Helene victims wonder when the power, water will be back on

The weary and worn residents of Julianne Johnson’s neighborhood in Asheville have been getting by without electricity since Hurricane Helene tore through the Southeast last week and upended their lives. 

Neighbors have been taking care of each other since Helene came ashore Sept. 26 as a Category 4 hurricane and carved a path of destruction as it moved northward from Florida, killing at least 220 people in six states, including at least 72 in Buncombe County, which includes Asheville. Block captains set out whiteboards with information about who can provide first aid and where to get tools repaired.

Nearly 700,000 homes and businesses — mostly in the Carolinas and Georgia — were still without electricity Friday, according to poweroutage.us. That’s an improvement over the more than 2 million customers without power five days ago, and Duke Energy, the dominant provider in North Carolina, said it hoped to have the lights back on by Sunday night for many of its affected customers. But for roughly 100,000 customers in places with catastrophic damage, it could be next week or longer, according to company spokesperson Bill Norton.

Along Swannanoa River Road on Asheville’s east side, Duke Energy and its contractors spread out Friday afternoon to set about 20 new electricity poles in an area where floodwaters snapped or swept away many of the old ones.

“Repairing, most of your facility is there, it’s just putting wire back up, normally,” Martin said. “In this case we’ve got to start all new — new poles, new wires, new transformers, new services, everything. It’s all been washed out.”

Just digging the hole and placing one pole can take up to two hours, Martin said. And that doesn’t count the time needed to attach equipment or string the lines. The company can’t use a drill-like boring machine to dig many of the holes along the road because of underground utilities.

And like in many places in western North Carolina, someone must first rebuild the washed-out road before the utility can finish restoring the line.

The storm damaged water utilities so severely and over such a wide area that one federal official said it “could be considered unprecedented.” Repairs could take weeks.

The lack of clean running water just added to Asheville’s woes.

“I would love a shower,” said Sue Riles, who lives in the tourist-friendly city known for its art galleries, shops and breweries. “Running water would be incredible.”

Even water that’s unfit to drink is scarce. Some people have been hauling buckets from a creek to flush their toilets. Officials also are advising people to collect nondrinkable water for household needs from a local swimming pool.



(AP video Jeff Amy)