ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Isolated, cut off, overwhelmed, frustrated. Those are just a few of the words Asheville area residents have been using lately.

Desperate is another good word. People have desperately searched for loved ones, cell signals, food and gas. Residents of the storm-battered region have been carrying buckets of water from creeks and flood-swollen rivers to flush their toilets days after Hurricane Helene’s remnants slammed the mountains.

Emergency workers have struggled to clear roads, restore power and phone service and reach people stranded by the storm, which killed at least 40 in Buncombe County.

Woodfin Town Manager Jim McAllister confirmed Monday that one of those fatalities was a local resident killed by a falling tree.

Nearly 30 inches of rain fell across parts of the mountains as the remnants of Hurricane Helene swept into the area on the heels of another weather system.

Buncombe County has received about 11,000 requests from people trying to reach family members or friends.

At Tuesday morning’s news briefing, Buncombe County Manager Avril Pinder said crews are working to bring those numbers down. She said people out knocking on doors had made about 300 wellness checks.

Thankful and blessed are two other words being heard a lot.

“We have no water, no electricity, no food, but we’re alive. We have it so much better than some of these people who lost everything, including families,” a woman said while waiting at the gas pump.

Because flooding has cut off access to many communities, the Buncombe County Register of Deeds established a Family Assistance Center to help residents locate missing loved ones.

Asheville residents have also organized a bike brigade to door-to-door, checking on people. 828newsNOW is trying to get more information about how to help this grassroots effort.

As of 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, more than 78,000 people still had no electricity, according to the Duke Energy Outage map.

Pinder said there are still places in the county that have been inaccessible.

“We’re still getting to places we haven’t gotten to before,” she said.