Feeling Helene's wrath, former Long Islanders in N.C. struggle in hurricane's aftermath

The widespread devastation Hurricane Helene wreaked across Sharon Cantor-Fahrer's Asheville, North Carolina, community is unlike anything the former Long Islander has ever witnessed.

Scores of residents died in a catastrophic flood. Entire swaths of neighborhoods in the Tar Heel State's largest mountain city were annihilated by floodwaters, including thousands of homes and businesses.

Much of the region on Tuesday is still without power, cell phone or internet service and people have little access to gasoline or groceries days after the storm made landfall in the area Friday.

"It's a catastrophic occurrence," said Cantor-Fahrer, who grew up in Bay Shore and lived in Syosset before moving to the city's neighborhood of West Asheville, in North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains, 28 years ago. "It's a 1-in-1,000-year flood. And we won't really know the whole devastation until the river goes down."

The Federal Emergency Management Agency reported Tuesday it had delivered roughly 1 million liters of water and more than 600,000 meals to North Carolina residents.

Cantor-Fahrer, 75, who operates walking tours of Asheville, is one of the lucky ones. She said Monday her home still was intact and unlike most of her neighbors, she had electric power and also had cell service restored already.

But Cantor-Fahrer had been without running water since Friday and was using 65-gallon rain barrels to wash dishes and flush the toilet. Water pipes, she said, are broken across the city but utility workers are unable to repair them because most of the infrastructure is still under water.

"They've just now begun to distribute bottled water," she said. "The highways were closed in three directions so it was difficult for the supplies to even get in here …There are tons of trees down. There's landslides and road collapses."

By Tuesday morning, the death toll from Helene, one of the worst storms in U.S. history, stood at a total of at least 130 lives lost in six Southeastern states. The physical damage stretches from the Gulf Coast of Florida to Virginia's Appalachian Mountains.  

North Carolina appears to have suffered some of the most extensive impact, including at least 56 deaths, although those numbers are expected to rise in the coming days, according to state officials.

Buncombe County, home to Asheville, a popular tourist mountain town, accounted for at least 40 deaths, county manager Avril Pinder said in a news conference Monday evening. 

In total, more than 370,000 customers were without power across North Carolina on Tuesday, including more than 82,000 in Buncombe County, according to PowerOutage.us. 

President Joe Biden is planning to travel to North Carolina on Wednesday, according to the White House. North Carolina officials said he was expected to fly over Asheville as limited highway access would make traveling with his motorcade a logistical challenge.

Kara Ryan, 39, of Lynbrook, said Monday she hadn't spoken with her parents in Burnsville, North Carolina — located about 40 minutes north of Asheville and southeast of the Tennessee border — since Friday when her mom said the lights were flickering and their basement was taking on water.

Ryan finally saw a Facebook post Sunday evening that her parents, Bruce and Maryann Montreuil, 66 and 61, respectively, were safe.

“All I’ve heard is that they’re safe and OK,” said Ryan, who had been contemplating driving to her parents but was deterred by road closures near the state line. “I am a shell of a person. There is nothing I can do right now. The roads are treacherous, and I can’t go down there.”

The family weathered Superstorm Sandy in New York in 2012, but Ryan said images of the damage she's seen in North Carolina look more like New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Most of Burnsville, she said, has been cut off from supplies. With cell phone service gone, many residents have gathered near the town square to send messages via wifi to a Facebook group — Burnsville Hub — which is disseminating information. One grocery store is serving customers, but only accepting cash, and the pumps at several gas stations have run dry, Ryan said.

Her parents moved to North Carolina about nine years ago after spending their lives in Queens. They're planning to remain in their home and sprawling property with their 6 dogs, 7 cats, sheep, goats, chickens, quails and a rabbit. 

“They left Queens for the farm life dream," Ryan said. "This whole area is never going to be the same. They have no power, cell service, 911 or water. People don’t have cash. There’s no gas. It’s terrible.”

Pat Mattia of Bethpage, 61, faced similar anxieties while waiting desperately for news about her sister, Donna Rogan, 59, who lives by herself in a trailer park in Asheville. The siblings grew up in Amityville.

On Monday, Mattia said she finally received word from a friend of her sister that Rogan, who suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, was safe although without electric power or cell service.

"I'm very relieved that she's fine and that she's not injured. Her trailer is still livable," Mattia said of her sister, who moved to the region 40 years ago. "But, I'm just worried for the lack of rations and of water. It's very scary. I don't think people realize how bad it is down there. It's biblical down there. You can't even imagine."

With The Associated Press