ASHE COUNTY, N.C. — Volunteers have become very important in western North Carolina after the devastation of Hurricane Helene.
However, what they are finding and having to clean up may not be pleasant.
Buck Thrailkill, a retired service member from Fayetteville, has been in Creston for more than a week. He’s been helping remove debris from waterways.
“There's, debris, trees, everything. And it's under the water. Any little single piece of rebar sticking up will catch any and everything that comes by,” Thrailkill said.
Thrailkill and other volunteers using canoes, excavators and waders have been pulling out items blocking water, which are redirecting water in new directions and building dams.
“The springtime when it thaws, all of this flooding is going to happen all over again. The locals know it. Nobody else is talking about it,” he said.
It’s a race against time because when the water freezes over, the debris will become a permanent part of the river. And the upcoming freezing temperatures won’t help in other ways.
“They may have a house left, there's nothing in it. It was children sleeping on the floor and no heat, 30 degrees last night. Everything's covered in ice this morning,” Thrailkill said.
He said a horse from a farm nearby died from drinking contaminated water and eating hay bales that were sitting in the flood.
“There's cattle lifestyles up here. People raising beef, horses. You'll drive down the road and see round bales of hay. They're good to go. No, it's no good. It can't be used,” Thrailkill said.
Thrailkill said the local people have been a wonderful source of information.
“They're the best source to know. Oh, yeah. I haven't seen Uncle Joe or I haven't seen this lady who lives by herself at the end of the road where the bridge is now. Well, that was the first day we went, and we found her, and we spent nine hours with 10 chainsaws cutting her out of that place,” Thrailkill said.
He said the devastation is something no one could have seen coming.
“Humbled … that’s it,” he said.
The volunteers are doling out food and water and giving out clothes, shoes and boots.
Thrailkill said as the temperatures fall they are needing gloves, hats, thick sleeping bags and carbon monoxide detectors.
