Helene aftermath: Inside the urgent search for survivors in Avery County

HEATON, N.C. — Avery County is one of the spots in our area where Helene hit the hardest. Channel 9 was with rescue crews Tuesday as they searched for survivors.

By Wednesday evening, the death toll from Hurricane Helene rose to more than 170 people. It struck Florida late last week and then plowed through the Southeast as one of the deadliest storms in U.S. history.

Closer to home, part of Avery County nearly washed away. Rowan County Sheriff’s Office rescue teams got an up-close look at the destruction on Tuesday. Channel 9′s Hannah Goetz got to follow along with them.

“Oh my God look at that,” a rescuer showed her, and then, “You can see how easy it is for a house to get swept off its foundation and go.”

A mountain community destroyed

Deep in the mountains of western North Carolina, Avery County sits in ruins.

“We are going back over into another road that’s been washed out,” the rescue team told Goetz.

Tucked away in the hollows and hills, some of our area’s most rural communities are now stranded by the devastation.

“Don’t know that there’s words for this,” crews said.

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Helene aftermath Avery County is one of the spots in our area where Helene hit the hardest. Channel 9's Hannah Goetz was with rescue crews Tuesday as they searched rural areas for survivors.

The day searching for a missing schoolteacher started hours earlier with a briefing at the Avery County Emergency Operations Center.

“The flow yesterday on the river, what was the flow like?” asked a member of the Cary Swiftwater Rescue Team.

“Strong,” said someone from Rowan County’s team. “It was strong. There were places where there were white caps.”

Because the only way into the rural Elk River community was washed away, the Cary agency assisted Rowan County with getting there.

“We are going to act as y’all’s safety, right? If somebody gets in the water, we will have folks ready to get in the water to come after you,” Cary crews said.

In the Heaton community, Goetz and the rescue crews could see absolute wreckage. Crews started getting to work on some of the cleanup. They used excavators and other heavy machinery to dig up the roads, pushing the rocks off the side so people could start to get in and out.

Goetz went with the rescue teams to head up the mountain to look for the teacher. She had been missing for a few days.

“We are holding on for dear life,” one crewmember said as they navigated the difficult terrain.

They drove up the mountain with Rowan County Sheriff Travis Allen, maneuvering their way through the crumbling roads. In some parts, rescuers had to use a chainsaw to cut their path.

Once they got to the top of the mountain, Goetz and the rescue teams switched to all-terrain vehicles to go down the other side, passing whatever and whoever was left after Helene. Even the animals were looking for dry ground.

‘We just want her back home’

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

“The last couple days, that what this is, these operations have turned from rescue to recovery,” Sheriff Allen said.

Those difficult truths were beginning to set in days after the original flood.

“It’s sad and unfortunate that some of these people may never be found,” Allen said.

But the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue Team is not giving up on their search for missing teacher Kim Ashby.

“We hope she is OK. We know she’s scared, we just want her back home,” her daughter said.

She said Ashby and her husband, Rod, went to their riverside home Thursday to collect items. But the floodwater quickly came Friday and before they could get out, the water picked the home up and carried it down the river. All that’s left of the house now is rubble.

Neighbors said they saw the couple holding on to the roof as the home floated down the river, rounding bends before it hit something and broke apart. Rod was found the next day 2 miles away. Kim hasn’t been seen since.

As Goetz drove with crews along the river, she got a sense of just how far the house traveled before crashing. At that final site, crews found downed lines and a trailer 20 feet up in the trees. That’s where the search started.

‘Lost a lot but we’re very fortunate’

Helene left everything that families once had surrounded by destruction. Yet somehow, those who are left, like Buddy Davis, aren’t losing hope.

“It ain’t been no party, I tell you that,” Davis said. “We just have to take it as it comes.”

“Oh, it hurts you. Yeah, it hurts the whole community.”

Cary Swift Water Rescue crews took Goetz and the Rowan County team across the river to start their search. On the other side was a family now cut off from society. They’re surviving off the food, water, and diapers that Avery County deputies brought them the day before.

“We’ve lost a lot, but we’re very fortunate. [Many have] lost a lot more than what we have,” Steven Leininger said.

Leininger’s positive outlook comes in part from his 2-year-old granddaughter, a ray of light named Sunshine.

“You get a little depressed or something, she does something silly and makes you laugh,” he said.

Sunshine gave a message to her dad on the other side of the bridge, telling him she was safe.

“Hey daddy,” she said.

The search

The journey to look for Ashby started with a 5-mile hike along a dirt road. Deputies searched through mangled debris created when Helene’s force dumped water on the community, leaving it unrecognizable.

The debris in the tree lines shows just how high the floodwater rose.

Cpl. Travis James pointed out to a pile of rubble across the water with a wooden casket on top.

The wood line grew thicker as Goetz and the crews searched over and under brush, pushing farther and farther into the trees. At times, they even crawled on the forest floor.

Goetz followed the rescue team and Photojournalist Devan Mello followed her until they got closer to an area that hadn’t been searched. They were hoping to see a red shirt, the last thing Kim Ashby was seen wearing.

But after hours of searching, the terrain became too dangerous and unstable. They had to end the search without any sign of Ashby.

“It’s heartbreaking for the family. I know they want closure,” James said. “I know they want to find something. And just not being able to find something and give them, I would say is what hurt. Like, it hurts.”

The family and their community are left waiting for answers.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

VIDEO: Helene aftermath: Inside the urgent search for survivors in Avery County

Helene aftermath: Inside the urgent search for survivors in Avery County

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