More than 200 people are dead from Florida to North Carolina as the result of Hurricane Helene. There are still reports of people missing among the six states that felt the wrath of the storm.
It has been a painstaking task to try and get through the mud and muck left over after Helene raised rivers so high in parts of western North Carolina that the waters wiped out towns and communities.
In Canton, North Carolina, the mayor described 28 feet of water pouring into the town, at one point.
Mayor Zeb Smathers joined WTOP anchors Anne Kramer and Shawn Anderson from Canton.
Listen to the full interview below or read the transcript. The transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Anne Kramer: Mayor, thank you so much for taking the time to be on with us this afternoon. It’s been more than a week since the worst part of Helene ripped through Western North Carolina and through your town. How would you characterize what it’s like now and how the recovery is going there?
Zeb Smathers: Well, we’re finding our way. Again, the grit and grace of people in Western North Carolina is amazing. It’s not surprising to me.
Three years ago, Canton in Haywood County went through a similar flood, not as much water, about 18 feet of water at that time. We lost six people, our town hall, our police station, our fire station, and so we learned a lot of lessons that we put in place, that you know helped us prepare, helped us do recover. But you can only do so much in 28 feet of water, and so we’ve made great strides in Canton. We’ve got the power back on. We have water going to our citizens.
Communications is slowly returning, not to our businesses, but our personal cellphones, which is a story in itself, and that’s giving us a time to catch our breath, to make sure we help out our neighbors. You know, when you’re from the mountains of North Carolina, there’s something special that you can consider yourself part of a mountain family, and just in Buncombe County, Asheville, Yancey County, Mitchell counties, some of these more mountainous areas, it’s just numbing. When I see the pictures, I talk to my friends and family over there, they are still numb. So we’re making great strides here in Canton, because again, three years ago, we experienced it for the first time.
Now, sadly, we’re watching our neighbors just deal with the shock of watching homes businesses. You know, literally memories washed away, and that’s a numbing experience. But we’re holding them and our plan is to help them learn how to put one foot in front of the other.
Shawn Anderson: Mayor Smathers, you were standing beside North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and FEMA’s administrator just a few days ago. There’s a lot of misinformation out there about how this response is going. What has been the response been like from North Carolina State Government and FEMA? From your standpoint.
Zeb Smathers: Again we prepared for this storm many days in advance. So we’re working with our Democratic governor, our Republican representative, our Republican delegation, other people in Raleigh before the storm hit. And so there was phone calls, activation of the National Guard, a lot of preparation beforehand, and then the storm hit.
And then right before, really the worst part of the storm, we suffered across the region, not just here in Haywood County, our cellphones going out. And that remained for days and days and days. And that was crippling. We couldn’t communicate with emergency management. Loved ones could not call and check on others to see if they were OK. And so there was this, you know, dead zone of time. No one knew what was going on. And so there were services on the ground, state help, local help, federal help.
I saw with my own eyes FEMA come in their search and rescue teams, you know, hours after the storm. But the problem is, we couldn’t communicate that. We couldn’t communicate shelters and supplies at churches. So it’s not surprising.
A lot of people didn’t know what services were here, because we could not communicate by phone, by social media. It was a total blackout. And so then a lot of stuff starts falling in people start talking. The misinformation comes in, which makes everyone’s life harder. But the resources are on the ground. They’ve been on the ground, both government, nonprofit, just your everyday citizens. So again, there’s bumps in the road, but we have had bipartisan support from Raleigh. I have had several conversations from zero hour at the White House to our congressional leaders to local people. You’re talking Democrats Republicans, but it’s been hard to cut through some of the misinformation that’s out there.
Anne Kramer: Mayor, we certainly appreciate your time this afternoon. We hope you all have the best in your recovery effort. Wish you the best in that way, and we do appreciate your time.
Zeb Smathers: Thank you all so much for everything, and we truly appreciate it.
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