Residents in North Carolina’s Watauga County are focused on survival rather than politics after Hurricane Helene ravaged much of the western part of the state.

Hurricane Helene has left a wake of death and destruction across Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee after it made landfall in Florida on Sept. 26. Despite being downgraded to a tropical depression, hundreds were killed by the storm, millions are still without power, and the damage is estimated in the billions of dollars.