In Asheville after the storm, residents deal with long lines for vital supplies

Four days after Hurricane Helene ravaged Asheville, North Carolina, there are lines for groceries, lines for gas and lines to get into shelters.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Four days after Hurricane Helene ravaged this community, there are lines for groceries, lines for gas, lines to get into shelters and lines at charging stations to juice up cellphones.

Outside the Mellow Mushroom, there was a long line of people Tuesday waiting for something that has also been hard to come by — pizza.

Gerry Mahon, who owns the popular pizzeria on Broadway Street, said he has given out $5,000 worth of pizza to his fellow storm survivors.

“This is for them, knowing what they have been through," Mahon said. "I mean, we’re going to do this for as long as we can, because these people, so many of them, have seen things that you and I should never wish to see in our lives, ever, and they’ll carry that from here to the end. So that’s why we do this.”

Hurricane Helene killed more than 150 people throughout the Southeast after it made landfall in Florida on Thursday as a Category 4 storm. Dozens were killed in flood-stricken North Carolina, where entire communities in the western part of the state are underwater.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/asheville-storm-waiting-hardest-part-rcna173523

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