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The tiny roads made of ungraded and stone had been determination for generations, twisting byways that carried families up and down the mountains of occidental North Carolina. The asphalt highways were newer, built on cliffs and implicit rivers to link the portion with South Carolina and Tennessee.
But flooding fueled by the remnants of Hurricane Helene washed galore of those roads distant past week and grievously damaged galore others, stranding radical successful much distant locations and requiring lengthy detours done overmuch of the area.
More than 1,600 authorities proscription employees and contractors person already worked to reopen immoderate roads and portions of large highways, including interstate lanes astir Asheville. But arsenic of aboriginal Saturday, determination were just implicit 700 incidental reports noting a information of road inactive listed arsenic closed, impassable oregon different affected by the storm.
“People’s lives and livelihoods are connected the line, and there’s going to beryllium precise small patience for delay,” said Tabitha Combs, an adjunct prof focused connected proscription readying and policy, astatine the University of North Carolina astatine Chapel Hill.