Desperation and exhaustion in North Carolina's mountains days after Helene's deluge

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Desperate residents of the storm-battered mountains of western North Carolina lined up for water and food, hunted for cell signals, and slogged buckets from creeks to flush toilets days after Hurricane Helene's remnants deluged the region. Exhausted emergency workers toiled around the clock to clear roads, restore power and phone service, and reach people stranded by the storm, which killed at least 133 people across the Southeast, a toll expected to rise.

And election officials across the South made emergency preparations to ensure displaced residents would be able to vote in the upcoming presidential election.

President Joe Biden was set to survey the devastation in the region Wednesday. Officials in the hard-hit tourism hub of Asheville said their water system suffered “catastrophic” damage that could take weeks to fully repair. Government officials, aid groups and volunteers worked to deliver supplies by air, truck and even mule to the town and surrounding mountain communities. At least 40 people died in Buncombe County, which includes Asheville, a normally bustling city of 94,000.

The North Carolina death toll included one horrific story after another of people who were trapped by floodwaters in their homes and vehicles or were killed by falling trees. A courthouse security officer died after being submerged inside his truck. A couple and a 6-year-old boy waiting to be rescued on a rooftop drowned when part of their home collapsed.

Rescuers did manage to save dozens, including an infant and two others stuck on the top of a car in Atlanta. More than 50 hospital patients and staff in Tennessee were plucked by helicopter from the hospital rooftop in a daring rescue operation.

The storm unleashed the worst flooding in a century in North Carolina. Rainfall estimates in some areas topped more than 2 feet (61 centimeters) since Wednesday, and several main routes into Asheville were washed away or blocked by mudslides. That includes a 4-mile (6.4-kilometer) section of Interstate 40 that was heavily damaged.

Joey Hopkins, North Carolina’s secretary of transportation, asked people to stay off the roads.

“The damage is severe, and we’re continuing to tell folks if you don’t have a reason to be in North Carolina, do not travel on the roads of western North Carolina," Hopkins said at a news conference. “We do not want you here if you don’t live here and you’re not helping with the storm.”

At an Ingles grocery store in Asheville, Elizabeth Teall-Fleming stood in line with dozens of others waiting to get inside and hoped to find nonperishable food, since they have no power. She planned to heat up canned food over a camp stove for her family.

“I’m just glad that they’re open and that they’re able to let us in," she said.

Teall-Fleming said she was surprised by the ferocity of the storm: “Just seeing the little bit of news that we’ve been able to see has been shocking and really sad."

In one neighborhood, residents collected creek water in buckets to flush toilets. Others waited in a line for more than a block at Mountain Valley Water to fill up milk jugs and whatever other containers they could find with drinking water.

Derek Farmer, who brought three gallon-size apple juice containers, said he had been prepared for the storm but now was nervous after three days without water. “I just didn’t know how bad it was going to be,” Farmer said.

Helene blew ashore in northern Florida late Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane and quickly moved north. The storm upended life throughout the Southeast, where deaths were also reported in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Officials warned rebuilding would be long and difficult.

Federal Emergency Management Agency officials said shelters housed more than 1,000 people.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper took an aerial tour of the Asheville area and later met with workers distributing meals.

“This has been an unprecedented storm that has hit western North Carolina,” he said. “It’s requiring an unprecedented response.”

Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, said during an emergency board meeting Monday it was looking at options for voters in the hardest-hit counties. She planned to provide more information at a Tuesday news conference, including how someone could declare “natural disaster” as their reason for not being able to provide a photo ID.

Election employees across Georgia returned to work even as some offices faced power outages, limited internet and infrastructure damages.

In Lowndes County, staff at the board of elections worked on two computers instead of the usual eight, said election supervisor Deb Cox. The office is also without Wi-Fi.

“We’re fully up and running as of this morning,” Cox said. “It’s just slower than normal because we have less resources.”

In Columbia County, poll worker training will still begin this week, said Nancy Gay, the elections director, but she might have to change the location because of the power outage.

“Our poll workers are being affected,” Gay said. “They don’t have power. They don’t have gas. You’ve got to allow the workers time to process everything and try and get a plan in place before I can really expect them to come and show up for training.”

Mark Ard, of the Florida Secretary of State’s office, said the division of elections recommends that local elections supervisors reach out to postal officials to discuss a mitigation plan for ballot mailing, delivery and return.

Western North Carolina suffered relatively more devastation because that’s where the remnants of Helene encountered the higher elevations and cooler air of the Appalachian Mountains, causing even more rain to fall.

Asheville and many surrounding mountain towns were built in valleys, leaving them especially vulnerable to devastating rain and flooding. Plus, the ground already was saturated before Helene arrived, said Christiaan Patterson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

“By the time Helene came into the Carolinas, we already had that rain on top of more rain,” Patterson said.

Climate change has exacerbated conditions that allow such storms to thrive, rapidly intensifying in warming waters and turning into powerful cyclones, sometimes within hours.

Along Florida's Gulf Coast, several feet of water swamped the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, forcing workers to move two manatees and sea turtles. All the animals were safe, but much of the aquarium’s vital equipment was damaged or destroyed, said James Powell, the aquarium’s executive director.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said the storm “literally spared no one.” Most people in and around Augusta, a city of about 200,000 near the South Carolina border, lacked power .

With at least 30 killed in South Carolina, Helene was the deadliest tropical cyclone to hit the state since Hurricane Hugo made landfall north of Charleston in 1989, killing 35 people.

Tropical Storm Kirk formed Monday in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. It is expected to become a hurricane Tuesday night and could become a major hurricane Thursday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. The storm was about 935 miles (1,505 kilometers) west of the Cabo Verde Islands with maximum sustained winds of 60 mph (95 kph). There were no coastal watches or warnings in effect, and the storm system was not a threat to land.

Contributing to this report were Associated Press journalists Gary D. Robertson in Asheville; John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia; Beatrice Dupuy in New York City; Zeke Miller and Aamer Madhani in Washington; and Jeff Amy in Atlanta.

A worker moves debris in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, in Asheville, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Drew Merritt, left, and Jeremy King load groceries after standing in line outside an Ingles grocery store in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, in Asheville, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Volunteers stage water for people in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, in Asheville, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Rescue workers from the Pamlico County rescue team are shown working in the aftermath of Helene the area of Chimney Rock, N.C., Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (Pamlico County Special Operations via AP)

A sign hangs outside a closed barber shop and bar in Asheville, N.C., Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

Rescue workers from the Pamlico County rescue team are shown working in the aftermath of Helene the area of Chimney Rock, N.C., Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (Pamlico County Special Operations via AP)

A medical helicopter takes off near downtown in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, in Asheville, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Employees Linda Bandy, left, and Carissa Sheehan clean up International Moulding frame shop damaged by flood water from Hurricane Helene on North Green Street, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, in Morganton, N.C. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)

Debris is seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, in Asheville, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Carrie Owenby looks at her phone as a neighbor with power dropped an extension cord for neighbors who have no power in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, in Asheville, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Volunteers stage water for citizens in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, in Asheville, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Debris is seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, in Asheville, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

People wait to gather water at Mountain Valley Water in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in West Asheville, N.C., Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

Flood debris from Hurricane Helene floats by in Rutherford County, N.C., Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. (Tariq Bokhari via AP)

Debris is seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, in Asheville, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Debris is seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, in Asheville, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

ATLANTA (AP) — Jimmy Carter reached his 100th birthday Tuesday, the first time an American president has lived a full century and the latest milestone in a life that took the son of a Depression-era farmer to the White House and across the world as a Nobel Peace Prize-winning humanitarian and advocate for democracy.

Living the last 19 months in home hospice care in Plains, the Georgia Democrat and 39th president has continued to defy expectations, just as he did through a remarkable rise from his family peanut farming and warehouse business to the world stage. He served one presidential term from 1977 to 1981 and then worked more than four decades leading The Carter Center, which he and his wife Rosalynn co-founded in 1982 to “wage peace, fight disease, and build hope.”

“Not everybody gets 100 years on this earth, and when somebody does, and when they use that time to do so much good for so many people, it's worth celebrating," Jason Carter, the former president's grandson and chair of The Carter Center governing board, said in an interview.

“These last few months, 19 months, now that he’s been in hospice, it’s been a chance for our family to reflect,” he continued, “and then for the rest of the country and the world to really reflect on him. That’s been a really gratifying time.”

James Earl Carter Jr. was born Oct. 1, 1924 in Plains, where he has lived more than 80 of his 100 years. He is expected to mark his birthday in the same one-story home he and Rosalynn built in the early 1960s — before his first election to the Georgia state Senate. The former first lady, who was also born in Plains, died last November at 96.

President Joe Biden, who was the first sitting senator to endorse Carter’s 1976 campaign, praised his longtime friend for an “unwavering belief in the power of human goodness.”

“You’ve always been a moral force for our nation and the world (and) a beloved friend to Jill and me and our family,” the 81-year-old president tells Carter in a tribute video filmed in front of Carter’s presidential portrait at the White House.

Outside the North Portico, the Bidens are placing a display of large lettering declaring “Happy Birthday President Carter” and the number 100. Carter has asked Biden to eulogize him at his state funeral when the time comes.

The Carter Center on Sept. 17 hosted a musical gala in Atlanta to celebrate the former president with a range of genres and artists, including some who campaigned with him in 1976. The event raised more than $1.2 million for the center's programs and will be broadcast Tuesday evening on Georgia Public Broadcasting.

In St. Paul, Minnesota, Habitat for Humanity volunteers are honoring Carter with a five-day effort to build 30 houses. The Carters became top ambassadors for the international organization after leaving the White House and hosted annual building projects into their 90s. Carter survived a cancer diagnosis and treatment in his early 90s, then several falls and a hip replacement in his mid-90s before announcing at 98 that he would enter hospice care.

Townspeople in Plains planned another concert Tuesday evening.

The last time Jimmy Carter was seen publicly was nearly a year ago, using a reclining wheelchair to attend his wife's two funeral services. Visibly diminished and silent, he was joined on the front row of Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church in Atlanta by the couple's four children, every living former first lady, Biden and his wife Jill and former President Bill Clinton. A day later, Carter joined his extended family and parishioners at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, where the former president taught Sunday School for decades.

Jason Carter said the 100th birthday celebrations were not something the family expected to see once his grandmother died. The former president's hospital bed had been set up in the same room so he could see his wife of 77 years and talk to her in her final days and hours.

“We frankly didn’t think he was going to go on much longer,” Jason Cater said. “But it’s a faith journey for him, and he’s really given himself over to what he feels is God’s plan. He knows he's not in charge. But in these last few months, especially, he has gotten a lot more engaged in world events, a lot more engaged in politics, a lot more, just engaged, emotionally, with all of us.”

Jason Carter said the centenarian president, born only four years after women were granted the constitutional right to vote and four decades before Black women won ballot access, is eager to cast his 2024 presidential ballot — for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrat who would become the first woman, second Black person and first person of south Asian descent to reach the Oval Office.

“He, like a lot of us, was incredibly gratified by his friend Joe Biden’s courageous choice to pass the torch,” the younger Carter said. “You know, my grandfather and The Carter Center have observed more than 100 elections in 40 other countries, right? So, he knows how rare it is for somebody who’s a sitting president to give up power in any context.”

Jason Carter continued, “When we started asking him about his 100th birthday, he said he was excited to vote for Kamala Harris.”

Early voting in Georgia begins Oct. 15, two weeks into Carter's 101st year.

FILE - Former President Jimmy Carter, right, and his wife, former first lady Rosalynn Carter, hold hands as they walk from a state funeral for former President George H.W. Bush at the National Cathedral, Dec. 5, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

FILE - Former President Jimmy Carter teaches Sunday School class at the Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown of Plains, Ga., Aug. 23, 2015. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

FILE - An estimated crowd of 35,000 people gather for a noontime speech by Presidential candidate Jimmy Carter in downtown Philadelphia, Oct. 29, 1976. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Former President Jimmy Carter greets attendees as he departs the funeral service for his wife, former first lady Rosalynn Carter, at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga., Nov. 29, 2023. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool, File)