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>> Ouragan Helene : massive flooding and at least 44 deaths in the United States
>> Hurricane Helene killed at least 63 people in the United States
| Vincent Floriani salvages what he can from his home in Swannanoa, North Carolina, on October 3. |
| Photo : AFP/VNA/CVN |
Vincent Floriani doesn’t say no. He came to collect the belongings of his tenant, who was hospitalized after fleeing during the floods. On the walls of the house, a horizontal mark just a few centimeters from the ceiling testifies to the rising waters. On the ground, 15 centimeters of mud remain.
“Everything is completely devastated“, he said, wearing a cowboy hat. Last Friday, September 27, his tenant managed to escape the raging waters by swimming to reach a roof, where someone picked him up in a kayak, without a phone, papers or other clothing.
Vincent Floriani and others searched for him for a long time. Six days after the passage of a hurricane which sowed death and devastation from the coasts of Florida to these mountains of Caroline from the North, his tenant finally called him.
“The happiest phone call I’ve ever received“, he says today, his feet in the mud.
No insurance
Throughout the region, largely deprived of running water and electricity, scenes of solidarity are repeated over and over again, commensurate with the immense shock caused by the hurricane.
At least 212 people were killed, including 72 in the county comprising Swannanoa and the neighboring town of Asheville, flown over on Wednesday October 2 by US President Joe Biden.
Helene is thus the second deadliest hurricane to hit the United States in more than half a century, after Katrina in 2005. Scientists have linked its intensity to the warming of the seas caused by climate change.
| A car overturned after Hurricane Helene in Swannanoa, North Carolina, on October 3. |
| Photo : AFP/VNA/CVN |
“These houses have been there for a century, and there’s never been a flood like this“, continues Vincent Floriani. “It’s amazing that it happened so quickly, that so many people lost everything – and almost no one had flood insurance, because it wasn’t happening.“.
“Everyone helps each other”
A week after the disaster, the good weather returned, car wrecks and debris of all kinds were cleared from the main roads but life is far from being able to return to normal.
A few hundred meters from the mud-covered driveway where Mr. Floriani was busy, Shelby Holzhauser’s house was narrowly spared.
From now on, this young mother must go and fill a large bucket in the nearby river to flush the toilet. As she speaks, her husband plugs in the generator provided by his employer, allowing them to cook.
A little further on, a few men run a stand with basic necessities under the roof of a disused gas station.
“Everyone helps each other, sticks together“, Shelby said with pride, dressed in a red t-shirt and leather boots.
Usually, “work, work, work, that’s all you can do to survive, (…) pay your bills“, says this 23-year-old teacher who has always lived in this Appalachian mountain range. “But since the disaster, I have become closer to my neighbors. They came down to check on us, make sure we had what we needed“.
Star Wars
In the field next door, helicopters land in succession with a deafening noise.
A little further away, an area with mobile homes serving as dwellings, typical of poor rural areas in the United States, was completely swept away. The homes were moved, their windows smashed. Through a broken partition, we see a red Christmas garland and a child’s clothing with the logo of “Star Wars“There is no one left.
President Biden sent a thousand additional troops to help with the reconstruction.
In Swannanoa, help”was great“, greets Shelby Holzhauser without hesitation. 20 meters from her house, new water pipes are being installed, while a backhoe loader repairs a broken road.
The teacher, looking at this army of technicians, has no illusions: “It’s going to take a while to recover“.
AFP/VNA/CVN
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