ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WNCN) — First responders and the National Guard have rescued thousands of people trapped after Hurricane Helene devastated the North Carolina mountains.
More than a week after the storm, we are still just now getting a closer look at some of the damage. An aerial tour Tuesday included Marshall, Biltmore Village and Chimney Rock — which was particularly hard hit.
CBS 17 anchor Angela Taylor was back in Swannanoa and flew over several areas on Tuesday to get a much different perspective of the devastation from above.
CBS 17 teamed up with the Civil Air Patrol to see the hardest-hit areas from above.
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The flight headed north to Marshall, the seat of Madison County. Marshall’s downtown sits right along the French Broad River.
From the air, it’s possible to see how far the river rose, pushing mud and debris into the small town.
“The French Broad River exceeded its recorded level. It used to be 20 feet — it hit 31,” during Helene flooding, said Scott Stevens, a Civil Air Patrol pilot.
The aerial tour continued to follow the French Broad River back to the south into Asheville, where Biltmore Village took the brunt of the flooding.
“This is the worst natural disaster that’s happened in the recorded history of Ashville,” said Stevens, who’s lived in Asheville for 15 years.
From there the flight went to the popular tourist mountain destination of Chimney Rock, which sits on the banks of the Broad River.
A once place popular with tourists, the town is now dirt and debris. Only a few places are still there after the river topped its banks and wiped out much of the village.
From Chimney Rock, the Broad River flows into Lake Lure.
From the air, it’s possible to see all the debris that washed downstream into Lake Lure — from Chimney Rock and other areas far upstream.
Stevens said the Asheville area is known as a “climate haven” with no natural disasters.
“We don’t get tornados, we don’t get earthquakes, we don’t get blizzards, we don’t get hurricanes — but now apparently we do,” Stevens said.