As Western North Carolina continues to dig out from Hurricane Helene, more than 5,700 people have already applied for FEMA individual assistance and more than $1 million is being dispersed to them. This comes in a briefing from Gov. Roy Cooper on Tuesday during which he called the Helene disaster “heartbreaking.” The death toll for Helene across impacted states is at least 140 lives lost, 36 of which are from North Carolina.

“I want to remind all North Carolina that conditions on the ground remain extremely dangerous,” said director of NC Emergency Management, Will Ray. “Roadways are damaged. Buildings are damaged or destroyed. There are downed power lines and unstable ground, with the risk for landslides continuing. We need to keep both ground routes and airspace free for first responders and public safety to work unimpeded to provide services and restoration.”

The unforgiving terrain of Western North Carolina, when roads are washed away, has proven challenging to get water and supplies to those who need them. Helicopters, and even mules, are being used to transport supplies like insulin.

roads and communication

The state government is working with the United Way in a 211 telephone system for non-emergency help or to request welfare checks, and the Red Cross has established a family reunification system for impacted states.  Western North Carolina’s own Samaritan’s Purse is setting up mobile medical centers around the area.

As of Tuesday, the NC Department of Transportation reports 425 road closures and more than 700 damage sites in Western North Carolina, but believes that number will climb as the full extent of the damage is assessed. I40 coming from Tennessee is closed at mile marker three.

“We are working day and night to remove debris and trees from the roadways,” said Joey Hopkins, of the NCDOT.

“Westbound I40 near Old Fort has re-opened and we are hoping to reopen westbound in that same area later today,” Hopkins added. “I26 is open throughout the state of North Carolina, and 421 is open to Boone and even past Boone, toward the Tennessee line, however we have I40 closed at the Tennessee line to mil marker 3 and it will be for some time.”

Technicians are also working to get cell service up and running. Jumping in to help out, Starlink, the satellite internet service run by Elon Musk, has donated 30 systems to the region to get cell service operating.

nc national guard

Multiple states have activated help in flight and ground operations in rescue and distributing supplies. Among the NC National Guard, 800 guardsman 275 vehicles are on duty Tuesday. On Monday, the national guard delivered almost 200,000 pounds of food and commodities out of the Asheville Regional Airport.

“Our guardsman have pushed further into the western part of the state and by this afternoon we should have guardsman in every affected county, along with a liaison officer in each county to help with communications, commodity distribution, and getting a sense of what’s going on because some of the lines of communication have been broken,” reported Major General Todd Hunt, Adjutant General of the North Carolina National Guard.

North Ridge Country Club Relief Efforts
North Ridge Country Club Relief Efforts Source: Jacob Emmons, Carolina Journal

cooper white house briefing

In a briefing earlier on Tuesday, Cooper updated President Joe Biden on the logistical needs in the Helene recovery. Biden announced that he would visit North Carolina on Wednesday, landing in Raleigh for a briefing, and then taking an aerial tour of Asheville devastation. He took questions from media, but also accused former President Donald Trump of “lying” in comments made that the federal government was not doing enough to help victims of Helene.

“In retrospect, do you wish that you’d put more resources in North Carolina and spent the weekend here, instead of in Delaware,” asked a reporter.

“Come on, quit with the games, will ya? Delaware, its ninety miles from here, OK? And I was on the phone the whole time, working on that,” replied Biden,”This is a list of all the resources we are getting there, but the question is how to get it in. It’s hard to get it from point A to Point B. Roads are wiped out. Communities are wiped out. There’s no ability to land. There’s no ability to get trucks through. Theres no ability to get a whole range of things through. Anyway, if I sound frustrated, I am.”

Cooper advised the White House that the lack of cell and other communications has required door-to-door welfare checks on people to make sure they are accounted for.

“We know there will be more deaths because this was an unprecedented storm that people in Western North Carolina had never seen before,” Cooper told Biden.

“Here’s the point, I’m going to be asking the American people to continue to fund the needs of these people,” said Biden. “Its not going to be one hit and its over, it’s going to take a hell of a long time and its going to cost a hell of a lot of money.”

operation blue ridge

In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that the Helene recovery focus should be on North Carolina, not Florida. DeSantis has launched Operation Blue Ridge to help out in North Carolina and Tennessee.

“I think most of the effort should be in Western North Carolina right now,” said DeSantis. “The federal government should focus on that. We’re running rescue flights, we are happy to do it, but the federal government has more assets than the state of Florida, so there should not be anybody left behind in those communities.”

“Look, if we can bring people back from Israel by the hundreds when Hamas is raining rockets down, we should be able to get some helos in the Blue Ridge mountains, and get people out of there,” DeSantis added.

According to Duke Energy’s power outage map, more than 300,000 people in WNC remain without power.