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ASHEVILLE – The sirens have not stopped in East Asheville and just along the Swannanoa River. The path of destruction left in the wake of Tropical Storm Helene is vivid.
The water rose 26 feet, sweeping out homes, businesses and almost anything in its path, including cars, billboards, and the produce section of a nearby grocery story. The detritus of homes and businesses lay scattered along the roads and bridges spanning the rivers.
Down Swannanoa River Road, near Asheville’s Walmart, a cow had seemingly been pummeled by an overturned tractor trailer and its body bloated, the smell of death emanating from the carcass. Outside of the nearby Aldi, a group of people wandered around, peering inside the gutted building. Some picked over the things they could salvage, mostly necessities like food, water and medicine.
Vehicles and debris pile up along Swannanoa River Road in downtown Asheville Sunday afternoon.
Wading through the mud with her fiancée and cousin, Krista, a Swannanoa resident, hauled a tote bag through the washed-out Aldi. She gathered canned goods, cat and dog food and searched for Tylenol. Some grocery stores in Swannanoa remain without power and Krista said others turned them away. It’s left some residents with few options, choosing to scavenge for essentials, she said.
Toothbrushes litter the entrance to Aldi along Swannanoa River Road in downtown Asheville Sunday afternoon.
She said Swannanoa had such short notice on the flood that by the time they received the emergency evacuation order, residents had scrambled atop the roofs of their homes to flee the rising water. Videos from residents show houses that were entirely demolished in the town just outside of Asheville, with walls collapsing and the sides of homes ripped off as the debris-filled waters rose.
Even as their home was safe, she looked on helplessly as their neighbors struggled to escape.
“It all turned to s–t really quick,” Krista said.
Mud drifts out of the entrance to Aldi along Swannanoa River Road in downtown Asheville Sunday afternoon.
“It was too late by then,” she said of the time the evacuation alert arrived.
In Buncombe County, 35 people have died in the historic floods, Western North Carolina officials told the media Sept. 30. That number is estimated to grow.
Abandonded trucks rest in the Xpo parking lot along Trucker’s Place in downtown Asheville Sunday afternoon in Asheville, NC.
On the Bleachery Boulevard Bridge, Liana and Max Tsaruk, Asheville residents who live off of New Leicester Road on the other side of town, had traveled to the Walmart in the early afternoon Sept. 29. The Tsaruks immigrated from Ukraine a year ago, and Max Tsaruk, an eighth-grader, translated for his mother. She said that she had never seen flooding like this before.
She had been a witness to war but nothing like the flood, his mom said. She said that they had enough supplies for a few days, then said their goodbyes.
Syd Yatteau, Erik Maystruk, and Tim and Vika Williamson (from left to right) outside of their home on Governor’s View Road in downtown Asheville Sunday afternoon.
Weary residents wander through neighborhoods
Syd Yatteau, Erik Maystruk, Lana Maystruck and Tim and Vika Williamson saw the rapid and intense rise of the Swannanoa River. They took in their neighbors, Jack Hafeli and Sue McConnell, who lived in the house right below them.
The first floor of Hafeli and McConnell’s home entirely washed out during the flood, but the couple’s son drove in from Atlanta to pick them up on Sept. 29.
“The whole first floor is gone. All of their documents. His 50-year record collection,” Vika Williamson said, noting that tractor trailers and buildings had essentially floated mere feet from their house. Tim Williamson captured the flooding on his drone, showing groceries, trucks, cars and buildings piled up against one another.
Debris piles up along Swannanoa River Road in downtown Asheville Sunday afternoon.
Other East Asheville residents O’Brien Campbell and Courtney Hines walked up Governor’s View Road, not far from where the floods dragged away the tractor trailers. Both long-time Asheville residents, Campbell noted that continued scavenging will probably “depend on how long this lasts.”
Abandoned vehicles and debris rest along Swannanoa River Road in downtown Asheville Sunday afternoon.
Back at the Aldi, another family gathered to collect supplies in the debris. Two small children filled a cake tin full of muddied water bottles. They slowly lifted it and ran it to their family’s white van, parked amid the muck on the side of the road.
In the distance the sirens continued.
More: Helene death toll climbs to 30 in Buncombe County, sheriff says
Will Hofmann is the Growth and Development Reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Got a tip? Email him at WHofmann@citizentimes.com. Consider supporting this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Asheville floods force residents to scavenge for water, food
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