Sam Perkins grew concerned on Saturday morning as he had not hearing from his parents after Helene tore through western parts of North Carolina before being forced to trek to their home as his attempts to drive were hampered by tornup roads
A North Carolina man hiked 11 miles and 2200 ft through Hurricane Helene devastation to reach his parents
Sam Perkins grew concerned on Saturday morning as he had not hearing from his parents after Helene tore through western parts of the state As he grew more worried Perkins attempted to drive to check on his parents who live in a mountain village between Spruce Pine and Little Switzerland
However as he tried to reach the isolated community he soon realised Helene had downed trees and ripped roads apart making the journey by car impossible But Sam was not letting the aftermath stop him checking on his parents so he ditched his car and opted to hike the rest of the way
READ MORE Hurricane Helene death toll rises to 128 as millions without power after horror storm caused devastation
READ MORE Couple who fell in love during 2022 hurricane vow to stick out Helenes wrath together claiming YOLO
Sam found his path blocked by torn up roads as he attempted to drive to his parents
Image
He told CNN I tried every road route I could but the roads no matter where you go are blocked by landslides or failures I cant tell you how many failing roads and deep mudslides I had to cross how many fallen trees I had to take off my backpack for and navigate through
Mark hiked for almost four hours through the destruction before finally reaching his parents who had been completely cut off from all resources He said I have never been so relieved to see anyone OK Perkins told CNN adding his parents are in their 70s but pretty resourceful people I just hugged them cried filled them in on all the news they were missing walked around the property helped them decide how to approach some challenges
Samaposs parents were trapped in the cutoff town of Asheville Hurricane Heleneaposs ground zero where 30 of the 121 hurricane deaths have occurred
Image
The storm has been blamed for at least 155 deaths across five states including 23 people in South Carolina and 11 in Florida But the death toll is sure to rise as authorities continue to take stock of Helenes devastation In hardhit Buncombe County North Carolina where Asheville is located authorities said they know people died but arent announcing anything because communication outages havent allowed them to reach relatives of the victims
The hurricane roared ashore Thursday night as a Category 4 storm on Floridas Gulf Coast and then quickly moved Friday through Georgia the Carolinas and Tennessee uprooting trees splintering homes and sending creeks and rivers over their banks and straining dams
President Joe Biden was briefed on Saturday evening by FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell and White House homeland security adviser Liz SherwoodRandall on the devastating impact Hurricane Helene wrought on the southeast according to the White House
Sam spent almost four hours trekking to his parents house in the mountains
Image
The briefing came after Criswell on Saturday visited the hardhit Big Bend community in Florida She is set to visit Georgia on Sunday and North Carolina on Monday to get a firsthand look at the damage
Biden according to the White House directed Criswell and SherwoodRandall to focus on how the administration can speed support to communities including the immediate deployment of additional search and rescue teams into North Carolina
The US President said in a statement Saturday he was deeply saddened by the loss of life and devastation from Helene and that he and first lady Jill Biden were praying for the families Biden was being regularly briefed by his team on the storm and the leader of the Federal Emergency Management Agency was in the region assessing the damage along with local officials
