TROY, N.Y. — Former Capital Region families are back in New York after Hurricane Helene devastated their homes and communities in the south of the country.

When Helene struck, it turned parts of North Carolina into almost unrecognizable versions of themselves. That included the area where Jenn Fisher was living with her daughter.

Fisher grew up in Troy. With the bodies of some of the dead still being discovered near her home by Asheville, North Carolina, Fisher decided it was best to take her daughter back here to New York to be with their extended family.

Looking at some of the pictures Fisher has of her North Carolina community, it’s easy to see why she doesn’t know when she’ll be able to move back. When the storms of Hurricane Helene moved in, neighboring homes were washed away, and fleeing families were rescued clinging to tall trees. 

Power and water could be out to parts in North Carolina for several more weeks. Meanwhile, kids’ schools are now being used as shelters for the many people with nowhere to go.

Staying with relatives in New York, more than 800 miles away from her home near Asheville,  Fisher can’t shake the horrors of what she saw in her once beautiful community as she and her daughter fled.

“I want to give my daughter a little bit of normalcy, because there were times when we were traveling back into Asheville and the surrounding areas where we could still see bodies in the creeks that were below us on the highways,” Fisher recalled. “It’s not something that she should have to see.”

Jenn is planning another trip down to North Carolina soon, but first she’s checking with schools in New York that might be able to place her daughter in a class. They have no idea when their schools and communities in North Carolina will be fully open again.