Months after Helene, survivors face bleak conditions in western North Carolina

AccuWeather

Donations have poured in from across the country for Hurricane Helene survivors in the Appalachians, but the people most in need still don't have homes to store any of those supplies.

Transcript

00:00Safely tucked underneath that blue tarp is Jennifer Grant's entire world.

00:05Her three dogs and two cats are warm inside, protected from bitter cold

00:10temperatures and a biting wind as Jennifer gets ready to spend another

00:14night sleeping in her car after Helene destroyed the only home she knew.

00:18There's days that I cry, but I try to stay even more happy. There's people that watch

00:22their parents and their nephew leave, you know, in the river and they died, you

00:26know, like I didn't have any of that. Jennifer lived in Beacon Village, a

00:30historic neighborhood in Swannanoa, North Carolina, that has been literally wiped

00:34off the map. Driving into Swannanoa, it's hard to find much progress along the

00:39main road that now defines what a hurricane-ravaged town looks like in the

00:44Blue Ridge Mountains. Nearly three months later, almost everything is still buried

00:48in mud. There were nearly 75 homes in this community alone. Now, less than a

00:54dozen still stand, but are completely uninhabitable. Volunteers are still

00:59donating their time in this part of western North Carolina, but those numbers

01:02are starting to dwindle as time marches on. There are supplies from all over

01:07North Carolina, South Carolina, and all across the country. They're stacked up in

01:12these tents, but the people that need them don't have any homes to put them in.

01:16I do know people who have died and people who have pretty much lost

01:20everything. People that need things are people that need their houses rebuilt

01:23so far. New construction is almost unheard of in these parts of Swannanoa.

01:28People come from Tennessee, Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia, people coming

01:32from everywhere just bringing blankets and trying to help. Jennifer's home rests

01:36on four good tires and the goodwill of total strangers. Her resiliency and

01:41determination, a bright silver lining. In a dark cloud, she's had to weather since

01:47Helene came to town. For AccuWeather, I'm Leslie Hudson reporting.

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