Essential services in Avery County destroyed by Helene

AVERY COUNTY, N.C. — Hurricane Helene’s death toll reached 200 after Georgia and North Carolina reported more fatalities. It’s the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland United States since Hurricane Katrina.

Helene devasted essential services in western Avery County, where crews are still searching for people one week later.

In the Green Valley community along the Toe River, residents said the water rose 15 to 20 feet, sweeping homes off their foundations and cars downstream.

Channel 9′s Dave Faherty traveled along Highway 19E from Green Valley through Plumtree on Thursday morning.

In western Avery County, roads have been washed away. A mudslide there caused a truck to slide down a hillside. The high water even left vehicles up against a church near Plumtree.

YMCA CEO Trey Oakley showed Faherty homes that used to sit along the Toe River.

“There’s people we can’t find. There’s resources we’re trying to utilize to really, just, find the unaccounted for in the community,” he said. “We’re not getting wounded people coming to the hospital. We’re getting people who can’t be helped anymore.”

At Spear Country Store along Highway 19E, crews were distributing gasoline, food, and water to residents. They’re using four-wheelers to get donated generators to the homes of the elderly.

“What do you want folks in Charlotte to know?” Faherty asked Erin Buchanan, the store owner.

“We are just so grateful for everything. Everything that everyone has sent,” she said.

Just down the road, the flooding damaged the post office in Plumtree, destroying much of what was inside. On Thursday, the brick building’s insulation was left exposed. The glass door was shattered and mud covered what was once the parking lot.

Along Roaring Creek, Faherty spotted police from as far away as Nashville doing welfare checks at homes no longer reachable by car.

With classes canceled, two students from an Appalachian State University fraternity took supplies west to Bakersfield to help people there.

“Most of them do not have power and won’t for weeks,” Scott Council said. “We just want to do anything and everything to help them out.”

Faherty also saw volunteers showing up from as far away as Missouri and Texas.

Power crews in western Avery County are also hard at work trying to get the lights back on.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

(WATCH BELOW: ‘We just want her back home’: Inside the urgent search for survivors in Avery County)

‘We just want her back home’: Inside the urgent search for survivors in Avery County

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