When will the power return? Weary Carolinas residents long for relief after Helene's fury

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — The weary and worn residents of Julianne Johnson's neighborhood in Asheville have been getting by without electricity since Hurricane Helene tore through the Southeast last week and upended their lives. They've been cooking on propane stoves and using dry erase boards to keep up with local happenings while wondering when the lights would come back on.

Johnson, who has a 5-year-old son and works for a land conservation group, received a text from Duke Energy promising her power would be restored by Friday night. But as of midday, utility poles and wires were still draped at odd angles across the streets, pulled down by mangled trees.

“I have no idea what’s next,” said Johnson, whose family does have some power thanks to a generator. “Just the breadth of this over the whole region, it’s kind of amazing.”

She and her neighbors have been taking care of each other since Helene came ashore in Florida on Sept. 26 as a Category 4 hurricane and carved a path of destruction as it moved northward, killing more than 220 people in six states, including at least 72 in Buncombe County, which includes Asheville. Block captains set out whiteboards with information about who can provide first aid and where to get tools repaired.

Nearly 700,000 homes and businesses in the six states — most in the Carolinas and Georgia — were still without power on Friday, according to poweroutage.us. That's an improvement over the more than 2 million customers were without power five days ago, and Duke Energy, the dominant electricity provider in North Carolina, said it hoped to restore power by Sunday night to many of its affected customers. But for roughly 100,000 customers living in places with catastrophic damage, it could be next week or longer, said Bill Norton, a company spokesperson.

“We’re talking about places where the homes no longer exist,” Norton said, adding that some roads where utility poles once stood have been completely washed away.

The power company said it would miss its Friday goal of getting power restored to almost all of its customers in South Carolina and that it was now shooting for Sunday.

Dominion Energy also said Friday that it would take longer than initially expected to restore power to the hardest hit counties in South Carolina.

Dreaming of a hot shower

The storm damaged water utilities so severely and over such a wide area that one federal official said it "could be considered unprecedented." Repairs could take weeks.

The lack of clean running water just added to Asheville's woes.

“I would love a shower,” said Sue Riles, who lives in the tourist-friendly city known for its art galleries, shops and breweries. “Running water would be incredible.”

Even water that’s unfit to drink is scarce. Some people have been hauling buckets of water from a creek to flush their toilet. Officials also are advising people to collect nondrinkable water for household needs from a local swimming pool.

Without full repairs to the water systems, schools might not be able to resume in-person classes, hospitals might not restore normal operations, and the city's hotels and restaurants might not fully reopen.

Lives lost across the Southeast

In Florida, a dozen people died in the Tampa area, with the worst damage on the narrow, 20-mile (32-kilometer) string of barrier islands that stretch from St. Petersburg to Clearwater.

“The water, it just came so fast,” said Dave Behringer, who rode out the storm in his home after telling his wife to flee. “Even if you wanted to leave, there was no getting out.”

Among the dead was Aiden Bowles, a retired restaurant owner who didn't want to leave his Indian Rocks Beach home on a barrier island north of St. Petersburg. Caregiver Amanda Normand begged the 71-year-old widower to stay with her inland.

“He said, ‘It’s going to be fine. I’m going to go to bed,’” Normand said of their final phone call on the night of Sept. 26.

In North Carolina, exhausted rescue crews and volunteers continued to navigate past washed out roads, downed power lines and mudslides to reach the isolated and the missing.

“We know these are hard times, but please know we’re coming," said Buncombe County Sheriff Quentin Miller. “We’re coming to get you. We’re coming to pick up our people.”

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Associated Press journalists Gary D. Robertson, in Raleigh, North Carolina; Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed to this report.