Jennifer Replogle, a pregnant mother of two young children, is “completely trapped” at home in Tater Hill, North Carolina, elevation 4,200 feet, above Boone, where hurricanes are not the norm.

Gas shortages, downed power lines, spotty phone service and blocked roads made rescuing residents and assessing damage a nearly impossible task across much of western North Carolina, a day after Hurricane Helene drenched the region with historic amounts of rainfall.