I lived in Western North Carolina years ago.

[birdographer]

17. For a little good news...

We live in Macon County, in western NC. The only affect of Helene we had was gentle rain overnight on Thursday. We lost our power, which was inevitable. Yesterday we had blue sky, sunshine, white puffy clouds, and an occasional breeze. We went out around 3:00 to get groceries. Roads were dry. The Cullasaja River had risen enough to flood yards that are next to it, but it had not reached the road that those houses sit next to. Stores are all open, but for cash only since they have no connectivity to take credit cards.

This is full Day Two of no power, but we are fortunate to have a whole-house generator. However, the pump is in a shared well and not on our system, so we have had no running water. Funny how you miss being able to shower, wash dishes, and flush the toilet. (As for the latter, we have a branch stream that runs by the house (which has barely risen, oddly) and so water from that can be poured into the tank for periodic flushing.) While we seem to be surrounded by destruction, this little area has had nothing but light rain and power outage.