ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) 鈥 Before Hurricane Helene鈥檚 landfall last week, the 好色tv Weather Service began an all-out blitz to alert emergency planners, first responders and residents across the Southeast that the storm鈥檚 heavy rains and high winds could bring disaster hundreds of miles from the coast.
Warnings blared phrases such as 鈥淯RGENT,鈥 鈥渓ife threatening鈥 and 鈥渃atastrophic鈥 describing the impending perils as far inland as the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee. Smartphones buzzed with repeated push alerts of flash floods and dangerous winds. States of emergency were declared from Florida to Virginia. And the weather service reached back to 1916 for a precedent, correctly predicting Helene would rank among the 鈥渕ost significant weather events鈥 the Asheville, North Carolina, area had ever seen.
But the red flags and cataclysmic forecasts weren鈥檛 enough to prevent the still-rising . The number has soared to at least 215 across six states. At least 72 of those were in hard-hit Asheville and surrounding Buncombe County from flash floods, mudslides, falling trees, crumbled roads and other calamities.
鈥淒espite the dire, dire predictions, the impacts were probably even worse than we expected,鈥 said Steve Wilkinson, the meteorologist in charge of the 好色tv Weather Service鈥檚 regional office in Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina.
鈥淲e reserve this strong language for only the worst situations,鈥 he said. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 hard to go out and tell people this is going to totally change the landscape of western North Carolina.鈥
As the region begins its long road to recovery, a task complicated by cut-off communities, a lack of running water and still-spotty cellphone service, the growing number of casualties has prompted soul-searching among devastated homeowners and officials alike about whether more could have been done to sound the alarms and respond in a mountainous region that鈥檚 not often in the path of hurricanes.
鈥淚t sounds stupid to say this, but I didn鈥檛 realize it would be like bombs going off,鈥 Brenton Murrell said after surveying his Asheville neighborhood strewn with mud and debris, military Osprey aircraft whirring overhead. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like a war zone.鈥
Like many residents interviewed by The Associated Press, Murrell had never experienced the effects of a hurricane and felt detached from the danger despite receiving numerous warnings of 鈥渆xtreme risk of loss of life and property.鈥
Murrell said those words never really scared him, in part because his neighbors had been talking for days about the last big flood two decades ago and offered mostly reassuring words that 鈥渋f you鈥檙e not in a low-lying area, you鈥檒l be fine.鈥
鈥淭here was some sort of disconnect,鈥 said Murrell, who now regrets riding out the storm at home with his wife, two children and dog, even though they are all safe. 鈥淚t鈥檚 human nature to not truly comprehend something until you鈥檝e felt it yourself.鈥
Many residents said they had not grasped the magnitude of the storm until it was too late. For some, evacuating became impossible as fallen trees and surging floodwaters made roads and bridges impassable. The cascade of emergencies caught seemingly everyone off guard.
Sara Lavery, of Canton, said she received multiple alerts last Thursday before the worst of the storm had hit and was alarmed at how quickly 鈥渇lood watches鈥 on her phone progressed to 鈥渇lood warnings.鈥 Then she looked out at the Pigeon River near her home and got really scared.
鈥淲e saw a tree the size of telephone pole, a kitchen sink, a bedroom dresser,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t was terrifying.鈥
Still, she and her fiance decided to stay, partly because their home was on high ground, partly to leave the roads empty for others and help out endangered residents in lower areas.
鈥淪ome people don鈥檛 have a place to go, some don鈥檛 have a four-wheel vehicle to get out,鈥 Lavery said. 鈥淧eople always say, 鈥榃hy didn鈥檛 you evacuate?鈥 Not everyone can.鈥
鈥淲e never thought this would happen,鈥 she said. 鈥淲estern North Carolina is the mountains.鈥
As the storm swept through, Mia Taylor, of nearby Hendersonville, said she received alerts on her phone about the threat of floods 鈥渂ut some of us were kind of just like, 鈥極h, it鈥檚 not that serious.鈥欌
She tried to drive to a nearby town to shelter with her grown children but found 鈥渆very which way was blocked off.鈥 She ended up turning around only for her car to shut off in the rising waters.
鈥淵ou didn鈥檛 think that it was going to be this bad,鈥 she said.
Lillian Govus, a Buncombe County spokesperson, said that has been a familiar refrain since the storm because no one alive in the area had seen anything approaching Helene鈥檚 destruction. She described the storm鈥檚 pre-dawn arrival last Friday as 鈥渋nsidious,鈥 noting some residents were in bed and may not have heard the emergency alerts.
鈥淔olks were trying to evacuate, but there was nowhere to go,鈥 she said. 鈥淚f there鈥檚 a landslide, it doesn鈥檛 matter how high you go.鈥
Wilkinson, the meteorologist, said forecasters knew many days before the storm that Helene would be catastrophic for western North Carolina and began notifying the emergency management community in briefings and presentations, focusing primarily on flooding and secondarily on wind. Surrounding mountain towns like Asheville, a city of some 95,000, were of particular concern because the communities were built in valleys.
An AP analysis of social media postings and cellphone alerts found more than a dozen were sent by Buncombe County and the 好色tv Weather Service on Wednesday and Thursday alone. And the language used to convey the threat from Helene 鈥 鈥渆xtremely rare event,鈥 鈥減repare for a life-threatening storm,鈥 鈥淎ct Now!鈥 鈥 became increasingly dire as authorities urged people to seek higher ground and evacuate in some cases. The most alarming ones said the destruction could be the worst in a century, referencing the 鈥淕reat Flood of 1916鈥 in which 80 people were killed.
In one of its repeated postings on the social platform X, Wilkinson鈥檚 staff pleaded with residents to take its warnings 鈥渧ery seriously鈥 and have multiple means of receiving alerts.
鈥淲e made an attempt based on previous events, to hit our warnings well ahead of time,鈥 Wilkinson told the AP, 鈥渟o the alerts went out before the high wind hit. They kind of kept coming.鈥
The weather service鈥檚 rainfall and wind speed predictions largely held up, Wilkinson said, with some areas receiving more than 1 foot (0.3 meters) of rain. Mount Mitchell State Park recorded wind gusts at 106 mph (171 kph). The French Broad River Basin saw rivers topping their highest-ever crests by several feet, the weather service reported, adding Helene brought 鈥渓ikely the most severe flooding in recorded history across Buncombe County.鈥 Trees and powerlines were downed while hundreds of homes and businesses were flooded. Large stretches of highways were submerged, and some roads and bridges were completely wiped out.
鈥淭he last time a storm like this hit was in the Book of Genesis when Noah had to build an ark,鈥 said Zeb Smathers, the mayor of Canton, North Carolina.
Wilkinson said it might be impossible to know the number of people who didn鈥檛 heed the warnings or didn鈥檛 get them. Cellphone service is sometimes spotty in the mountainous region and may have gotten worse as the storm rolled in.
鈥淚 honestly believe we did everything we could have done,鈥 he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 sad that we couldn鈥檛 do more, but we鈥檙e trying to recognize that what we did made some difference.鈥
In the aftermath of the storm, Wilkinson鈥檚 office posted an on X thanking first responders and calling Helene 鈥渢he worst event in our office鈥檚 history.鈥
鈥淎s meteorologists we always want to get the forecast right,鈥 it said. 鈥淭his is one we wanted to get wrong.鈥
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Mustian and Condon reported from New York. Brittany Peterson in Hendersonville, North Carolina, and Christopher Keller in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed reporting.
