Families pick through debris to piece together their lives after Helene

AccuWeather

Families are picking through the rubble following Helene to see if anything can be saved from destroyed homes. AccuWeather's Bill Wadell reports from North Carolina.

Transcript

00:00A lot of our field crews have been out for several days here telling the

00:03important stories across parts of the southeast. Yeah and families are picking

00:07through the rubble to see if anything can be saved from the destroyed homes.

00:12Anchor there's Bill Waddell is live in Swannanoa, North Carolina. Bill, that town

00:16east of Asheville was hit incredibly hard. Yeah Ari, Bernie, it is just

00:23heartbreaking to see even more devastation around every corner. This

00:26mobile home was just swept away and the walls blown apart and people's cars and

00:31trucks tossed all over the place like toys. You can see this pickup truck left

00:35crushed by the debris and the force of the water. It's a similar situation in a

00:39lot of towns around here including Marshall, North Carolina and that's where

00:42we met Kathy. She tells us she was watching the AccuWeather Now streaming

00:46channel before Helene made landfall and when she heard AccuWeather expert

00:51meteorologists warn of catastrophic risk to lives and property here in the

00:55mountains of the Carolinas she knew that she needed to get ready for an

00:58extreme storm. As preemptive as you all were I think really gave a lot of people

01:05a chance to be as prepared as possible so that's always invaluable. So yeah

01:12we're grateful to you guys and we don't have cable TV so we we have internet and

01:18so the AccuWeather is our national news source. Thank You Bernie, thank you

01:24Bernie for looking out for us. The coverage it was really well done.

01:32Kathy says urgent warnings from AccuWeather convinced her to get

01:36prepared for more than just your typical severe weather. They filled up extra

01:40containers with water and they tell us that they were better prepared and

01:44they're now faring a lot better than some of their neighbors down the road.

01:47Arthur was also watching the AccuWeather Now streaming channel and

01:50says the AccuWeather real impact scale for hurricanes of a four for Helene is

01:55what convinced him to prepare for a storm like he's never seen before.

02:00There's the wind speed scale for the hurricanes one through five and you guys

02:04were like we have a different scale one through five and we're you know it

02:07takes into account these other things besides wind speed, takes into flooding,

02:11takes into account you know monetary damages and I thought that was really a

02:14much more useful metric honestly. I thought that was really good because

02:17that is that's really the danger is not in just the wind speeds. We did have

02:21water and like we planned ahead and you know I think we might not have had

02:25language not been used because we're you know we're just like everybody else

02:28we're complacent you know you're like oh it can't happen here you know like well

02:32it can. It can come to your town too. Anything you want to say to Bernie and

02:35Arthur? Oh yeah thanks so much for all your coverage and I know you guys didn't

02:38didn't sleep nearly enough and we really appreciate everybody working so hard so

02:41yeah thanks so much.

02:44Arthur and Kathy just want to say thank you not just you guys Bernie and Ari but

02:50our entire team of more than 100 expert meteorologists at the AccuWeather Global

02:54Weather Center for putting out these warnings, for putting out these alerts

02:58and for using the language and words that we rarely use, catastrophic impacts.

03:02They tell us they were better prepared for the storm and now like so many other

03:06people they are now dealing with this heartbreaking mess and devastation. Bill

03:11I'm speechless. Bill you know what I've been doing this for 34 years I'm going

03:15to try not to. Please tell them that they've given me the highlight of my

03:21career and we're sorry it happened but we're so thankful that we were able to

03:27give them the warning and of course it's not just me and Ari, it's our team

03:30behind us and the AccuWeather forecast and our process that came up with the

03:36AccuWeather forecast but again our hearts and our prayers are with them

03:40please tell them that from us personally Ari anything you want to say? No you said it all

03:45we're just happy to see them standing and alive and well and there's a lot of

03:49cleanup ahead but they do seem to be a bright light Bill. We appreciate you

03:52telling those stories and everything that you're doing out there in North

03:55Carolina.

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