NEWLAND, N.C. — Life-threatening flash flooding produced by Helene was so strong it picked up homes and floated them away.
For one North Carolina resident, he said he recorded this video that shows one home being picked up and pushed directly into a second home before both homes floated away.
Vlado Novakovic owns these properties in Newland, a small town in Avery County. When Helene produced record-breaking flooding, it ripped the homes from their foundations and swept them away. The two homes collided as they floated away from their foundations.
Novakovic stood at the base of the floodwaters recording as his $1.5 million investments floated away, he said.
Despite his losses, Novakovic said he was returning to his community on Tuesday to bring his storm-impacted neighbors much-needed supplies.
With Helene's death toll nearing 160, searchers fanned out, using helicopters to get past washed-out bridges and hiking through wilderness to reach isolated homes.
The storm, which was one of the deadliest in U.S. history, knocked out power and cellular service in some towns and cities, leaving many people frustrated, hot and increasingly worried days into the ordeal. Some cooked food on charcoal grills or hiked to high ground in the hopes of finding a signal to call loved ones.
“Communities were wiped off the map,” North Carolina’s governor, Roy Cooper, said at a news conference Tuesday.
The devastation was especially bad in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where at least 57 people died in and around Asheville, a tourism haven known for its art galleries, breweries and outdoor activities.
More than 150,000 households have registered for assistance with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and that number is expected to rise rapidly in the coming days, said Frank Matranga, an agency representative.
Nearly 2 million ready-to-eat meals and more than a million liters of water have been sent to the hardest-hit areas, he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report