"The staggering scale of destruction in Asheville and surrounding communities from Tropical Storm Helene is almost too much to comprehend. Buncombe County was hit harder than any other county in the state; forests toppled, mountainsides scarred by landslides, roads and bridges destroyed, houses smashed to pieces or buried in mud, entire communities swept away by floodwaters. But ultimately the cruelty of the storm comes most sharply into focus at the individual level. In this continuing series, Asheville Watchdog reporters and photographers document the lives of the dozens of neighbors we lost.
"They perished under the most harrowing circumstances: entire families swept away by raging floodwaters, couples tossed out of their homes or crushed as the land underneath gave way, people battling diseases unable to access the treatments that kept them alive.
"The devastating, heartbreaking picture of the lives lost in Buncombe to Tropical Storm Helene, a calamity few could have imagined, is just beginning to emerge.
"In the initial days after the storm, Buncombe Sheriff Quentin Miller put the death toll at 72, but his office has since clarified that that number included all deaths, and some were not hurricane-related or from Buncombe. State medical examiners are in charge of determining disaster-related fatalities, and their official count for Buncombe as of Friday was 42.
"Asheville Watchdog is bringing you the stories behind the staggering loss of life, the children, parents, grandparents, multiple generations of a single family, all gone in one of the worst natural disasters to hit the mountains of western North Carolina. This is the first installment. "
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