(NewsNation) — The devastation is easy enough to see from the ground, but taking a bird’s-eye view hammers home the challenges that people in Asheville, North Carolina, face after Hurricane Helene.
NewsNation took an exclusive ride with the United Cajun Navy. Later Wednesday, President Joe Biden will get an aerial tour of the same scene.
Supply run
Pilot Sam Slate has been dropping off water, diapers and food for people who are cut off because of mudslides that wiped out entire roads.
“Oddly enough, I was just here in the summer time in this area and it was very beautiful,” Slate said.
Multiple power lines are still offline, making it difficult to communicate. The helicopter pilots are using old-school radio to keep in touch in the air. They’re taking off from and landing on once-ordinary community locations like elementary school playgrounds.
“You go five minutes down the road and neighbors that you grew up with are gone,” said Lisa Baunack, who was there to receive some of the supplies Slate was moving. “This is the first shipments that we’ve been able to get here in the neighborhood.”
Community impact
So far, more than 160 people have been confirmed dead in Helene’s wake, and 57 of them are from the Asheville area. But the number may yet rise as crews work through impassable roads to find the scores still missing.
Baunack says she knows some of them.
“I don’t know when we’re just gonna get back to normal, but I’m thankful that we’re OK, that our family’s here together,” she told NewsNation.
For now, the supply runs will continue.
“People don’t understand this is not a normal flood,” said Sky Barkley, who directs the Cajun Navy’s efforts in North Carolina. “You’re talking about a mass of water that moved sand, mud and wiped whole homes out.”
