Nearly a month after the remnants of Hurricane Helene ravaged western North Carolina, running water has now been restored to most of the region around Asheville — but you can’t drink it yet.

What comes out of the tap is often yellow or brown, and while it can be used to flush toilets and take showers, it is still unsafe for human consumption. Officials have given no indication of when the water will be safe to drink again, and the reservoir that feeds the system still looks like it is filled with chocolate milk rather than pristine water.

Obtaining clean water remains a daily concern for many residents, who head to disaster relief sites to bathe, do their laundry and pick up bottles of drinking water. Large canisters stocked with well water dot some neighborhoods. Many restaurants and breweries that lack a clean water source remain closed.

“It’s the new normal, going around to find places to do everyday stuff,” said Lisa Nowell of Swannanoa, N.C., after she did laundry with her daughter at a disaster relief site. “It has changed life so instantly.”

Though the lack of clean drinking water remains a challenge, many residents said they understood the headwinds that officials were facing in trying to claw their way back from what Gov. Roy Cooper has called “the deadliest and most damaging storm ever to hit North Carolina.”