Hurricane Helene washed away homes in North Carolina. It also galvanized the early vote
CBC
Jason Stokes's Bronco rattles and shakes its way up a narrow, crudely rebuilt mountain road — past mangled cars and homes smashed to barely identifiable pieces against haphazardly stacked piles of massive uprooted trees.
More than 100 people in western North Carolina were killed when Hurricane Helene hit the region in late September — turbocharging rivers, flooding communities and unleashing landslides that wiped out homes, roads and planned polling stations throughout the mountainous region.
It stoked fears that many would not be able to vote in the Nov. 5 U.S. election because of the disaster, but new numbers from the state elections board suggest otherwise.
Statewide, North Carolina's early voting totals shattered previous records, with 57 per cent of 7.8 million registered voters already casting a ballot. But those numbers were even higher — outpacing the rest of the state by two per cent — in the western counties still reeling from the widespread destruction that also displaced 6,000 people.
It's unknown whether the strong early voting numbers will affect Tuesday's turnout.
Stokes said at least three people were killed along this road when tiny creeks bloated and converged into a fast-moving river and uprooted centuries-old trees.
"It just washed things from the top," he said. "It grabbed it, pulled it all with it and took it all to the bottom. So we were finding homes that were a mile away or more. And we're finding pieces here and pieces there."
Stokes and his wife, Anna Ray, watched helplessly as the waters surrounded their hillside farm.
"There were bales of hay, which are about 1,100 pounds, just bouncing down the river as if they were like beach balls," Ray said.
The couple were rescued by kayak from their farm by a rescue crew with the New York State Forest Rangers who were sent in to help. The disaster response galvanized their determination to vote, and they travelled back to the county from the city of Asheville for early in-person voting.
"We want to have a government that works, then we've got to get this vote right," Stokes said.
"That's been a heavy motivator and just making sure ... lives don't get worse after this because it's already enough right now that we have to deal with."
"I just wanted to check off one more thing off my list. It felt important that what if there was a road closure? What if the car wouldn't start?" Ray said.
Twenty-five counties in the region were affected by Helene, 13 of them hit especially hard. Five weeks later, many in the area still don't have access to potable water. Power and communications infrastructure is still being restored, as are roads and sewer systems. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and other aid groups are set up in parking lots throughout the state providing food, clothing and support.
