Western North Carolina is reeling from the devastating floods, landslides and storm damage brought by the remnants of Hurricane Helene. The storm has left thousands of people stranded in the mountains and is being blamed for at least 11 deaths across the state, according to the North Carolina medical examiner's office.
Joining WFAE's Marshall Terry is Duncan McFadyen, a former WFAE reporter who is in the mountains.
Marshall Terry: Duncan, where are you exactly? And what are the conditions like there?
Duncan McFadyen: Good morning, Marshall. It's good to talk to you. I'm sorry it's under these circumstances.
Terry: I am too.
McFadyen: I'm in Linville, the Linville area it's a non-incorporated resort area near Grandfather Mountain. That's what most people would know, sort of southeast of Banner Elk and the ski resorts, at a house my parents own and were planning to retire to, but I I'm not sure how feasible that is, right?
Terry: Now, was there damage to the home?
McFadyen: A little water in the basement. We have power back on as of yesterday morning. We are extremely fortunate. That's just by virtue of that we are behind a fire station and the National Guard's stationed there and they got them power. So we were fortunate.
Terry: What about water and food for you and where you are?
McFadyen: My dad got up here in a truck yesterday and brought me the apparatus that I'm speaking to you now through. Otherwise, communications are very, very limited in this area. He also brought some food and water and and people are able to get through to Tennessee. Elizabethton, T.N. apparently was not hit as hard. And some of my neighbors were over there getting supplies as well, so we personally are able to get what we need.
Terry: We'll talk a little bit about communication in just a second. What are roads like where you are?
McFadyen: Roads are very, very bad. For instance, to leave my house and go elsewhere, I have to cross the bridge on foot. That is so badly compromised that we all each took one car over one time and we're parked on the other side of it. The road down to the bridge is partially washed out but passable. Every road that I've been on has some kind of damage, be it water running along the sides that's washed out some of the road or mud slides partially blocking the road. Trees are everywhere. And Marshall, I've lived through every hurricane in Wilmington, N.C., where I'm from since about 1985 is the earliest one I remember, Hurricane Diana. I don't remember anything like this. It's, it's catastrophic.
Terry: Well, now I know, as you mentioned cell phone service is a big problem right now. You're talking to me via Zoom on a Star Link connection. I want to play a bit of audio right now from Stephanie Pate Greer. She is president of Canton Memorial Hospital, not far from you. She said for both Watauga and Avery counties, communication is the biggest challenge.
Greer: In Avery County, the only communication mechanism that is working is our 911 system. So that means that emergency communications, the emergency manager, county manager, EMS, hospital services, local electric companies, cannot communicate with the people coordinating services.
Terry: How long is it going to get to take cell phone service restored? I mean, what are you hearing about that?
McFadyen: The short answer is we don't know. Some is coming back. I've heard from people in Banner Elk that there are certain areas, there's higher ground where people can get service. There's one carrier that has a little bit better service than the big names up here and we were able to get some calls out that way, the hospital itself lost its Wi-Fi communications yesterday all day, and so people were kind of stranded without any way to get further word out.
Terry: What are people doing in the meantime if they need help? If they're not one of the fortunate people who can get service somewhere.
McFadyen: The community is really coming together. I've met people who I didn't even know lived around here. And nobody's at work, everybody's doing what they can to help each other. People ... trucks are going down closed roads to families that live across a small bridge that would have been washed out by a creek who nobody's heard from. Those are the kinds of things that I'm seeing. I'm not seeing anybody being contentious or raising their tempers, and it's really heartwarming to see how people are coming together and just trying to get through.
Terry: What about more official rescue efforts, like from the state? What are you seeing there?
McFadyen: Yeah, as I mentioned earlier, the National Guard is stationed at the fire station just up the street from my house. They also have a position in Newland, the county seat a few miles away. I'll be checking in with them later today. Samaritan's Purse, the charitable organization, has set up tents to help the hospital manage people who are on oxygen, who have run out of oxygen and don't have power to run their oxygen machines. Those are what I've personally seen. I know that other efforts are being brought in as well.
Terry: So you were out talking to folks over the weekend, as you said. Uh, what are some of the things you heard them say?
McFadyen: Well, people are just shocked by what happened. Nobody was prepared, including me, for a storm of this magnitude. I drove up from Asheville Wednesday night in the crazy torrential downpour that was happening then and started to kind of get an idea of how much water this area was going to be dealing with. But nobody had enough supplies to last the amount of time that they're going to need. And I think things are going to, people are concerned that things are going to get more desperate as our access to those supplies is limited.
Terry: Well, what's the number one concern you're hearing?
McFadyen: It's absolutely that people are located and people have food and water and basic necessities. That's really all anybody that I've talked to is concerned about at this point because so many people are still unaccounted for and it's still very difficult to even get word out in a community much less on a broader scale.
Terry: All right, Duncan, thank you so much for taking the time. Please stay safe.
McFadyen: Thank you, Marshall.
