Burke, Haywood, McDowell, Transylvania, and Watauga — announced plans to close for the full week of Sept. 30, citing poor road conditions and electrical and communications disruptions.
The school districts of Avery, Henderson, Madison, Mitchell, and Polk counties indicated damage to their regions was so severe that they would remain closed until further notice. Even where school facilities are operational, the roads in some counties remain impossible for school buses to traverse.
Some schools, including those in Lincoln County, invited teachers back before students for optional in-person workdays, suggesting less direct damage. After restoring power to all school facilities in Gaston County, students returned to class with a two-hour delay.
In Clay County, schools reopened on Monday morning, after temporary internet service was restored and emergency services provided radio equipment for communications, according to a post on the school’s Facebook page.
“We are so thankful that our area was spared from the devastation around us,” the school district wrote in a Facebook post. “As we move forward, we will be using our resources to support our neighbors who have been severely impacted by this storm.”
At least some schools, like those in Rutherford County, asked students who are able to complete remote learning — a tool utilized heavily when schools shuttered during the Covid-19 pandemic — though the district acknowledged that due to power and internet outages, remote learning is “simply impossible for most students,” and indicated no students would be penalized for not participating.
In addition to in-school activities, the fallout from the storm has forced many schools, such as those in Haywood County, to cancel or postpone all extracurricular and sporting events. By contrast, schools in Catawba County announced plans to resume at least some activities after school Tuesday — for some students, a much-needed return to normalcy.
While some schools have reopened, many remain without power, water, or internet service. Some have also endured flooding and structural damage. In Mitchell County, staff worked alongside firefighters and other volunteers in the storm to protect school facilities from the rising floodwaters.
“Our community is devastated. We will be closed until further notice. We urge our staff to volunteer at local shelters during this time of need,” wrote associate superintendent Jennifer Gregory in the school district’s live feed. “Situations like this remind us what a wonderful group of people we work with inside our schools and in the community.”
Three state universities – Western Carolina, UNC Asheville and Appalachian State were significantly impacted. At present, Western and App State are closed through Friday October 4, while UNCA is closed through October 7.
The courts
The North Carolina Judicial Branch website shows that 22 counties are currently reporting that they are closed. This list includes 21 and the west and Lenoir in the east.
On Sunday, September 29, Chief Justice Paul Newby issued a series of identical orders for 28 counties specifying that all pleadings, motions, notices, and other documents and papers that were due to be filed (and “all other acts that were due to be done”) between the dates of September 26 and October 14 in civil actions, criminal actions, estates, and special proceedings shall be deemed to be timely filed if they are filed or are done before the close of business on October 14.
The 28 impacted counties are: Alexander, Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba, Cherokee, Clay, Cleveland, Gaston, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Lincoln, Macon, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Swain, Transylvania, Watauga, Wilkes, and Yancey.
Adult corrections
On Monday, the state Department of Adult Correction announced that it had “evacuated approximately 400 offenders from Western Correctional Center for Women in Swannanoa and the Black Mountain Substance Abuse Treatment Center for Women in Black Mountain.”
Assistance
More than 57,000 North Carolinians have already applied for FEMA assistance. Click here to learn more and/or to apply for help.
FEMA has also delivered about 1 million liters of water and more than 600,000 meals to the state, according to Cooper.
Along with aid from the federal government, 22 states have responded to help North Carolina by sending personnel and assistance.
North Carolina has an anti-price gouging law, which was enacted when Cooper signed the state of emergency declaration, Attorney General Josh Stein said.
“Charging too much for any needed good or service during an emergency is against the law in North Carolina,” Stein said. “If you think you see someone charging an unfair or excessive price for hotel rooms, gas, or food, or emergency supplies like generators, file a complaint with my office.”
Voting
(Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)
Elections officials won’t know until later this week what voting sites in storm-damaged counties are unable, state Elections Director Karen Brinson Bell told reporters on Tuesday. Early voting begins on Oct. 17.
The first objective is to get all county elections offices up and running, she said.
The intent is for early voting to begin on time in all counties, Brinson Bell said, but she raised the possibility that not all will be ready.
“It’s probably too early to know whether we’ll be able to start early voting on time,” she said. The availability of voting facilities is the outstanding question.
“We’ll be working with them to determine if they can open all the sites that they had planned to,” she said. “If we need to help them relocating the facilities that might change the circumstances. It’s really just too soon to know, but is our intent to open early voting in all 100 counties on Oct. 17.”
About a fifth of North Carolina registered voters live in the counties most impacted by Helene. And while election officials were working as early as Monday to resume the process of distributing absentee ballots, the destruction suffered by post offices and voting sites will be a huge challenge for officials. On Sunday, the U.S. Postal Service announced that “All retail and delivery operations for facilities in the 286, 287,288 and 289 3-digit zip code areas are temporarily suspended until further notice due to Hurricane Helene impacts.” In addition, the announcement states that all operations at 39 facilities are temporarily suspended due to the storm.