A few days after Hurricane Helene caused flooding, dirt and clay still clung to the streets. Many parking lots were washed out, especially in low-lying areas. 

Taylor Oakey is a cashier at Earth Fare in Boone, North Carolina, a college town and basecamp for folks looking to explore the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway. 

“I hope your family and friends have all been safe,” Oakey said to a customer as she rung him up. They exchanged info about free meals offered by local restaurants. 

Because floods severed communication between western North Carolina and the rest of the world, a lot of information about road closures, distribution centers and police checkpoints traveled by word of mouth. 

Boone saw some damage, but when Oakey’s Wi-Fi returned, she got her first look at the devastation outside of town on TikTok and Instagram. Still, social media posts could only tell her so much. 

Flooding in Linville, North Carolina, removed car-sized chunks of asphalt from the road. (Zachary Turner/WFAE) 

“A lot of people are sharing these pictures of the roads broken up online, but not sharing exact road names and locations,” Oakey said. 

Cell coverage in Boone returned faster than in many other towns. Elsewhere in the mountains, a different story played out. 

Sarah Padyk lives in Durham, North Carolina. The morning of the hurricane, her father sent a video from where he lives in Sylva — a town of about 2,600 people situated along a creek. 

“It was flooding I had never seen before in my lifetime, since I was born and raised in Sylva,” Padyk said.  

After that, she didn’t hear from her parents for 24 hours. When they finally called, they told her they could only get a signal by standing on a small stretch of highway near town. 

“It was like a 15-second phone call,” Padyk said. “Just, ‘Hey, I love you. We’re okay. Dogs are ok. Don’t know when we’re going to be able to call again.'” 

Padyk and others who were not in the storm’s path fell into a similar role. Through texts, social media, and piecemeal phone calls, they’ve been providing information about road closures, internet access and neighboring towns to their loved ones in the hardest-hit areas. That is, if they can reach them.  

And now, almost two weeks after the storm, service is still spotty in some areas. How is it that so much of western North Carolina lost connectivity for so long? For one, Hurricane Helene toppled power lines — around 86,000 are still waiting on power. In the most flooded areas, it may take months to repair damaged substations. Cell towers typically have backup power, but the fiber optic lines connecting some were damaged, or the generators washed away.

But those explanations haven’t satisfied everybody. Zeb Smathers is the mayor of Canton, a small town 30 minutes west of Asheville. He wishes cell providers could have done more to prepare for the storm. Blackouts have hindered everything, including search and rescue, recovery efforts and communication.  

“I’m still getting messages from loved ones looking for their loved ones, not only Canton but the region, because they can’t place a phone call,” Smathers said. 

Stacy Tindell, emergency management director at T-Mobile, said the company had been monitoring the storm a week before it made landfall. 

“We’re in this for the long haul. I anticipate we’ll be out there refueling generators for weeks,” Tindell said.  

In a written statement, an AT&T spokesperson said cell coverage has been returned to 98% of North Carolina communities. Verizon’s most recent update stated that repairs in the Southeast were 90% complete. 

A portable rooftop solar array is powering a satellite hotspot in rural western North Carolina. (Zachary Turner/WFAE) 

In western North Carolina, cell towers might not be fully operational for a while. But when Smathers, the mayor of Canton, finally connected to a satellite hotspot, he did get one message from his provider. 

“Verizon Wireless did send me a cell phone bill by text a few days ago, which I thought was a nice touch,” Smathers said.