The only road to Pensacola, in the remote mountains of western North Carolina, is now a muddy path through deep, twisting gorges. Its main bridges were swept away last week in floods fueled by devastating Hurricane Helene — and a cold winter is coming.
"Every major bridge into town is completely gone," Christy Edwards, a resident of the valley, told AFP. She was speaking near the site of her former craft shop, which was carried away by the fast-moving floodwaters that engulfed the town.
