It is day #4 in the generally unexpected worst effect impact zone from Hurricane Helene.  The area west of Black Mountain, North Carolina, through the eastern portion of Tennessee is facing a major crisis that continues to unfold.

After three days of almost no communication from the region outside what the private sector and social media could put together, North Carolina governor Roy Cooper finally said, “the catastrophic devastation to western North Carolina is like nothing we have ever seen.”   Damage to roads, bridges, highways and all infrastructure in the impact zone is extreme.  Many areas remain cut-off as the roads and bridges have been destroyed.

Helene’s impacts are severe in parts of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia.  However, the Western Carolina region took the hardest hit as the massive flooding has destroyed towns and literally cut-off the primary access roads and interstates needed to get into the region.

Boone, North Carolina is near many of the worst hit communities and also the headquarters of Franklin Graham’s group Samaritan’s Purse.  The orange shirts that show up in almost all areas of severe national disasters.  Samaritan’s Purse does a phenomenal job of assistance and staged recovery, and this disaster unfolded right in their back yard.

Multiple private sector groups and individuals have rushed to assist as the state and federal government seem incapable of responding due to the region facing a communication blackout.  In addition to the loss of power, cell towers, phone lines, fiber optic cable lines, and satellite receivers in the area have been destroyed.  As a result, it took a long time for groups to realize the significance of the problem.

While aide is needed throughout many areas in the southeast U.S, the red circled impact zone is in the worst shape because access to get vitally needed resources, supplies and aid to them is very limited.  Several communities remain completely cut-off and are accessible only by helicopter.

I-4 eastbound out of Tennessee is closed as the roads have washed out.  I-26 is closed in key areas due to bridge collapses.  The North Carolina Dept. of Transportation continues to say, “all roads in Western NC should be considered closed,” even the big ones.  Rural, small mountain paths and a few state roads are the only way to get assistance into the area.   Thankfully, as we enter day #4, people now realize the scale of the problem.

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This is an unfolding crisis of unfathomable proportions. It’s not just the problem of destruction, and in some cases entire towns gone, but also a problem of reaching them to help. A few videos for context below.

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CTH coordinated communication resources into the area two days ago to join up with Franklin Graham’s group. People have asked for advice on donations. This is a hard question for this crisis because the big industrial type of relief efforts doesn’t seem to be effective yet. The best on-the-ground support is coming from ordinary people, Youtubers, podcasters, storm chasers and small independent groups; just plain boots on the ground folks responding to what is happening. Many links exist in the comment section on prior posts on this effort. God love em’.

For a large organizational support, I would suggest Samaritans Purse. They will stay around long after the media stops caring.

This next video is a great example of what relief workers literally face when trying to reach people.

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I know most people still cannot communicate from inside the impact zone. However, if you are in the area, let us know how you are doing.

…”Greetings Treepers, Just evacuated out of area North of Asheville. Up in Va now. Glad to have some creature comforts and my family and friends are all ok. Here’s what I saw happening:

We have had zero communication for 48 hours. We includes citizens, fire dept, 911, rescue, police, troopers, emts,etc. Zero cell phone or land lines. Apparently viper is the only communication and only one channel was available. I’m not sure what has led to this issue but it the single biggest failure so far. This was confirmed at local fire dept. Finally had intermittent cell service around 11am today

Power is slowly coming on. Local Duke and French Broad co op guys were crushing it. They were heroes. Easy areas are coming online. Hard hit areas where trees or floods took out infrastructure are going to take some time. Duke guys I saw today were first organized crew helping

Water is going to be the huge issue. If you have a well and power you’ll be ok; if you are on municipal services it’s going to be a long haul. So many water infrastructure systems wiped out. It’s great to have electricity, it’s impossible to thrive without clean water. This is a slow rolling disaster getting ready to rear its ugly head and unfortunately the mainstream media won’t cover it because the footage won’t be sensational.

Food wise some stocked up a whole lot of people didn’t. Same with gas. Here’s where it is going to start getting crazy. There’s only one sufficient highway into the Asheville area, I 26w. I didn’t see much rolling into town as we drove out. Unless the Calvary is massing somewhere, there is nowhere near the sufficient resources coming into that area. I hope I’m wrong but it’s setting up a situation where people are going to move into desperation soon.

Glad to reply to any other questions. Local am radio really helped. After about 36 hours they were the lifeline for many of us. My family and I are amateur preppers. We would have done fine with our resources if we had stayed. I was amazed at how many were WAY under prepared. Really sad. Hope to head back in a few days. I’ll post an update if a service is available. (link)