In the North Carolina mountains, Sunday arrived clear and cool; however, the bright day only illuminated the vast devastation — and the still-unknown extent of the toll from the storm that tore through here.
The French Broad River still flowed brown and fast and far beyond its banks through downtown Asheville and nearby communities. Major roads remained closed in places, and few people had managed to make it to many of the smaller, winding ones that weave along the valleys and rivers of this region.
These small towns in western North Carolina are bearing the heavy aftermath of deadly Helene, which made landfall hundreds of miles away. On Thursday, Hurricane Helene hit Florida’s Gulf Coast as a Category 4 storm. It then spiraled through numerous states, and within hours, its torrential downpours led to catastrophic flooding.
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