ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) 鈥� Nearly a week after brought devastation to western North Carolina, a shiny stainless steel tanker truck in downtown Asheville attracted residents carrying 5-gallon containers, milk jugs and buckets to fill with what has become a desperately scare resource 鈥� drinking water.
Flooding tore through the city鈥檚 water system, destroying so much infrastructure that officials said repairs could take weeks. To make do, Anna Ramsey arrived Wednesday with her two children, who each left carrying plastic bags filled with 2 gallons (7.6 liters) of water.
鈥淲e have no water. We have no power. But I think it鈥檚 also been humbling,鈥� Ramsey said.
贬别濒别苍别鈥檚 left a trail of power outages so large the darkness was visible from space. and more than 200 people were killed, making Helene the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. since in 2005. Hundreds of people are still unaccounted for, and search crews must to learn whether residents are safe.
It also damaged water utilities so severely and over such a wide inland area that one federal official said the toll 鈥渃ould be considered unprecedented.鈥� As of Thursday, about 136,000 people in the Southeast were served by a nonoperational water provider and more than 1.8 million were living under a boil water advisory, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Western North Carolina was especially hard hit. Officials are facing a difficult rebuilding task made harder by the steep, narrow valleys of the that during a more typical October would attract throngs of fall tourists.
鈥淭he challenges of the geography are just fewer roads, fewer access points, fewer areas of flat ground to stage resources鈥� said Brian Smith, acting deputy division director for the EPA's water division in the Southeast.
After days without water, people long for more than just a sponge bath.
鈥淚 would love a shower,鈥� said Sue Riles 鈥淩unning water would be incredible.鈥�
The raging floodwaters of Helene destroyed crucial parts of Asheville鈥檚 water system, scouring out the pipes that convey water from a reservoir in the mountains above town that is the largest of three water supplies for the system. To reach a second reservoir that was knocked offline, a road had to be rebuilt. And without water, it鈥檚 unlikely that schools can resume in-person classes, or the city鈥檚 hotels and restaurants can fully reopen.
Even water that鈥檚 unfit to drink is scarce. Drew Reisinger, the elected Buncombe County register of deeds, worries about people in apartments who can鈥檛 easily haul a bucket of water from a creek to flush their toilet. Officials are advising people to collect nondrinkable water for household needs from a local swimming pool.
鈥淥ne thing no one is talking about is the amount of poop that exists in every toilet in Asheville,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e're dealing with a public health emergency.鈥�
It鈥檚 a situation that becomes more dangerous the longer it lasts. Even in communities fortunate enough to have running water, hundreds of providers have issued boil water notices indicating the water could be contaminated. But boiling water for cooking and drinking is time consuming and small mistakes can cause stomach illness, according to Natalie Exum, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
鈥淓very day that goes by, you could be exposed to a pathogen,鈥� Exum said. 鈥淭hese basic services that we take for granted in our everyday lives actually do do a lot to prevent illness.鈥�
Travis Edwards鈥� faucet worked immediately after the storm. He filled as many containers as he could for himself and his child, but it didn鈥檛 take long for the flow to weaken, then stop. They rationed water, switching to hand sanitizer and barely putting any on toothbrushes.
鈥�(We) didn鈥檛 realize how dehydrated we were getting,鈥� he said.
Federal officials have shipped millions of gallons of water to areas where people also might not be able to make phone calls or switch on the lights.
Power has been restored to about 62% of homes and businesses and 8,000 crews are out working to restore power in the hardest hit parts of North Carolina, federal officials said Thursday. In 10 counties, about half of the cell sites are still down.
The first step for some utilities is simply figuring out how bad the damage is, a job that might require EPA expertise in extreme cases. Ruptured water pipes are a huge problem. They often run beneath roads, many of which were crumpled and twisted by floodwaters.
鈥淧retty much anytime you see a major road damaged, there鈥檚 a very good chance that there鈥檚 a pipe in there that鈥檚 also gotten damaged,鈥� said Mark White, drinking water global practice leader at the engineering firm CDM Smith.
Generally, repairs start at the treatment plant and move outward, with fixes in nearby big pipes done first, according to the EPA.
鈥淥ver time, you鈥檒l gradually get water to more and more people,鈥� White said.
Many people are still missing people, and water repair employees don鈥檛 typically work around search and rescue operations. It takes a toll, according to Kevin Morley, manager of federal relations with the American Water Works Association.
鈥淭here鈥檚 emotional support that is really important for all the people involved. You鈥檙e seeing people鈥檚 lives just wiped out,鈥� he said.
Even private well owners aren鈥檛 immune. Pumps on private and .
There鈥檚 often a 鈥渂lind faith鈥� assumption that drinking water won鈥檛 fail. In this case, the technology was insufficient, according to Craig Colten. Before retiring to Asheville, he was a professor in Louisiana focused on resilience to extreme weather. He hopes Helene will prompt politicians to spend more to ensure infrastructure withstands destructive storms.
And climate change will only make the problem more severe, said Erik Olson, a health and food expert at the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council.
鈥淚 think states and the federal government really need to step back and start looking at how we鈥檙e going to prepare for these extreme weather events that are going to be occurring and recurring every single year,鈥� he said.
Edwards has developed a system to save water. He鈥檒l soap dirty dishes and rinse them with a trickle of water with bleach, which is caught and transferred to a bucket 鈥� useable for the toilet.
Power and some cell service have returned for him. And water distribution sites have guaranteed some measure of normalcy: Edwards feels like he can start going out to see friends again.
鈥淭o not feel guilty about using more than a cup of water to, like, wash yourself 鈥� I鈥檓 really, really grateful,鈥� he said.
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Phillis reported from St. Louis. Associated Press writer Rebecca Santana contributed from Washington.
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Michael Phillis, Jeff Amy And Brittany Peterson, The Associated Press
