Over the weekend, minor flooding and rain destroyed roughly 20 makeshift roads and bridges erected as temporary solutions in Boone and Newland after Helene wiped out whole infrastructural systems, according to relief group WNC Strong’s comments to a local news outlet.

As temperatures are expected to drop below freezing in the region, nearly 700 families are still living outside in tents in the hard-hit area. Benjamin Vanhok said nobody has helped the 15 families his organization has identified that are “completely displaced.”

“It’s not over,” the WNC Strong representative said. “It’s only going get worse before it gets better.”

With the weekend flooding, some residents in the rural area are completely stranded from accessing the emergency services and are completely reliant on grassroots efforts to receive vital supplies.

“They’re stranded again and they will be stranded for the next week until this cold snap passes,” Vanhok noted. “With military-style trucks, they can get across and get them out, but them taking their own cars, they can’t.”

Avery County Manager Phillip Barrier, who represents the city of Newland, warned that more than 20 residents in the county are unreachable by first responders after nearly a dozen emergency footbridges built by volunteers after Helene washed away over the weekend.

“There are several people that we can’t get emergency access to,” he told NBC News during an interview, noting that recovery efforts have “been super slow.”

Likewise, residents in Yancey County, another community devastated by Helene, said Monday that “the need for a bridge or a safe road does not seem to be a priority,” noting the dearth of infrastructure has left “close to 75 families stranded.”

“It seems this community has been overlooked,” one Yancey County resident wrote in a Facebook post. “… My son and his wife are expecting a baby, and have to go in and out with the worry of getting stuck, or with the fear of the bridge being underwater, like it is now. My mother-in-law is on oxygen and luckily was able to make it to the hospital a couple of weeks ago by ambulance.”

Bridges for Avery, the volunteer group that constructed many of the makeshift bridges for residents, is back at work building new infrastructure for those affected.

“For many, these footbridges are the only way home,” according to the organization.

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Bridges for Avery and WNC Strong are just two of the countless private grassroots efforts that emerged as the primary source of help for North Carolina residents after Helene struck.

“These small towns in the heart of Appalachia is what made the area so special,” WNC Strong posted on Instagram. “We exist to help rebuild the region in multiple ways. Right now we’re seeking more local businesses we can partner with to bring back to life economically.”