ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Isolated and without electricity or phone service since Hurricane Helene inflicted devastation across the Southeast nearly a week ago, residents in the mountains of western North Carolina are relying on old-fashioned ways of communicating.
At the town square in Black Mountain, local leaders stood atop a picnic table shouting updates about when power might be restored. Alongside a fencerow, a makeshift message board listed the names of people still missing. And mules delivered medical supplies to mountaintop homes.
While government cargo planes brought food and water into the hardest-hit areas Wednesday and rescue crews waded through creeks searching for survivors, those who made it through the storm, whose death toll has reached 179, leaned on one another — not technology. "We have no water; we have no power; but I think it's also been humbling," Anna Ramsey said as she and her two children carried water in plastic bags from a distribution site in Asheville. "It's been humbling .
.. what we need to do for ourselves.
" Fallen trees left her family stranded for several days, so they've bailed water from a creek in their backyard to flush toilets and cooked on a propane grill. President Joe Biden was set to take in a view of the devastation while flying over North and South Carolina on Wednesday and announced the Defense Department will send 1,000 active-duty soldiers to help distribute food, water and supplies. In remote mountain areas, helicopters hois.