A week after Hurricane Helene roared through, the smell of death overpowers the cool mountain air over the isolated twisting roads of devastated rural western North Carolina.

Tropical Storm Helene devastated Asheville and Western North Carolina, destroying roads, downing power lines and demolishing entire towns. See aerial images of the damage.

A hundred years from now, they will be talking about this flood,” said one resident in Western North Carolina, where the extent of the disaster is only beginning to emerge.