North Carolina
Apocolyic siren blares as Hurricane Helene ravages North Carolina village, video shows
Terrifying video captured apocalyptic sirens blaring as Hurricane Helene’s violent floodwaters ravaged a North Carolina Village.
The shocking clip begins with a powerful wave of mudwater surging across a yard in Chimney Rock, ripping pieces of a home off and sweeping debris in the tide.
“My car’s gone. Everything’s gone. It’s all gone,” the unidentified filmmaker can be heard saying, as a second person hurriedly reassures them, “it’s ok.”
The heavy stream was so strong that it tore apart major roadways and carved new channels for the floodwaters to flow through.
SUVs were seen floating down the rivers and tossed into trees.
The floods rose high enough that they completely submerged the first floor of some homes.
Many were demolished in its wake. Those left standing were beaten down and swamped with mud.
“Ok guys, just to give you an understanding of the devastation we’re dealing with here: Chimney Rock is gone,” another filmmaker said while panning to the remnants of the village.
The flooding is considered the worst that the western portion of the state has seen in a century. Gov. Roy Cooper described it as “catastrophic” as search and rescue teams from 19 states and the federal government came to help.
Hundreds of people were left stranded in the village, leading officials to conduct airlifts throughout Saturday.
“As soon as we receive the names of those rescued, we will make every effort to reach out to families and individuals who have inquired about their loved ones,” officials said.
Whether anyone has died in the village is unclear — officials in nearby Asheville have declined to release a death total because communication outages haven’t allowed them to reach relatives of the victims.
At least 64 people have been killed across five states, including 23 people in South Carolina and 11 in Florida.