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Report
Rising from ruin: survival and strength after Helene
AccuWeather
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10/6/2024
Cleanup efforts are underway in the Asheville area where Hurricane Helene left devastation in its wake. Communities like Swannanoa are coming together to share stories of survival and resilience.
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News
Transcript
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00:00
It's been days since Hurricane Helene
00:02
ripped through Western North Carolina,
00:03
but the pain and destruction here
00:05
are certainly far from over.
00:07
Neighborhoods have been left in ruins,
00:09
families displaced,
00:10
and for many the horrors of those
00:12
floodwaters is still fresh.
00:14
All you could see is their chimneys.
00:16
And it happened within like 30 minutes.
00:19
It was like the water was rising and then.
00:22
And then by the time we were able
00:25
to get the kayaks and stuff,
00:27
it was already up to their their gutters
00:29
and then up to their chimneys.
00:31
Kimberly Sam says they're small,
00:33
but mighty town of Swannanoa wasn't
00:35
waiting for help to arrive.
00:36
Neighbors scrambled racing against
00:38
rising water to save people from
00:40
certain death when the first lady
00:41
he saved was like a 80 year old
00:44
lady and she was hanging on to a
00:46
light pole and he ended up having
00:48
a tire to the back of his kayak
00:50
and he brought her up.
00:51
We had to like drag her over a fence
00:54
and he was going over power lines,
00:56
fences, 17 people,
00:57
two children and even pets were
00:59
rescued, but the aftermath is brutal.
01:01
Homes destroyed, lives turned upside down.
01:03
It came in minutes and stayed for hours.
01:05
One family had just finished
01:07
renovating their home after it had
01:09
been in the family for generations.
01:11
Now faced with wreckage,
01:13
my parents bought the house from
01:15
my grandparents in the 70s and we
01:17
just bought it from my mom two years
01:20
ago and just finished renovations.
01:22
It was beautiful inside in nearby
01:25
Old Fort. Residents are still
01:27
stepping in where aid is falling short,
01:29
handing out meals, water,
01:31
baby supplies, anything to help
01:33
neighbors who lost everything.
01:34
People started donating everything
01:36
out of their refrigerators.
01:37
Because they knew that they
01:39
couldn't keep it going.
01:41
But why not feed the community
01:43
rather than, you know,
01:44
just throw it away?
01:45
The destruction is undeniable,
01:47
but so is the community spirit.
01:49
Neighbors who never spoke before
01:51
now consider each other family.
01:52
Like we've never hung out,
01:54
but now we've been hanging out.
01:57
Yeah, yeah, we hang out every day
01:59
like a family now. Yeah, we were.
02:03
They've weathered the storm,
02:04
but for many the real fight
02:06
rebuilding has just begun.
02:08
For Accuweather, I'm Allie Reed.
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