During 12 years as a National Guard member in New York, Tom Ford worked on relief missions to hurricane-hit communities, including when Sandy pummeled the New York area in 2012.
But he’s never seen anything as bad as the impact of Hurricane Helene on his rural Appalachian community here in western North Carolina.
On Monday, Mr. Ford stood in an empty parking lot in Hendersonville, the county seat, where he came to meet his father-in-law, Matt Karkos. Mr. Karkos had no power or water at his house, on which a tree had fallen, and many roads were impassable. He had decided to drive to South Carolina to stay with his brother. Mr. Ford had brought a can of gas from his generator supply to top off the tank.
“You saved us,” Mr. Karkos told him. “I didn’t know if we were going to make it.”
Across this region, rescuers are still searching for missing people, and at least 125 are dead across the six states that took the brunt of the hurricane. Residents who made it through the storm have grown frustrated as they wait for power, water, cell services, and food, even as state and federal officials pour supplies into affected areas, including Asheville, the largest population center in the region.
Officials in Asheville, where a river burst its banks and inundated low-lying neighborhoods, have compared the city’s destruction to Hurricane Katrina, which submerged much of New Orleans in 2005.
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