The Road to Recovery in Western North Carolina

In the late hours of Thursday, September 26, Hurricane Helene made landfall at Keaton Beach (FL). On Friday, downgraded to a tropical storm, Helene made its way up the east coast, leaving a path of destruction through Georgia and the Carolinas. Particularly hard hit was Western North Carolina, with entire towns submerged underwater, and mountain communities turned into islands. In the days that followed, as images of the devastation slowly came out and folks desperately tried to contact their loved ones, residents were hampered by telecommunications outages throughout the disaster area. On September 28, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reported that nearly 75 percent of cell sites in North Carolina’s disaster area were out of service, leaving much of the region without communications services. Nearly three weeks after the storm, communities have banded together to aid in recovery efforts. However, the mountains are, in general, rural and sparsely populated, making it difficult to get food, water, and other supplies to residents in need. This is compounded by the destruction of large chunks of roads, hampering transportation and efforts to repair damaged telecommunications, water, and electric infrastructure.