Last Friday, just before dawn, when the hurricane hit Helen falling on the mountains, the water rose “up there, up to the mailbox,” pointed out Shelby Holzhauser from the steps of her small white house, located above the river.
For several days, it was by walking through the rubble, on the other side of this bridge and river that swept away everything in its path, that she went to get water and food with a bag back “There’s no water, no electricity,” she said Thursday, with her son Carter, 4, clinging to her feet.
Before his eyes, on this bridge in the town of Swannanoa and like everywhere in the mountains of North Carolina (southeast), dozens of workers work to repair the broken roads, burst pipes and power lines torn by the hurricane, which left death to repair. and destruction after it.
“We are high up, we thought we were going to be safe, but [l’eau] I came so close that I took my son, we left the house, I was afraid that we would get involved,” says this 23-year-old kindergarten teacher.
In all, at least 201 people were killed by the hurricane Helen, from Florida south to those mountains in North Carolina, including 61 in the county including Swannanoa and the nearby city of Asheville, flew over Wednesday by the president of America, Joe Biden.
Helen thus the second deadliest hurricane to hit the United States in more than fifty years, after Katrina in 2005. Scientists have linked its intensity to the warming of the oceans caused by climate change.
If on Thursday morning, almost a week after those devastating floods, the weather was beautiful and the carcasses and debris of all kinds were cleared from the main roads, life is not far from returning to normal.
To flush the toilet, Shelby has to go fill a big bucket at the river. As she speaks, her husband connects the generator that his employer provided, allowing them to cook. A little later, a few men run a center with basic needs under the roof of a disused gas station.
“Everybody helps each other, sticks together,” said Shelby proudly, dressed in a small red t-shirt and leather boots.
“Great” help.
Usually, “work, work, work, that’s all you can do for a living, work to have money and pay your bills,” says the woman who has always living in this region in the south of the Massif des Appalachia. “But since the accident, I’ve grown closer to my neighbours. They came down to check on us, make sure we had what we needed. »
In the parking lot of a closed fast food restaurant, veterinarians offer free emergency care to pets. Audrey Pace, a veterinary clinic technician, came to lend a hand.
“It’s very difficult right now,” she said. In all this devastation, “pets are an unconditional support for people,” she said, just before going to greet a car that arrives with a dog in the passenger seat.
In the field next door, helicopters land one after the other with a deafening noise.
A little further away, an area with mobile homes as residences, typical of poor rural areas in the United States, was completely swept away, homes moved, their windows broken. From one coming out through the torn partition is a red Christmas garland and a child’s clothes with the “Star Wars” logo. There is no one left.
President Biden sent 1,000 more troops to help rebuild, after being criticized by Donald Trump for alleged delays in federal aid.
In Swannanoa, the help was “good,” says Shelby Holzhauser without hesitation. 20 meters from his house, new water pipes are being installed, while a backhoe is fixing a broken road.
The teacher, who looks at this army of technicians, has no displeasure: “It will take a while before we get over it. »
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2024-10-03 20:41:03
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