Before and after photos show how Helene wiped parts of North Carolina off the map

CNN
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New before-and-after aerial photos paint a grim picture of Hurricane Helene's devastation in parts of western North Carolina that were difficult to access after the storm destroyed the state's roads and bridges.

The massive Category 4 hurricane cut a more than 500-mile path of destruction across the Southeast, killing more than 200 people – the second deadliest hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland in the past 50 years.

Many of these deaths are occurring in North Carolina, where the storm was marked by heavy rains and historic and catastrophic flooding.

According to the National Weather Service, the storm dumped so much water over the southern Appalachians over a three-day period that the region experienced a widespread, once-in-1,000-year rainfall event.

All the water rushed down the mountains, liquefying the slopes in some places into devastating mudslides that tore houses off their foundations. But at some point everything ended in rivers.

Water levels rose meters higher than ever seen before and took a new direction, destroying dozens of bridges, roads and homes and sending them downstream.

Chimney Rock, North Carolina, before and after Hurricane Helene.
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This was the case in Chimney Rock, North Carolina, which borders the Broad River.

“Everything on both sides of the river is gone,” said the city's mayor, Peter O'Leary. “Everything you take for granted has literally been washed away. “Every single business, every single building was destroyed or severely damaged,” O'Leary told CNN affiliate WSOC-TV.

A building in North Carolina was washed away by a swelling waterway in Helene's wake.
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Chimney Rock was not alone. Even large population centers like Asheville, mistakenly seen as a refuge from extreme weather like Helene, worsened by climate change, took it lightly.

The images show one building after another, partially or completely washed away by rivers that overflowed their banks and simply created new ones.

They also highlight the ongoing challenges of finding those who are still missing when parts of cities simply no longer exist, and the scale of the challenge that lies ahead to restore these places in a landscape now completely shattered by Mother Nature was changed.

Riverfront buildings are washed away after Hurricane Helene.
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According to Helene, a bridge over a river in North Carolina and the associated road no longer exist.
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A river now rages where buildings and a bridge once stood in North Carolina.
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