Local officials in one North Carolina county have advised residents to collect non-drinkable water from a local swimming pool.
The trail of devastation created by Hurricane Helene last week has become a « public health emergency », says a local official in a hard-hit North Carolina county, as thousands are left without water.
Helene made landfall last Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of around 140 miles per hour near Perry, Florida, in the state’s Big Bend region.
The storm brought fatalities across several southern and southeastern states. Helene also brought storm surges and torrential rain that threatened several dams and inundated Asheville, North Carolina, with floodwaters. At least 225 people across the Southeast have been killed by the storm as of midday Saturday, the Associated Press reported. Much of western North Carolina was destroyed by the storm and relief efforts are ongoing.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that roughly 136,000 people in the Southeast are being served by a non-operational water provider and over 1.
