North Carolina’s governor says more than 200 people have been rescued. Others wait, trapped in their homes. With power lines and cell phone towers down, loved ones near and far cannot reach those in the hardest-hit areas. NBC 5’s Allie Spillyards sat down with a Kaufman woman among those who found herself desperate for information.
As images of streets devoured by water, with homes and businesses slipping underneath, flood her TikTok feed, Sarah Fivecoat watches from her Kaufman home in agony.
More than 24 hours passed without any communication from her mom and grandmother, who were waiting out the storm in Asheville, North Carolina.
“I feel like a sitting duck. You can know, I call my mom’s phone over and over just hoping I can get something through,” said Fivecoat.
Fivecoat said the women have called Western North Carolina home for about eight years. They’ve never witnessed anything like the catastrophic flooding caused by 29 inches of rain.
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She said it was too late to go by the time a mandatory evacuation order came. Out of desperation, Fivecoat turned to TikTok, relying on her following to find someone to help check on her family.
“We’re in just a little bit of a panic mode,” she said in the two-minute video.
“With my video going viral, almost 1.2 million views, my inbox is flooded,” said Fivecoat.
Shortly after talking to NBC 5 on Saturday, Sarah received a message saying her mother and grandmother were seen buying a grill at a nearby hardware store. While she still couldn’t reach them by phone, she knew they were safe.
With many roads still impassable, the state’s energy provider has warned that it will take days to restore power to the 1.3 million people in the region without it.
As she waits to hear her mom’s voice, Fivecoat said she’s focusing on gratitude, both for the line crews and for the strangers providing a little light in a dark time.
“It gives me hope that there's some good left in the world and that people will come together for you, even when you're so far away,” she said.
