North Carolina communities in dire need of volunteers a month after Hurricane Helene

AccuWeather

In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, donations have poured into the mountain towns of western North Carolina, but people on the ground say they're lacking enough volunteers to tackle the sheer magnitude of destruction.

Transcript

00:00Our top story takes us into the southeast where relief efforts continue weeks after Halim's

00:04devastating impacts. Storm chaser Aaron Rigsby joins us live right now from Burnsville, North

00:09Carolina. Aaron, you've been in the region all week. What has stood out to you the most as these

00:14recovery efforts continue? Yeah, good morning guys. Well, there's several things that stand

00:20out. You know, it just goes to show that just because the storm has come and gone doesn't mean

00:25that those impacts just go away. I mean, we're almost a month into this and there are still

00:30folks that have their roads washed out that are just now starting to get power restored.

00:36And if it's one thing that we've learned through all these disasters, though, is how strong these

00:40communities can be and how bonded they are together. I've gotten introduced to so many

00:44wonderful folks down here, hearing their stories of survival, hearing about them getting back up

00:49off their feet. But, you know, and on the flip side of that, though, there are some that aren't

00:53as fortunate. We still have some living out of tent camps and those lingering effects are going

00:57to be something that the folks of not just North Carolina, but Tennessee, Virginia, Georgia and

01:01Florida are going to be dealing with for weeks and months to come from this storm. Aaron, I was

01:06asking you earlier what stuck out to you the most that people elsewhere in the country may not fully

01:12understand. I know a lot of people are watching these stories, reading the articles and so forth,

01:17but what is the biggest thing that probably has changed your perspective being there,

01:21as opposed to if you were just reading about it from afar?

01:26I think the biggest thing is just how widespread everything is. I think when people think of a

01:32flash flood or a river flood, they think of one specific area that's been hit really hard,

01:37and that's not the case. It is just the sheer magnitude of the event that Helene left behind

01:43through all of these different states and the lingering effects it's going to have and potential

01:46wildfire dangers and mudslides for months to come. It's just something that I really can't put

01:52into perspective. It's something that is just going to have to be captured through these images,

01:56and that's why it's so important to be here so many days and weeks after the event and capturing

02:02these images, because the more access we get, the more scale of the storm we can bring to light and

02:07show people the magnitude of what the folks are dealing with from Hurricane Helene. All right,

02:13Aaron, so looking forward, what are something that either the residents, first responders,

02:18or volunteers, any of those helping with the recovery efforts,

02:22what have they stressed that they still need going forward?

02:27So the biggest need right now, there's been a bit of a backlog with the food, water, and

02:31clothing donations and the slow process it's taking to get them up into the mountain communities,

02:36but one thing that multiple residents have told me is they are looking for volunteers

02:40to help strip a lot of that wet insulation from those flooded homes that are still standing,

02:46but they're dealing with a mold issue as the sun comes up, heats it up, and all of that is still

02:50wet. There's a lot of elderly folks through here, so they're looking for volunteers along the

02:54recovery efforts there, because that's what they're in dire need of right now, because a lot of the

02:59elderly residents here, they can't do that by themselves, and it's a very lengthy and expensive

03:03process to rip down a lot of that drywall and help the cleanup process, so that's going to be the next

03:08big step for the folks along the Appalachian Mountains. All right, thank you so much for that

03:13update. Aaron Rigsby joining us live right now from Burnsville, North Carolina. Aaron, have a

03:17good weekend. We'll check in with you here coming up. In the meantime, we're going to be watching

03:21the rest of the southeast forecast here for us, and overall here for today, you saw that shot with

03:26Aaron. Blue skies behind him. It's been mostly clear here this entire week, and in fact, it's

03:31pretty much clear since the hurricane moved through. We've been seeing high pressure just

03:36dominating the forecast, and that was once again the case here for today. Temperature-wise, today

03:41was the warmest day we've seen since the hurricanes made their way through. Some areas climbed into

03:45the 90s.

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