Hundreds of roadways are closed in North Carolina, including parts of two interstates, snarling delivery routes and posing a challenge for the logistics community as it works to get supplies to trapped residents.
Hurricane Helene hit Florida on Thursday and crawled along the Southeast, devastating western North Carolina. The region was inundated by heavy rain — up to 30 inches in some parts — which caused severe flooding, wiping away roadways and downing power lines in that part of the state. Some residents in the mountains were stranded.
More than 100 people across six states have died from Helene, officials said.
“This is unprecedented,” said Ben Greenberg, president and CEO of North Carolina Trucking Association.
The state trucking organization is coordinating supply drops, but “it’s simply not enough,” Greenberg said. The infrastructure woes paired with the looming port strike will further complicate efforts to get supplies to those who need them most, he said.
Although Greenberg said he has not received reports yet from association members who were impacted by the catastrophe, he said he is “100% confident” some member companies and distribution centers were affected by the storm.
Kathy Fulton, the executive director of nonprofit American Logistics Aid Network, said the situation in North Carolina was desperate. Over 400,000 homes and businesses were without power on Monday, according to PowerOutage.us.
The nonprofit provides logistics assistance to disaster relief nonprofits by coordinating aid requests. Helene is the sixth storm the agency has responded to this year, Fulton said.
As roadways are cleared, Fulton said supplies will reach communities in need. She said air drops were underway. Some local truck drivers were already hauling supplies, Greenberg said.
Access to clean water remains the biggest need, Fulton said.
“This particular disaster is very much like Hurricane Maria, in that we have immense loss of power,” she said. “The people in North Carolina are cut off because we’re on the top of a mountain or the side of a mountain, and the roads are washed away.”
Michael Rettig of Lift Non-Profit Logistics, an organization that connects disaster relief organizations with needed supplies, said helicopters have played a vital role in supplying North Carolinians with resources.
A Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesperson said infrastructure has posed a challenge to emergency responders, who were working to get supplies to residents as fast as possible. Flooding and loss of power are complicating those efforts as well.
Food, water and tarps are on standby and being trucked in as needed, the spokesperson said.
FEMA deployed 25 trailer-loads of food and 60 trailer-loads of water to North Carolina. A C-17 cargo plane full of food, water and other supplies arrived at a base in Asheville. Eighteen helicopters were on standby to deliver supplies to affected communities.
“We are an agency that is built on helping people respond to and recover from disasters such as this,” the spokesperson said. “So, they are challenging, but we have the best people working on these issues to help this community.”
A strain on infrastructure
About 280 state-maintained roads were closed in North Carolina on Monday. The state transportation department advised that restoration of roadways and bridges is expected to take months.
Portions of I-40, near the Tennessee-North Carolina border, collapsed after catastrophic rainfall. Greenberg described the interstate as a “significant access point.” Now, truck drivers will have to seek detours, which may not always be accessible in heavy-duty trucks.
The North Carolina Department of Transportation said all roadways in Western North Carolina should be considered closed. More than 1,600 employees were working to clear roadways, the department said.
At least 11 landslides were reported.
Crews will prioritize reopening interstates and highways first, the transportation department said.
“The scope and magnitude of this devastation is unlike anything many long-time residents have ever seen in western North Carolina,” state Transportation Secretary Joey Hopkins said in a statement.
It is too soon to tell how this disaster will impact the freight market, said David Spencer, vice president of market intelligence at Arrive Logistics. Carriers are already showing less interest in traveling through this area, he said.
Spencer anticipates effort-related orders will increase as the week progresses.