that's near lake lure and chimney rock. and here's what downtown asheville looks like right now before the storm of vibrant downtown area. it's now entirely underwater in chimney rock is small tour first half of the population, just over 100 people the town is now in disarray. the bubble o'leary general store ruined. bhatt general will store is owned by the mayor of chimney rock and mayor at peter o'leary joins me. now may are larry. thank you so much for being here this evening. it is just so difficult to see these images. we know your town is in very rough shape can you give us your assessment how much damage are we talking about we've talked about a tremendous amount of damage. >> i mean, it's literally people have talked about the town being just wiped away and washed away and while not literally true, it's just devastating. i mean, the doubt the business district, which is very small and serves all the visitors that come through is virtually 100%. either destroyed or damaged to the point where the buildings may need to

search and rescue efforts to bulldoze over chimney rock. on and on and on like that. today, president biden addressed this wave of insane conspiracy theories and directly called out the maga politicians responsible for promoting them. >> these lies are un-american, there is simply no place for them, not now, not ever. former president donald trump has led this onslaught of lies, the claims are getting more bizarre. marjorie taylor greene, the congressman from georgia, is now saying the federal government is controlling the weather. it is beyond ridiculous, it is so stupid, it's got to stop area >> joining me is the only member of the united states congress who is also a meteorologist, representative eric sorensen of illinois. thank you for joining me tonight. i wonder, both as a u.s. congressman and meteorologists, what you make of the absolutely insane conspiracy theories that the government can control the weather? >> it is amazing, it is good to be with you. first things first, thinking about the folks in harm's way in florida today and

fox weather meteorologist jane minar is live in hard hit chimney rock. jane?are on the west joint into chimney rock where it is still being patrolled as access is very limited at this point. the 101st airborne unit with the u.s. army they left chimney rock yesterday but the national guard is replacing their efforts with recovery as it continues. the governor out of north carolina where cooper coming up with update yesterday with 92 missing people. the putting together a special task force to account for everybody who is missing but it is feared that unfortunately given the scale of this and now we are entering into the three week mark some may never be found. here we are in chimney rock where it was a journey to get up here as these roads are still difficult to traverse, many of which are still cut off. standing on the banks of the broad river and you can still see the extent of the damage and debris that is tossed along the shores here pushing downtown broad river. chimney rock hard hit when you look at the scale of the devastation in western north carolina.

local officials have confirmed that the government is not seizing chimney rock.ials are not abandoning search and rescue efforts to bulldoze over chimney rock. it goes on and on and on like that. today, president biden addressed this wave of insane conspiracy theories and directly called out that maga politicians responsible for promoting them. >> these lies are un-american, there is no place for them, not now, not ever. former president donald trump has led this onslaught of lies, the claims are getting more bizarre. marjorie taylor greene, the congresswoman from georgia, the federal government is controlling the weather. it is beyond ridiculous, it is so stupid. it's got to stop. >> joining me is the only member of the united states congress who is also a meteorologist, representative eric sorensen of illinois. thank you for joining me tonight. i wonder both as u.s. congressman and meteorologist, what you make of the absolutely paranoid and basis conspiracy theories that the government can control the weather? >> it is amazing, it is good to be with you, first

this is the chimney rock country fair, they call it, a colorful amusement park. this is before the storm. tonight, look at this. nothing is left. the road is completely gone. the fair's website says "permanently closed." >> reporter: tonight, recovery from helene's devastating destruction entering its second week. >> almost up to my knees. this is nuts. i ain't never seen something like this. >> reporter: the search for survivors exhausting, but everyone holding out hope. >> we know these are hard times, but please know we're coming. we're coming to get you. >> reporter: when rescue crews clear a property they mark it with an "x." the zero means no one was found inside. as of this morning there are hundreds still missing here in buncombe county. the north carolina national guard says their chopper teams and rescue crews have rescued more than 530 people and more than 100 pets, but so many areas still inaccessible. this drone video showing a department of transportation crew trying to carve a path into the town of chimney rock. here's what the area looked like bef

jane is live in hard hit chimney rock. hi, jane. >> good morning, we are just outside because access is restricted. we'll meet with the mayor later this morning to look at what is happening. the airborne you unit left yesterday when they were in there and the national guard will replace them. this is time of year it is boosting with tourism, but not the case. here is what the mayor had to say about this economic hurt. >> economically, we are all def st stated and starting from zero. chimney rock park can have 10,000 visitors over a weekend, nobody can get into unless you hike in. >> starting from zero, some have reopened for visitors, but it is limited. back to you. >> steve: it looks like it, thank you, live report from chimney rock. down in georgia, a judge there blocked new rule requiring election day ballot be counted by hand by people ruling it would create administrative chaos for poll workers. law professor jonathan turley joins us now. it sounds like the judge said there is a deadline in law, we will stay by that.

the mayor there says he is heartbroken. >> the chimney rock that i moved to and love is different. and it's, it's just hard to hard to uh- hard to figure all that out >> president biden says he will travel to north carolina wednesday to survey the damage. fema is working to deliver relief supplies to hard hit mountain neighborhoods by air, truck and even using mules. >> the devastation so widespread and so scary. you know, i always like to think that we have some of the best weather in the country. however, we're contending with something else. >> yeah, some slightly dangerous conditions here as well. let's get to meteorologist sandhya patel for the latest. sandhya. yeah. >> diane and ama, we are in for several days of a prolonged heat wave, and it is going to be dangerous. so let's talk about those temperatures compared to 24 hours ago. they're running double digits higher in many areas from san francisco to hayward, oakland, morgan hill. and because of this, we're going to see it warm up quickly tomorrow. we're already starting out milder tomorrow morning. now tomorrow afternoon

welcome to chimney rock. the challenge to getting back to normal life is the stuff we take for granted. power, water, sewer and transportation, roadways. so all of those were were destroyed to a large degree. chimney rock has about 125 year round residents. the village is 100% based on tourism, so if the tourists aren't coming for whatever reason, then the people here are not making a living. here's me. i'm standing in my kitchen and this is a 907 right there. it had torn off the deck and this was left. i left like right after this. when i took this video. i grabbed some things and my cat, and we got out of there. when will we be back? i think it will be when the first meal is served to a tourist, or the first tee shirt is sold to a tourist. sometimes when we live here, we forget the stunning beauty of where we live. this place ranks up there with anywhere in the world. not only do i believe that, i know that you can watch the nbc news digital documentary, welcome to chimney rock at nbc news.com, or on youtub

communities like chimney rock are reduced to piles of debris. this will pay for the urgent work needed to clear the area and supply food and shelter and medicine and i am also directing the department of defense to move 1000 soldiers to reinforce north carolina's national guard because they need additional assistance. the soldiers are out of fort livery -- fort liberty and are responsible for operations starting today. they will speed up the delivery of food, water, medicine, isolate the communities for the last tactical mile. simply put we have the capabilities to get the job done and we will get it done as fast as possible. i have directed the deployment of starling satellites. some are in place now and more will be put in place so people can call for help and reach their loved ones. they currently have no cell service. fema is offering free temporary housing and hotel rooms for eligible residents. they are continuing to send helicopters and trucks to deliver hundreds of thousands of meals and water to communities every day and they are knocki

no at least in chimney rock, there's absolutely no sign of that what is your message to those who are spreading this disinformation? don't don't spread information that you have no idea if it's true or not. and if you see something on the internet and you start spreading it, then you have no idea if it's true. that's, that's if i don't know how many people obviously these people haven't taken any real journalism classes, but my son is a journalist and that's the first thing you do is you don't just start spreading things. you actually go and check it out. until you know something for a fact you shouldn't be spreading it because it's chances are it's not true and they can be harmful and dangerous and hinder recovery efforts that you pointed out. all right. mayor absolutely. mayor peter o'leary. thank you so much for your time and best of luck as you try to rebuild. i know how difficult every single day is for you for your town. but we can about y'all let me just say one thing because you're talking about all the people spreading the misinformation. >> there are so many people far more

time on, you know, these shows, podcast, you haven't seen the response i know i've been up to chimney rockeen such devastation what would your message be to her in the white house sean would like to know? >> where are you? where are you? these people have lost their homes, they lost their businesses, they've lost everything and they need some support reminding you help and $750 is not much help. >> and some people didn't even get the 750 so there's a lot of people i couldn't even apply for it because, sean, there's no connectivity out here, we can get connectivity in the mountains unless they're starlike you had absolutely no activity and people can't, jimmy what is your message to the white house and they were easy to get a hold of and they called me back but what i was talking to fema, they told me they would have to meet me on my property. >> and a lot of them didn't even make their way up to the property -- >> haven't been able to access the property but what i was talking to them i was driving on the road and a fema person told me before i hung up and he said well were categorizing th

we're about to fly over chimney rock, north carolina. it's one of the hardest hit areas. some people are stuck there, and it's basically cut off from the outside world. now, this town is deep into the appalachian mountains close to lake lure, and the few roads in and out were washed away. we saw collapsed bridges, piles of debris and countless uprooted trees and destroyed homes. chimney rock is just one of the many mountain communities that helene nearly destroyed. now, search and rescue crews are still on the ground trying to find missing people. the majority of stories we're hearing from survivors are neighbors helping neighbors. some people say they've already -- they're already working with fee that to -- fema to the apply for assistance, but some haven't seen or heard from the feds yet. samaritan's purse is one of of the many organizations that jumped in to help almost immediately. >> everything, ultimately, is a decision about the allocation of resources. and that gets political. and i don't know what's going if on with the federal government, i don't want to critic

so for the last two days they've been trying to get supplies out to other cities and chimney rock orthey also know that here shortly this is going to be -- the world may move on to the next crisis and that those warehouses that they are starting to fill with supplies and that they've seen fill up with supplies will start to eventually dwindle down. we all know that winter is coming and that it will be a long recovery process. and so what they are asking is that put it on your calendar and for october 20th, 30th, or november 3rd. three or six weeks from now they'll still need aid and support. southern appalachia has always been a place of need and a place of poverty. your supplies if you can donate them will go a long way to the recovery process, which will take a long time. >> bill: you did work in iraq as well. tell us based on what you saw, how bad is it? >> you know, it's interesting because people will say this town was wiped out or this town is gone and if people look at pictures of chimney rock you may say that. what i can tell you is that the people are still there and they fo

they are trying to take such care and cautious with trying to find missing persons in the chimney rockre area, and we know that there are cracks in the system and they are definitely going to show up during this. but we really need to know, people to know that this region is strong and that we can get through this with support. neil: absolutely. mistie, you're to be thanked yourself. you're not that type of person, cheerily, but after you -- clearly, but after you confirmed you were okay, a lot of people would say, i'm fine, i can just hold back and everything will be fine. but you've been looking after a lot of people, you're worried about looking after them. my guest -- best to you, your family. hope you make contact with a lot of your friends, and we hope they're well. a couple of hundred are still missing, we hope they just cannot reach people and that's the issue and that they will be found. mistie, thank you very much. >> thank you, neil. neil: be safe, be well x. in this rage when we argue with each other bang and -- back and forth, it's that kind of stuff that matters, being hu

heartbreaking to see just how much damage there is and how widespread it is the small village of chimney rock, which is a favorite for towns people, and for tourists alike that one of the hardest hit places, what are you hearing about that particular area was briefly able to get into the lake lore chimney rock area and actually speak with the mayor of a chimney rockets a beautiful little destination tourist town that is so low of by tourists. >> he's calling it total devastation. everything's gone 50% of his neighbors, i'm sure it's a small, tight-knit community, but 50% of his neighbors have lost their homes. all of the businesses in the business district, they're gone, they're collapses, including his own store has collapsed. he saying that it's hundred percent destroyed. family members can't reach loved ones. self-service is nonexistence. existence. he is asking biden the administration for some help from some financial commitment that they're going to need to rebuild. and he saying that that will take years in his community. sara listen to what else he had to say wrap my head around it to

i've i've heard a few rumblings have some complaints, but i mean, we haven't seen anything in chimney rockt's for sure joining me now, retired us army lieutenant general russel honore. >> he started as commander of joint task force katrina following the 2005 hurricane that devastated the gulf coast. he's also the author of leadership in the new normal. thank you so much for being here. look, seima, now has a website setup. it's dedicated to addressing all of the false information, all of the rumors. i do wonder what kind of impact have you seen this all have on the federal response? >> well, i think from my experience, aid to katrina targeted people honest survivors in many of them don't have electricity, don't have media. but with courage cell phones. and as the internet come back online, have access, it's demoralizing. and then that's rumor gets spread. you know, we dealt with that and country the two laura, they will rumors of the government blowing levies and snipers. and you have to immediately engage with it through the media at large as well. he's a great tight. did that fema is usi

op actually flew over a chimney rock lake, completely devastated. don't even know there is ascre word to describe what i witnessed. it's -- it'sha nothing short of tragic. people lost their lives their homes went down the river. it was actually so devastatingso that there was a geological shift in the river. so where the river- to whethe re actually been, at one point, ity actually shifted to another area within the community. so an entirenity golf course was gone. a mini golf restaurants toppled buer, the streets were covered with debris. but there waere's ons one thing that was certain and one thing that i saw it was residents. it saw, firefighters. law en it was law enforcement, it wasfo the sheriffs. its th was people coming out helping one another. comie of peoplem right here. they came with us because they want the american people, sean, to know the truth. i've got newland mayor here. it's derek roberts. i've got the coroner fromavery avery countyco who is with me, john millen. oh, i've got david calder real estate real estate executive who lo

a charlotte councilman volunteering in the lake lure chimney rock area posting these horrific images, what he could only describe as a post-apocalyptic landscape. so much left unrecognizable after the region was pummeled by floods washing homes and neighborhoods away, families short of so many things and beginning to grow short on patience too. george solis is in north carolina for us tonight. george, how is the recovery going? >> reporter: lester, recovery efforts are ongoing. certainly not making things any easier, the rain. officials telling us they have received thousands of calls but they've prioritized 150, trying to get to those people that are elderly and medically dependent. tonight hurricane helene has moved on but left in its wake a trail of death and destruction. officials in north carolina say they were blinded by helene's sheer intensity. homes swept away. restaurants and shops torn to pieces. communities cut off from clean water and electricity, leaving residents nowhere to go. >> shelters are at capacity. those shelters only provide overnight lodging, food and water. f

we've talked to people who believe there were federal officials who were seizing a town called chimney rock, that there was a conspiracy to seize the town and bulldoze all the bodies and hide them, maybe to it for lithium. >> jordan: do you see what's happening? people are afraid those who are coming to help her actually coming to steal their lithium. everyone, let's be clear, completely clear. the u.s. government doesn't destroy towns to steal their resources... in the u.s. in the middle east, she would. [laughter] all this misinformation distracts from the fact that there are real people in these disaster zones who need help. like this heartbreaking photo of this little girl and her puppy. beneath all these lies, her suffering is real. >> note, these photos claiming to showgirls and puppies being rescued after hurricane helene are not real. they were made with ai." >> jordan: ! how could something so fake elicit such real tears? of course this hurricane is happening in 2024, which means on top of all the misinformation from our politicians, we also have to deal with the flood of fake ai b

caller: a caller called in about chimney rock. this is not the first time that town has fell into the water. you have heavy floods up this way, especially in the mountain areas, this hurricane was a noah's flood type thing that not only flooded rivers over the banks but brought the mountain down with it. look at the copper graphical map -- topographical map. as far as fema goes, i think they have done as well as they can. this republican congress passed that bill in the midst of the storm. they did not know the damage. they did not want to hang around another day. i hope you are still there. host: we are still here. caller: they did not want to hang around. they got out of town. they should have passed extra supplemental funding! host: leslie, we prefer not to use that kind of language. shana, any response? guest: we know it was a terrible and devastating storm. we saw a really heavy, unprecedented rainfall. it was already moist soils. it is just devastating. we have not seen this kind of flooding before. as the caller said, they

residents there vowing to rebuild. >> the life in chimney rock is strong, okay? like the rocks.lders may be moved, but we will come back together. >> reporter: survivors of the storm growing more desperate for food and water since helene barrelled through. >> we haven't had power, water, very low on food. >> reporter: gas lines a mile long. >> we are continuing to ramp up commodities particularly water and mre's as well as fuel an other resources into the impacted community. >> reporter: hundreds still >> if anybody's seen her or knows anything, please let somebody know. >> reporter: she and her fiance john norwood sought shelter at a neighbor's house when helene hit, but a mud slide took out the home. >> we looked outside and there was a 30 foot tall wall of water and rocks and tree debris just coming at us. it just knocked the house straight down with all of us in it. we all got washed down river. >> reporter: john saved by rescuers, using a buoy to bring him to safety over rushing floodwaters. julie hasn't been seen since. >> i crawled around screaming for her. i just couldn'

the main road in chimney rock and biltmore and parts of asheville now look like jagged riverbeds.h carolina's governor roy cooper emphasize that into recovery and rebuilding effort, the state must prioritize rebuilding with resilience in mind and he said we need to take this time to make sure that when we rebuild western carolina -- and we will -- that it is done in a more resilient way. join me now is michael, the director of the penn center for science sustainability and the author of many portables including our fragile moment: how lessons from earth's pass can help us survive the climate crisis. thanks for being here. >> always good to be with you i have covered hurricanes for a long time typically, we would not even think of the coverage of a hurricane that came into the big bend in a florida. we would not think about going to asheville, north carolina. we think about having an impact where it makes landfall and a little bit inward with somebody. this tells us about how complicated our climate has become in the fact that a place like asheville, which you would not have though

for the fact of your point, brian, about the optics, the entire town, for example, of chimney rock, which the beloved "dirty dancing" was filmed in, and "the last of the mohicans," americans feel a personal investment there. how hard is it for our leadership to acknowledge the emotional impact all of this has when we see our fellow americans suffering like that? when we see them suffering in silence with no way out. you have heard me mention many times, saved our allies, on this couch. they stood in the gap of administration errors in afghanistan when he left our allies behind. they are headquartered in north carolina. right now they are the military individuals that are there, boots on the ground, supplying and helping all of those americans who need our help. anyone depending on the federal government, it's for leadership and optics, but the actual boots on the ground helping this fellow americans that save our allies, that the united states veterans speeeighteen, and i hope you got it illegally are administered in sometime soon, but i'm not holding my breath. >> harris: this is a hero

phone with the deputy secretary from faa i they had a total flight restriction over asheville and chimney rock -- elizabeth: why? i'm sorry to interrupt. >> they were saying because of the president's is visit, but this was in place after of the flyover from the president. i had constituents that were donating their own, their time, their aircraft, their own supply, they were going in, doing search and rescue and dropping off critical supplies that were told that they would lose their pilot's license. so we have already stepped in, and we have demanded a list for any adverse action that has been referred to the f ark a for any pilots that have been told they're going to the lose their pilot's license if they go in and deliver aid or rescue people. this is ab is sured. what is happening though -- absurd. the f if a a a is i saying, listen, it's the state of north carolina that's making this request. now, we know the governor is at odds with the lieutenant governor. i think there should be someone looking into what the state's with request has been up to this point. elizabeth you know what? the

when did you go down chimney rock, those communities are gone.more rural ones that just need help. we have got a lot of work to do. >> lawrence: everyone that i have spoken to said they have seen you guys on the ground. >> we go where it's needed and right now it's in our backyard. we had staff members who lost their homes and crawling out themselves. thousands of volunteers that go out to do disaster relief cleaning up homes. working hard in nashville and the boone country. god brings us the best people. i appreciate these guys that are flying for us pro bono. they are not from the south. they are here helping. i appreciate them very much for getting these needed generators. it's getting cold. we got to get people's power and heat source back on. >> lawrence: yeah. look. people can give to what are organization they see fit. me personally, i like giving to samaritan's purse, because i know that the money is going directly to the people. sometimes you got all these organizations go through that you will bureaucracy and all that you see their men

we've got entire towns like chimney rock, north carolina, wiped off the map. people are dying. they're suddenly homeless. they're stranded. people are reportedly literally using mirrors to flash sos messages to helicopters to get help that may never come. the southeast literally still underwater. joining us now from senate armed services, coach tommy tuberville. senator, it's good to see you. so about a billion dollars in fema money since last year's been going to the border crisis, basically turning parts of fema into an illegal alien services agency for things like shelter. what's happening? >> well, no organization. we give $20 the billion a year to fema, and unfortunately they have drained everything dry with all the illegal aliens coming in. we've spent $200 billion in ukraine, $2500 a month on all illegal aliens and, liz, we're only giving these people that have lost everything $750 one-time payment. same thing happened in maui. these people in the white house right now could care less about the american citizens. they are just out trying now to just make sure that they l

here in north carolina and why they can't get pictures out of there here's the road, here's the chimney rock country fair, the river way down here, parking lot, carousel. >> now i push you ahead to after the river raged through it there is no wrote there's no parking lot. >> there's no carousel, there's no way to get here and no way to get up or down the river because there is no road watch this home that was there. >> there's not even a speck of road or the home itself. now we're here to the welcome center. here were the new tennis and pickleball courts were just covered completely in mud, but so much more happened. here's the rocky river crossing bridge, not even an old bridge, can't find the road, can't find the bridge. no idea where it is. same story here as the river rage down here on the backside of these homes. so many places here and bridges that are completely missing roads, homes, completely wiped out here in parts of north carolina and even into parts of south carolina as well as all of that water and tennessee can't leave you out here here's the bridge here across the river, very

this drone video showing a transportation crew trying to carve a path into the town of chimney rock. the area looked like before. this vibrant amusement park, and now signs it never existed. in the town of swannanoa, this neighborhood nearly gutted one week ago. the floodwater lifting trailers, flooding homes, now debris, furniture, personal belongings lining the streets. >> we were just kind of holding behind that chimney. >> reporter: john trying to salvage what he can after he says the rising floodwater forced him and his family onto the roof where they waited hours before being rescued. he says neither he nor any of his neighbors have flood insurance. >> this is just not the kind of thing we see in asheville. you know, we've already denied that coverage, and we're working with fema to see whatever they're going to be able to do. >> reporter: as the cleanup continues, a growing need for relief. thousands still without power and water across the storm zone. relief coming in from all points, food, water, and generators. >> we are just so grateful for everything, everything that ever

in many areas just chimney rock, north carolina, entire parts of towns including bridges, roads, and buildings. were wiped away present joe biden surveyed the devastated areas in the southeast again on thursday, first in florida alongside republican senator rick scott later in georgia, where he said, he hopes people will come together and break down rapid partisanship in us politics. ryan young reports on president biden's stop in valdosta, georgia all throughout laos county, which is 500 square miles. >> you see destruction like what's behind me. you see this house right here with a tree across its roof and the house next door has a tree across its roof. we've seen this repeat itself over and over again. crews have been working their way to clear streets to make things safe for residents. but that's why the president showed up here. we know that this has been such an powerful storm that they need federal assistance in this area president went through to see the areas that were damaged. we knew agriculture has been greatly impacted small businesses have been impacted, and they need f

small rural communities that have been more gravely affected and completely wiped out, including chimney rock, lake, lure, marshall. i know there for a lot of people there who have rapidly run out of food and water. so we're just trying to figure out the best way to get the supplies that we have here, evenly distributed. and to the people that need them, the most the cell service issue, just talk to us a little bit about what people are saying, about what that does to them. >> when they are in these perilous situations, they're unable to connect with people. have they've been able to connect since it's been down town now with wi-fi and with service. >> i think they're a temporary cell towers that were brought in that people can access. but for the first, you four days, i mean, it does take an immense psychological toll. i've been talking about that with a lot of people not having any way to communicate with loved ones. and then of course loved ones in different my families in california. so they had no way to contact me i mean, people are still missing by the thousands and their loved ones ha

that used to be a town right next to lake lure in north carolina called chimney rock wiped out.ting days for relief gianna. >>> the callen dear says october but it's certainly feeling sleek summer even san francisco is sweating it out and toda could see temperatures soar back into the 90s in the city. people living in the bay view near bay shore and paul had to stay outside in the heat all afternoon yesterday. they were evacuated after a gas leak prompted precautionary evacuations. they were not even allowed to go back home until after 8:00 p.m. long day for them. well, the city used an sfmta bus as a makeshift cooling center for evacuees to just get out of the heat. i mean creative way to sort of give these you know, folks a break. but what a terrible long day to not be able to be in the home and deal with the gas leak and no ac. that's tough. >>> it is really tough. and it's the reality for us right now because we're getting another day of this heat wave here in the bay area. i mean, i walked out the door this morning, it was already 63-degrees. that's our daytime high usually

hurricane helene was not joe engineered by the government to these access lithium deposits in chimney rockose that's the rumors that they're having to confront right now. >> yeah. i mean, that press releases just a remarkable modern document and that it kind of lays out point by point by point, all of these things and there are many more, many more than that and then says, look, this is none of this is true and now of course we're here. alright, let's turn now back to the campaign tonight. vice presidential candidate tim walz participating in a hunters and anglers for harris-walz organizing call. it's the latest effort by the campaign to try to leverage walz's folksy football coach and hunter persona to appeal to male voters. this push is coming after poll, after poll tells the same story. women are backing harris by a 14 point margin in this survey, men supporting trump by 16 points, that divide of course, part of the reason former president obama gave this message to black male voters when he made his campaign trail debut last week speaking to men directly part of it makes me think that

rain, so ground would be almost unimaginable if not from the video coming in from asheville and chimney rock, north carolina where everything from all allies to highways have been destroyed. and parts of the area cut off from help so far the death toll across the area hit by helene stands at 128 and climbing many more on accounted for right now, president biden will travel to north carolina on wednesday. and as we mentioned, both presidential candidates weighed in today before dealing with that, though the latest and what is like in some of the hardest hit places, unions, isabel rosales begins our coverage >> this widespread of view from the air brings into focus the full scope of the destruction wrought by hurricane helene have you, trees and downed power lines are blocking major roadways? hampering the delivery of badly-needed supplies, and overturn semi-truck laying upside down in the river and numerous landslides all spotted from above cnn flew by helicopter with a non-profit serving inaccessible towns badly in need of aid on the ground in black mountain outside of asheville city manager

this is chimney rock on the left. you can see some sort of amusement park with a couple of rides on the right is what is left. what used to be a road is now water washing way. most of everything in its path, the same community left on recognizable in these before and after images, just unbelievable, it gives a glimpse of the challenges survivors and rescue is still face as many roads or impassable or just plain gone. the video you're seeing here, take a look at this shot by kayaker mason hard road. he is paddling and to isolated areas on debris field rivers are trying to find anyone who may be still out there dow mason. thank you so much for what you're doing. i mean, it's very brave of you to go out there. i feel like it might be a little dangerous to be in this water with all that debris in there. what has this experience been like and have you have you have you found some folks along the way hello. yeah, definitely. so the day after this storm, we kind of waited around and see make sure the roads were clear before

communication, uh besides the physical infrastructure and, i mean, there's there's towns like chimney rockshall that might not come back into existence. >> right crusoe. crusoe, in this this this county has been hit twice, and it is. and it is literally just devastated people there are out of their their lives. i mean, they're out of where, where they live and their businesses and everything else. maggie valley i mean, we had the worst flood we've had in 500 years. uh, well, 100 years, um but, you know, we we we we are surviving it. i mean, there's lots of mud and lots of things, but we're not we're not dramatically the infrastructure is the rest of this county and the rest of the counties around us and especially asheville, you know and, you know, you don't know asheville is going to come back from that. >> i know, and it's so sad i've been to asheville, wiped out yeah. go ahead. you know, the whole the whole vibe of asheville is that sort of its quirkiness they like to say they're weird. well essentially all that was around the riverfront, the downtown, the biltmore village area and all

here's here's chimney rock there's the country fair that right there, the red and white. that's the old carousel there's the road, there's the river. now, you can't even find the parking lot. there is no road, there's no way to get there. there is no there there anymore. and these pictures are all striking, which was a house and a road now, just the river has completely taken over here's the welcome center for lake lure and the new pickleball court completely covered over in mud, mainly a complete loss there there's the old rocky river crossing bridge that's not even that old of a bridge plotly gone this over and over jake, these are the pictures we're seeing. what was just a calm stream called the broad river, but still a calm river has taken over, wiped out bridges, wiped out homes and livelihoods and now, now over 200 lives. this is what we've been seeing picture after picture now that we're finally getting some aerials up there, getting an idea of bridges that don't exist. you can't get across that bridge, so people can't get out, people can't get in here's a little c

>> i mean, this is chimney rock, north carolina, and it's also a reminder to people that in our new warmer, warmer world, we're experiencing these more frequent heavy rain events for every two degrees fahrenheit of warming that our world goes through and undertakes we have 8% more water vapor in the atmosphere. that means that we have the ability to hold more moisture, the ability to create these more frequent and more extreme heavy rain events, just like we saw now there are still some tropical moisture residual, residual moisture from helene that is still in the atmosphere and the rivers there are still flooding in crusting across downstream south carolina as that water makes its way towards the east coast, you can almost follow the track of destruction with 1.5 million customers without power left in helene's wake. now, we need to focus on the gulf of mexico. again, this is troubling news but the latest computer models have simmer down on the potential development, but i do want to talk about this area here, potentially over the next seven days, there was a 40% chance of development onc

they are bulldozing chimney rock bulldozing the whole town. they are getting rid of it. bodies, trees, buildings. it doesn't matter congressman. i mean, it's just outlandish stuff, wild stuff. but what effect are you seeing from this rutherford county with someone making threats against fema workers. >> we've seen a delay in their their efforts. it's not helpful and the fact is disaster recovery is very bipartisan thing folks in the state, federal, and local levels are doing everything they can to respond to hurricane helene. i'll be part of a bipartisan codel on friday going to see the areas affected firsthandis of, this is all designed to attend vice president harris and her campaign. and it's totally not true and you can republicans continue to speak up on this those in these areas affected because they know it's totally false but we need the social media companies to do much more. they're not doing enough to crack down on this bus information. and it's having very real the affects here in north carolina and beyond. >> you've also requested and you kind of hinted on t

and helped us in the citizens of rutherford county, especially in the season of lake lord and chimney rock and at this point wolf, we have learned that fema has started its field operation again going door-to-door, which is critical because they need their inspectors to be able to see these impacted homes, these devastated homes. >> that's how the victims can start getting money and relief in there. puckett, gabe cohen, thanks for that report. >> appreciate it very much. i will be right back president would be slogan, wow, working on campaign posters yet, well, in my experience, the best campaign slogans are short and memorable like well, that's definitely memorable is actually a photo from my wedding i'm adam weiss, founder and ceo of keepsake, the mobile app that makes it easy to have your photos printed frame and shifting her doorstep, just choose a photo that you love. you can preview it and over 100 frames. and in a couple of days, you're going to receive your photo in a beautiful handle made france. so if you've got a special photo on your phone, install the free keepsake app. we wou

headaches for people already dealing with so much in the wake of hurricane helene, the mayor of chimney rock, north carolina joins us next in the next hour to set the record straight. stay with us for that eastern on cnn has to make helps us motivate our students. >> question here, we love how customer takes care of everything we need so weak focus on the kids. >> we make it easy to well, all your groups with high-quality the customer apparel, accessories and promo products all backed by our guarantee accustoming.com with decks , g7, managing your diababetes just got easier so what's your glucose number right now good thing. >> you don't need to fingerstick house all about food, affect your glucose. >> oh, the answers on your phone. >> what if you're heading? oh, at night wow, it can alert you do you can even track your goals. manager diabetes with confidence, with deck calm g7, the most accurate cgm. learn more at decks com.com are you sure you tend to exaggerate go ahead calling yourself. thank you for calling out. now, how can i help you? >> do you really have medicare plans that cover de

look at your screen right now, this is in the mountains of western north carolina, chimney rock you can see effectively what's a river now flowing through where that street and that parking lot used to be half of those killed by the storm died in north carolina. and in the state most devastated by helene asheville has become ground zero witnesses. they're described the scene in the city of 95,000 as quote, post-apocalyptic. cnn chief climate correspondent bill weir joins us now and build many people would considered asheville to actually have been a climate crisis haven. and this is obviously given new perspective on the meaning of that exactly the idea that maybe there's no such place actually have some extended family, boris who left florida ten years ago for the mountains of north carolina, thinking, well, at least we don't have to deal with hurricanes anymore. >> and just last year, the asheville newspaper ran an op-ed head worried about the influx of climate migrants they're trying to get away from coasts thinking they would be safe and it's actually a climate city by profession be

chimney rock, out of die of real diseases going on.you mentioned. >> what would you say the manger or the most prominent health risks are? >> i think number one would be the lack of clean water. the issue of getting dehydrated. number two would be do you have your medications? do you have access to proper medical care? number three would be displacement from your homes. that causes a lot of trauma and stress psychologically. and number four would probably be injury because people that are roaming around that are fearful, they're anxious, get hurt. we have seen a lot of injuries. jon: some people have been isolated totally cut off from their friends, from their neighbors, from any kind of help since the storm came roaring through. that has to have an effect. >> that is huge. the roads are blocked. a lot of these roads are still closed. there's over 6000 national guard to write a 1500 troops, that is just the tip of the iceberg stuff. critics have said this not nearly enough federal relief coming in for $135 million not nearly enough. yo

in chimney rock a rumor spread on social media that government officials planned to seize the decimatedlage and bulldoze bodies under the rubble. authorities and news outlets debunked the assertion, but people still took to social media imploring militias to go after fema. just how does this type of misinformation spread? >> we are chasing this down actually as we speak. but this claim seems to come from one individual who posted it a week or so ago and it just blew up on x. people were reading it out loud on tiktok. they were reposting it on facebook. it was getting shared in groups. and i think this is a part of western north carolina where it's rural, you know, communications were down, so people were kind of talking at distribution sites where i heard rumblings. and i think just things spread pretty quickly. so it was baking online and then kind of i saw it play out on the ground a little bit when i was there. >> olivia, i want to show you a harris campaign ad. it features you talking about donald trump playing political games with american lives. take a look. >> i worked in the tru

caller: a caller called in about chimney rock.ot the first time that town has fell into the water. you have heavy floods up this way, especially in the mountain areas, this hurricane was a noah's flood type thing that not only flooded rivers over the banks but brought the mountain down with it. look at the copper graphical map -- topographical map. as far as fema goes, i think they have done as well as they can. this republican congress passed that bill in the midst of the storm. they did not know the damage. they did not want to hang around another day. i hope you are still there. host: we are still here. caller: they did not want to hang around. they got out of town. they should have passed extra supplemental funding! host: leslie, we prefer not to use that kind of language. shana, any response? guest: we know it was a terrible and devastating storm. we saw a really heavy, unprecedented rainfall. it was already moist soils. it is just devastating. we have not seen this kind of flooding before. as the caller said, they have seen