Two weeks after Hurricane Helene tore through the southeastern United States, killing hundreds of people across multiple states and knocking out electricity for millions, volunteers are bringing solar power to hard-hit areas in North Carolina .
Helene made landfall Sept. 26 as a powerful Category 4 storm, causing disastrous flooding and landslides that destroyed neighborhoods and left at least 225 dead in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. North Carolina’s death toll accounted for around half of all of the victims as the hurricane brought several days of severe, torrential rainfall to the western part of the state. Around 1.5 million electricity customers in that region lost power during the storm , and many remain without it in Helene’s aftermath.
For Bobby Renfro, the constant din of a gas-powered generator is getting to be too much.
It’s difficult to hear the nurses, neighbors and volunteers flowing through the community resource hub he has set up in a former church for his neighbors in Tipton Hill, a crossroads in the Pisgah National Forest north of Asheville. Much worse is the cost: he spent $1,200 to buy it and thousands more on fuel that volunteers drive in from Tennessee.