United States | A Finnish family had to leave their home because of Hurricane Helene: “It looked just like a war zone”

Stateside hurricane Helene hit the coast of Florida on Thursday evening, from where it continued its journey towards the north, leaving significant destruction behind. The storm reached the city of Asheville, North Carolina, on Friday morning.

Moved to Asheville from Finland with his family a month ago Jenni Isola tells STT that it rained heavily during the night, but he and his family did not wake up to the sounds of the storm until morning. At six o’clock he heard a loud bang, followed by the flashing of lights. Then the electricity went out, and by mid-day the water and internet had also been cut off.

When Isola went out for the first time on Friday afternoon, she couldn’t believe her eyes.

“There was no way you could have imagined what that sight was like. It looked just like a battlefield”, Isola recalls two days later.

Big trees had fallen on top of houses, roads were cut, power lines were broken, and there were no people anywhere.

By Sunday evening, US officials said the storm and its aftershocks had killed at least 93 people, including 30 in Buncombe.

Isola first heard about the approaching storm on Wednesday while having lunch with a friend. This prompted him to go to the grocery store before the shelves were empty. The high school for 15- and 17-year-old children in Isola announced that school days had been canceled from Thursday and Friday.

“However, a few guys said that don’t worry, this is nothing miraculous,” says Isola.

However, according to him, others urged to be prepared and collect water, for example.

On Wednesday evening, it started to rain, which eventually continued for almost two days straight. Massive flooding began before the eye of the storm had even reached the city.

Isola moved with his family on Friday to a friend’s family, where there was a gas stove for cooking and water stored up to the bathtub. Candles and lanterns were also found at the friends’ place, which were missing from the Isoloi’s rental apartment.

“As if you were in the middle of Lapland somewhere in a cabin. Didn’t see read. Couldn’t really do anything,” Isola describes the exceptional circumstances.

According to Isola, almost the only way to get information was once a day at ten in the morning, which they could listen to on the car radio.

The family also got information about the situation through a friend who works at the hospital, because the hospital had internet. The friend urged them to leave the city, because it was becoming clear that the situation was going to last for a long time.

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“As if you were in the middle of Lapland somewhere in a cabin. Couldn’t see read.”

Hard ones winds, heavy rains, and storm surges destroyed infrastructure across the southeastern United States. On Saturday, Isola and her husband made the decision to leave Asheville, because the children’s school had been canceled at least for the first week, and there was no way to return home.

“We thought that maybe it’s best for us to leave. We couldn’t go back to our house because we couldn’t have done anything there. We wouldn’t even have been able to flush the toilet or cook,” says Isola.

The telecommuting couple also had to get somewhere where the internet works.

At this point, there was only one cash-only grocery store open in all of Asheville. There was a two-hour queue at the store.

Huge queues also wound at the city’s two open gas stations.

“We decided to try to get out of town. Our hope was that when we got a little further from the city, the cell phone would start working and we could get gas somewhere,” says Isola.

Like many other residents of the city, the family first headed downtown to the yard of the courthouse and fire station, where they could still use the wireless network.

“It had Wi-Fi and I was able to reserve a hotel for us in Charlotte,” says Isola.

Charlotte is the largest city in North Carolina. Normally, the trip there takes about two hours. However, the family had heard that the most direct route to Charlotte was closed, so they took an alternate route.

“Yes, it was exciting when you didn’t really know what was going to happen. After all, we had no guarantee that we could even drive on those roads. One thing was that we didn’t have enough gas either.”

The Isolas stopped at several gas stations, but since the electricity was not working, they could not sell fuel.

“We started to get really excited that this gas wouldn’t run out, that nothing would come of it.”

An open gas station was finally found about 60 kilometers before Charlotte, and after waiting in line for 40 minutes, refueling was successful.

After a four and a half hour journey, the family arrived in Charlotte, which had avoided the eye of the storm, where life continued as usual.

“It was like a different world. We left in the middle of a disaster, where people are being rescued from floods and their houses have been destroyed. Then we drove a couple of hours here to marvel at people playing football, drinking beer, laughing and having fun.”

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After 40 minutes of waiting, the refueling was successful.

Isolat are planning to travel next to a friend’s family in the state of Virginia, because there is no information on when they will return home, and they cannot live in a hotel indefinitely either.

On Sunday, they were informed that the children’s school would be closed for at least a week.

“Now information has leaked out that it may take even weeks to restore the water. Electricity should return sooner.”

In retrospect, Isola regrets that she didn’t know how to prepare for the situation better. However, it was the first time Asheville had been issued a tropical storm warning, and even the locals did not understand the seriousness of the situation.

“I think almost no one in Asheville knew how to prepare as well as they should have,” Isola surmises.

“When asking the landlord about flashlights, he said, ‘We don’t have any flashlights. We always just use the light of the cell phone’.”

Isola is shocked by the news that has followed the storm damage. He knows his family is the luckiest.

“Now we are all fine. We are safe and luckily we have enough money now to be able to be here [hotellissa].”

As of Sunday evening local time, there were still 2.3 million people without power in the United States and rescue operations were underway in several different states.