AVERY COUNTY, N.C. — The landscape of Avery County completely changed three weeks after Hurricane Helene hit, and many people in the area are still without power and utilities.
Channel 9′s Dave Faherty learned that getting power crews to the hardest-hit areas of Avery County has been difficult. West of Newland, the bridge over the river is gone, but someone has raised a U.S. flag.
Power crews near Elk Park are working 15-hour days to help people like David Lyons, who is trying to return to his home on Friday.
[ ALSO READ: 14 of 19 polling locations in Avery County unusable after Helene ]
Lyons told Faherty he has been without power for three weeks after the river flooded and knocked his mobile home off its foundation.
“We’ve been staying in the shelter up in Newland. We’ve been staying there for the last three weeks,” Lyons said.
Faherty asked if he’d be able to survive with the cold weather that has swept into the region.
“No, no way,” Lyons said.
Nearby, Erik Engstrom and his wife have been relying on a generator and a wood stove to get by. He showed Faherty video of the buildings swept away on his property during flooding -- on Friday, you could see where houses used to sit along the river and a 53-foot trailer that was washed downstream.
“It was the scariest thing I’ve ever been through in my life,” Engstrom told Faherty. “It just didn’t seem like it was ever gonna stop. It just kept going up and up and up.”
Mountain Electric says the water got so high here that many of the power poles are just gone. They’re having to rebuild much of the system.
[ SEE THE STORY >> Helene aftermath: Inside the urgent search for survivors in Avery County ]
Engstrom said he doesn’t expect to get power for weeks. He’s now out of work, but he explained how he’s getting by.
“I’ve been helping other people around here, really. Everybody has needs and I’ve been landing helicopters out in my field here and getting supplies and bringing them to the distribution centers,” Engstrom said. “Keeping busy takes my mind off everything.”
Some of the neighbors told Faherty they’re also getting assistance from FEMA.
Mountain Electric is asking for patience as they continue to work to get everyone’s power back on.
(VIDEO: Essential services in Avery County destroyed by Helene)
This browser does not support the video element.