Hurricane Helene caused 57 deaths in Buncombe County, left 'miles of complete devastation'

Hurricane Helene demolished the bustling lake town between Asheville and Charlotte known as Lake Lure.

Conditions continue to be so bad in Lake Lure that people are not allowed -- and can't get access -- into the town. Roads leading into the town were washed out and homes and businesses were severely damaged.

Restaurants and volunteer organizations are working to get supplies to people in the town who need it most.

People who live and work in the area described it to ABC11 as a "Katrina-like event."

The community of Bat Cave is located just west of Lake Lure. It saw damage just as devastating.

"Bat Cave looks third world right now. People are out in the streets cooking and people are having heart attacks and strokes and people are trying to get out," Paul Brock said.

Brock owns a restaurant in Lake Lure, but he and his partner live in a home in Bat Cave. They had to be airlifted out of that home Monday.

Pastor Mike Roberts wants to see the government doing more to help.

"Help. We need help for this whole area. We can't be the only ones left out of the government's help. These people love this country just like I do, and they need help," he said.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and other government officials told residents displaced by Hurricane Helene and those worried about loved ones that a massive effort continued Tuesday to bring stability to the mountains - and to their lives.

"No matter where you are in western North Carolina, if you need help, we are working around the clock to reach you," Cooper said at a media briefing in Raleigh.

The state Division of Emergency Management confirmed 38 storm-related deaths in North Carolina from Helene, with the number expected to rise.

"The devastation brought by Helene is beyond belief. Communities were wiped off the map," Cooper said. He planned to return the damaged areas later Tuesday.

More than 1,100 people were staying in close to 30 shelters in the region, with over 400 roads still closed and hundreds of rescues completed, officials said. First responders and others were working to locate people whose loved ones or friends had not heard from or needed welfare checks.

The National Guard ferried close to 200,000 pounds (90,700 kilograms) of food and other necessities out of the Asheville Regional Airport on Monday, North Carolina guard Major General Todd Hunt said.

The storm unleashed the worst flooding in a century in North Carolina. Rainfall estimates in some areas have topped more than 2 feet (61 centimeters) since Wednesday, and several main routes into Asheville were damaged 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.

"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. "We do not want you here if you don't live here and you're not helping with the storm."

At a grocery store in Asheville, Elizabeth Teall-Fleming stood in line hoping to find nonperishable food, since her home had no power. She planned to heat 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.

She was surprised by the storm's ferocity: "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 to fill up milk jugs and whatever other containers they could find with drinking water.

Helene blew ashore in 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, Tennessee and Virginia. Officials warned that rebuilding would be long and difficult.

"This has been an unprecedented storm that has hit western North Carolina," Gov. Roy Cooper said Monday after an aerial tour of the Asheville area. "It's requiring an unprecedented response."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.