Yahoo News Edinburgh student's horror as American hometown 'washed away' in Hurricane Helene
A Morningside resident told of her terror as Hurricane Helene 'washed away' her hometown in North Carolina where her mother lives.
The category four hurricane devastated the south eastern United States, leaving over 120 dead and millions without power.
President Joe Biden called the storm “catastrophic” and “history-making” when he addressed the nation on Monday, October 1. It has already become one of the deadliest and costliest storms in US history.
Sophie Dansereau, a 31-year-old graduate student at the University of Edinburgh, watched news coverage in horror while her community was devastated by the hurricane.
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The social work student is from Ashville, North Carolina where massive flooding destroyed much of the city - and some areas saw flood waters as high as 27 feet.
Sophie lives in Edinburgh’s Morningside, but her mother - 65-year-old Suzanne Dansereau - still lives in Ashville.
When power lines and cell towers went out, Sophie went for days without updates on her mother’s safety. She spoke about how it felt to lose contact with family while the hurricane tore through her hometown.
She said: “It felt really surreal and nerve wracking. It was unsettling to look in on the area via social media. There were waves of panic with no way to contact people. The whole power grid in Ashville was down.”
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Sophie began trying to contact her mother on Friday, September 27 but said “the landlines were dead, everything was blacked out.”
Many people were taking to social media searching for relatives and details about the damage in different areas of Ashville. Sophie said that images of the town were “really, really bad” - she worried about tree fall around her mother’s home, and if she had access to clean water.
On Saturday, a friend was able to contact Suzanne. He drove to her street, which was blocked by fallen trees, and was able to confirm that she was safe and her home undamaged.
Finally, Sophie was able to speak directly with her mother on Monday, September 30.
Sophie was relieved to hear from her mother, but said that accessing basic resources remains a challenge. Suzanne has been going to Publix - a grocery chain - for Wi-Fi and clean water.
As Ashville reels in Helene’s aftermath, rebuilding will likely continue for months. Sophie spoke on how it feels to continue her studies amid the ongoing crisis.
She said: “There’s an adrenaline rush in crisis mode, but once it all dies down, you have the actual processing to do.
“It is surreal because I have to keep going to my classes, but half my brain is wondering how people are doing at home. You want to help in these situations but it’s completely out of my control.
“It’s devastating to see places you know covered in mud or washed away. It’s a shock to the system.
“The climate disaster is a reality now. These severe weather patterns are being experienced all over the world. I’m always thinking about what I can do to help.”
Sophie plans to write her social work master’s dissertation on the role of social workers in aiding refugees from the climate crisis. She shared some resources for those wishing to donate to disaster-relief.
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