MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
In western North Carolina, flooding prompted by Hurricane Helene has left hundreds stranded, particularly in the state's rural, mountainous regions.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The extent of the damage is still becoming clear. Yesterday, Governor Roy Cooper described it as, quote, "widespread and catastrophic." Authorities have already found 30 bodies in just one county.
MARTIN: We're going to get an update now from Asheville, one of the hardest hit areas in North Carolina. Reporter Gerard Albert III of Blue Ridge Public Radio is with us now. Good morning.
GERARD ALBERT III, BYLINE: Good morning.
MARTIN: Can you just give us a snapshot of what happened in North Carolina and where things stand now?
ALBERT: Of course. You know, this part of western North Carolina is mountainous. There's lots of streams and rivers. And before Helene even made landfall, it had been raining here heavily in the days before. In fact, it was historic rainfall for the area, and then tropical storm Helene hit. You know, the ground was already saturated from that rain before. And then some areas here got at least 2 feet of rain.
That's when the flooding roared into cities and small towns, and mudslides crashed onto the roads and washed some of them out completely. And now here we are days later, and some communities are still cut off. It's hard for rescue teams to get into some places still. Tens of thousands of people are without power. There's no cell service in most of the region, and most places still don't have safe drinking water. The city of Asheville doesn't even have running water. It's a mess.
MARTIN: We're glad we were able to reach you because you were actually trapped yourself for most of the weekend. I understand you were south of Asheville. What happened and what did you find there?
ALBERT: Yeah, I was in Brevard. It's a big tourist destination in Transylvania County. While I was there doing some reporting, the rain kept coming and coming. Got at least 17 inches in that area and probably more. And I ended up getting trapped there for a couple of days because the roads between Brevard and Asheville were flooded. I spoke with one man. He's a migrant farm worker, and he's in the U.S. on a work visa. He didn't want to give us his name because he fears deportation. The road to where he lives was totally wiped out by a creek, and here's what he had to say.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Spanish).
ALBERT: So as he explained to me, he lives with his brother's family. They said they laid asphalt and logs to close the gap so that people could bring supplies in and out to where they live. I also spoke with Alex Globeck (ph), who lives in the same neighborhood. She talked about how urgently they were told to evacuate as the flooding began.
ALEX GLOBECK: Fire department came through on this lower loop and were evacuating us first and the next-door neighbor, just letting us know if we needed to leave, we need to do it now. We took about 15 minutes. I have two cats. I grabbed them and a toothbrush, and that's all I grabbed.
MARTIN: OK, Gerard, the severe weather, the potential for flooding was actually pretty well-forecast days in advance, not to blame people, but why were so many people caught off guard?
ALBERT: I think it's a mix of things. Part of it is the self-reliant culture of south Appalachia. And, you know, even Sunday before this all happened, local and state officials have been a bit on the defensive about their response, getting supplies to areas that need them. But residents are pretty frustrated that there's no timeline of when outside help and supplies will get here.
MARTIN: I understand that it also hadn't flooded that high before. So that's Gerard Albert III of Blue Ridge Public Radio in Asheville, N.C. Gerard, thank you so much.
ALBERT: Thank you.
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