Search crews with cadaver dogs wade through communities ‘wiped off the map’ by Helene

SWANNANOA, N.C. — Cadaver dogs and search crews trudged through knee-deep muck and debris in the mountains of western North Carolina on Tuesday looking for more victims of Hurricane Helene days after the storm carved a deadly and destructive path through the Southeast.

Meanwhile, across the border in east Tennessee, a caravan including Gov. Bill Lee that was surveying damage outside the town of Erwin drove by a crew pulling two bodies from the wreckage, a grim reminder that the rescue and recovery operations are still very much ongoing and the death toll — already surpassing 160 — is likely to rise.

The storm, which was one of the deadliest in U.S. history, knocked out power and cellular service in some towns and cities, leaving many people frustrated, hot and increasingly worried days into the ordeal. Some cooked food on charcoal grills or hiked to high ground in the hopes of finding a signal to let loved ones know they are alive.

In Augusta, Ga., Sherry Brown was converting power from the alternator of her car to keep her refrigerator running and taking “bird baths” with water she collected in coolers. In another part of the city, people waited in line more than three hours to try to get water from one of five centers set up to serve more than 200,000 people.

The devastation was especially bad in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where at least 57 people died in and around Asheville, N.C., a tourism haven known for its art galleries, breweries and outdoor activities.

“Communities were wiped off the map,” North Carolina’s governor, Roy Cooper, said at a news conference Tuesday.

In Swannanoa, a small community outside Asheville, receding floodwaters revealed cars stacked on top of others and trailer homes that had floated away during the storm. Roads were caked with mud and debris and pockmarked by sinkholes.

Cliff Stewart survived 2 feet of water that poured into his home, topping the wheels on his wheelchair and sending his medicine bottles floating from room to room. Left without electricity and reliant on food drop-offs from friends, he has refused offers to help him leave.

“Where am I going to go?” the Marine Corps veteran said Tuesday. “This is all I’ve got. I just don’t want to give it up, because what am I going to do? Be homeless? I’d rather die right here than live homeless.”

Exhausted emergency crews worked around the clock to clear roads, restore power and phone service, and reach those still stranded by the storm, which killed at least 166 people in six states, including many who were hit by falling trees or trapped in flooded cars and homes. Nearly half of the deaths were in North Carolina, while dozens of others were in South Carolina and Georgia.

President Joe Biden, who is set to survey the devastation in North and South Carolina today, estimated the recovery could cost billions.

“We have to jump start this recovery process,” he said Tuesday.