Mayor Patrick Fitzsimmons found himself at the epicenter of a disaster zone on Monday.

His town of Weaverville, North Carolina, had no electricity and no power. Only one supermarket was operational, electricity poles were down, the city’s water system was flooded and people had been without safe drinking water for four days, he told the BBC.

In greater Buncombe County, where Weaverville is located, at least 35 people have been killed and 600 are missing. CBS News affiliate reported.

Mr. Fitzsimmons said the province has set up a website where people can request information about missing persons. Officials have received 11,000 requests so far.

In the southeastern US, millions of residents were thrown into chaos by Storm Helene. It crashed into Florida Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane before slamming into the states of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee, causing flooding, power loss and death.

In the days that follow, the true extent of the devastation becomes even clearer as residents return home to inspect the damage.

At least 116 people have been killed across the country, officials say.

One of those people was Madison Shaw’s mother.

“Her last words to me were… ‘I love you, be safe. I’ll see you later,” the Anderson, South Carolina native told CBS News. “And I said, ‘I love you. I’ll see you later too.’”

“I can’t even describe it,” Ms. Shaw told CBS News. “My mother was my best friend.”

A White House spokeswoman said Monday that two million people are currently without power. President Joe Biden called the storm “making history.”

Some of the most dire reports are coming from North Carolina, where state Governor Roy Cooper said communities have been “wiped off the map” and dozens of rescue teams have been deployed.

Buncombe County and the western corner of North Carolina held firm some of Helene’s worst wrath.

The county includes Asheville, a city in the Blue Ridge Mountains famous for its arts and music scene. Helene inundated the city with floods, driving people from their homes and leaving residents scrambling for basic services. Trucks and trees crashed into buildings, while downed power and telephone lines hung precariously over the streets.

“Houses have been destroyed and flattened,” said 21-year-old Josh Griffith, who lives just outside Asheville in the city of Leicester.

“When it hit, we saw semi-trucks, storage crates, dumpsters and propane tanks floating down the river, just speeding through parking lots and destroying everything in their path,” he told the BBC.

The apartment he shares with his fiancée is high on a hill and was safe from serious damage. But on Saturday afternoon, by then without power or food, they decided to escape via rain-soaked roads to northeastern Georgia.

At one point, Mr. Griffith and his partner were forced to drive straight through floodwaters, six inches of deep rushing water on top of six inches of deep mud. Emergency services generally warn people not to drive in floodwaters of any depth during a storm.

“It was really scary,” he said. “Every time you drive over flowing water, there is a fear that your tires will slide out from under you.”

They got out and stopped overnight in Georgia before driving back to North Carolina, armed with food, water and supplies for their neighbors in Buncombe.

“People are just trying to get whatever resources they can,” he said.

Buncombe County officials opened four water distribution locations in the county on Monday.

Last week, before Helene arrived, 28-year-old Jesse Ross wondered whether the storm would be as devastating as some had predicted.

“It turned out to be huge,” he said.

Ross witnessed a “water rush” moving through his town of Waynesville, North Carolina on Friday. The bridges were uncrossable. He couldn’t get in touch with anyone. His family is safe, he told the BBC, but they have been under a boil water advisory for several days.

As residents begin to pick up the pieces, their future remains uncertain.

Grayson Barnette, a lifelong resident who grew up in Lenoir, North Carolina, and now lives nearby, said many residents have spent their entire lives in these storm-ravaged communities.

“Some people are just poor and have lived in the same place for generations,” he said. “This was just unconscionable to a lot of people.”

Mr Barnette feared residents’ deep ties to their community have led some to stay and weather the storm despite warnings.

“Entire communities were just wiped out,” Barnette said. “And people may or may not come back.”

Additional reporting by Holly Honderich