People in Asheville, North Carolina are pulling together with donations by pickup truck and helicopter after destructive flash flooding from Helene.
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00:00As floodwaters recede from rivers in Asheville, North Carolina, families are left with a muddy mess.
00:07Some are dealing with feet of mud and water damage inside. Others locked out by mere inches.
00:14Walked up the stairs and there was mud, mud, mud, mud, mud. And then the last stair was completely clean.
00:19And then the porch was completely clean. So, yeah, just somebody was looking out for me.
00:26It's been days since thousands of families had power, cell phone signal, clean water, or a working sewer system.
00:34Just to flush the toilets. We can't even flush our toilets. So our house is, you know, getting pretty bad with the smell.
00:40Neighbors and complete strangers are pulling together using social media to organize their own helicopter relief missions to the hardest hit communities.
00:50They're privately owned and privately flown. All of the helicopters that you see on the ground right now, these are all private citizens' helicopters.
00:56They volunteered their time. They volunteered their effort to come out. The stores are out of food. The stores are out of water. Gas stations are shut down. There's no power.
01:03Hundreds of families waited hours in line for deliveries of fresh water in Black Mountain.
01:09I really appreciate everything they've done because we really needed the water. So that's really been great.
01:15It was awful. I was a nervous wreck.
01:18Elizabeth Ballew's small community of Swannanoa was one of many hit hard.
01:23The violent flash flooding, sending a wall of water, rocks, and mud through these mountain towns and downstream into Asheville.
01:32It rained Wednesday, Thursday, and she came Friday. So you can imagine all that rain plus that wind. I mean, everything she could move, she moved.
01:42In the middle of all of this destruction and debris, we saw Destiny Garcia walking down this street just minutes after she found an unexpected sign of hope that was caked in mud.
01:53I'm military, so, you know, flags aren't supposed to touch the ground. I mean, there's everything everywhere. People are looting and stuff.
02:00I'm going to go home and wash it and probably hang it up on my porch or something. I guess I saw this as a sign of, like, we're going to get through this.
02:06You know, there's hope at the end of the day. You just got to have faith.
02:09Families and volunteers now coming together, helping each other after a storm we'll never forget.
02:15For AccuWeather, I'm Bill Waddell.