CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WJZY) – As Helene moved through North Carolina, it left devastation in its path. The state has the highest death toll so far from the hurricane turned tropical storm, which unleashed heavy rain on the Southeast.
Planet Labs captured and compared satellite images that show the storm’s devastating impact on one of the hardest hit cities. Asheville and its surrounding area received about 14 inches of rain from Helene, the National Weather Service said.
Narrow rivers are seen breaking their banks, turning into wide swaths of water. Roads disappear under deep flooding. Low-lying areas of green grass were turned into brown pools.
You can see the dramatic before-and-after comparisons, which show the River Arts District and Biltmore Village, in the video player at the top of this story.
Helene’s path through the Southeast left a trail of power outages so large the darkness was visible from space. Tens of trillions of gallons of rain fell and more than 200 people were killed, making Helene the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. since Katrina in 2005. Hundreds of people are still unaccounted for, and search crews must trudge through knee-deep debris to learn whether residents are safe.
A week after the storm passed through, Asheville residents are still struggling to recover. Flooding tore through the city’s water system, destroying so much infrastructure that officials said repairs could take weeks.
It also damaged water utilities so severely and over such a wide inland area that one federal official said the toll “could be considered unprecedented.” As of Thursday, about 136,000 people in the Southeast were served by a nonoperational water provider and more than 1.8 million were living under a boil water advisory, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Western North Carolina was especially hard hit. Officials are facing a difficult rebuilding task made harder by the steep, narrow valleys of the Blue Ridge Mountains that during a more typical October would attract throngs of fall tourists. But this year, the popular Blue Ridge Parkway is closed indefinitely.
“The challenges of the geography are just fewer roads, fewer access points, fewer areas of flat ground to stage resources” said Brian Smith, acting deputy division director for the EPA’s water division in the Southeast.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has been visiting with first responders this week.
“I’m grateful for the efforts and sacrifices of the emergency personnel and volunteers who have given their time and resources to help people in western North Carolina who need it,” said Gov. Cooper. “As we continue to recover from this storm, we’ll continue to work with partners at state, federal, local and non-profit levels to deliver resources and assistance to affected communities.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.