Grapevine

Drowned by hurricane, remote N.Carolina towns now struggle for water

Nicole Crane, exhausted, tearful and unwashed after a week of searching for a neighbor swept away by the raging waters of Hurricane Helene, dreams of taking a shower.

But she and the other 100,000 residents of the US town of Asheville, North Carolina are without fresh drinking water, forced to rely on bottled water—or in some cases on river or spring water.

Dog teams finally found her neighbor's body the day before, "so not having fresh water has been low priority," she told AFP on Saturday, as a tanker nearby distributed the precious commodity.

As the region struggles to recover from the storm that killed at least 226 people across the US southeast, dumping a deluge onto the North Carolina mountains, one fundamental issue is of immediate concern: getting access to water.

Flood damage severely disrupted Asheville's water system.