A small mountain town was destroyed by more than 8 feet of water from Helene.
A layer of mud now covers the town of Spruce Pine and volunteers from across the country are now helping businesses dig out the damage. The city is located northeast of Asheville in Mitchell County.
One of the entrepreneurs said it would take months to clean everything up. There are piles of mud all over the city and in some shops.
Wednesday morning, volunteers and others went to work digging the mud out of a coffee shop in downtown Spruce Pine. A few doors down, Brian Myler and his wife were cleaning up after the water around their restaurant rose.
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“My entire patio was covered,” he said. “I had four feet of water on the inside. I turned all my equipment upside down.”
“This can all be rebuilt eventually, but that will take a long time,” said his wife, Deanna Buchanan.
Omar Quietrio showed Channel 9’s Dave Faherty the cell phone video he shot when the Toe River flooded in Mitchell County. The water shattered the windows of this music store.
“It’s pretty crazy,” he said. “Everyone comes together, you know, and helps each other.”
At First Baptist Church, organizers distributed food and water and rationed gasoline 5 gallons at a time.
“You need some gas for your car,” Lisa Florane said. “You should be able to come and get food and go home to get water.”
Most people in Spruce Pine are without power and roads in Mitchell County are heavily damaged. Faherty saw dozens of cars Wednesday near the Blue Ridge Parkway, one of the few places with cell service.
“I’ve lived here for thirty or forty years and I’ve never seen it like this,” said Irene Boudrau. “It’s a disaster.”
Work is underway on power lines everywhere in the province. But many think they won’t get power for several more days, and perhaps until next week.
The city of Spruce Pine is also a major producer of high-quality quartz – a necessity for many engineering products. The two manufacturing companies there, Sibelco and The Quartz Corp, are both closed for the foreseeable future.
Now there are concerns about the impact on the supply chain. Quartz is needed for semiconductors, solar panels and fiber optic cables.
Both companies said their focus is on worker safety and that operations will return where possible.
(WATCH BELOW: It could be weeks before some in the Asheville area get running water again)
