Federal and state officials are rushing to airlift supplies to battered mountain communities in western North Carolina, where the storm left behind damaged water systems, washed-out roads and downed power lines.

Homes are destroyed, towns are cut-off and hundreds of people are still unaccounted for in the hard-hit state.

Travel in and out of much of Western North Carolina is nearly impossible after heavy rains and flooding battered the state in the path of Hurricane Helene.