Some North Carolina nursing homes still don’t have water weeks after Hurricane Helene: ‘Unable to shower or wash hands’

Some North Carolina nursing homes remain without running water weeks after Hurricane Helene — leaving elderly residents unable to shower, wash their hands or flush the toilet without a bucket.

The situation presents unique serious problems for the senior facilities — especially given clients’ age, illnesses and weakened immune systems and the fact that disease and infection can spread rapidly from resident to resident under the circumstances.

“For two weeks, we’ve been unable to shower or wash hands,” James Greene, an 84-year-old resident at an Asheville nursing home, wrote in a letter to his family that was shared with ABC News.

“Maintaining hygiene with hand sanitizers is a constant must,” the elderly man said.

“Another example is having to pour a bucket of water [provided by agencies] into the tank of the toilet in order to flush. And keep in mind that our residents are old and not used to such physical activity.”

The Brooks-Howell Home, the sprawling retirement community where Greene resides, is not the only spot facing such difficulties — mostly because floodwaters are known to contaminate otherwise clean local water sources with dangerous germs, chemicals and waste from both people and livestock, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Other sites have water — but it is not drinkable without boiling.

On Oct. 16, the Asheville Water Department issued its boil-water notice because of possible “contamination due to impacts from Hurricane Helene, including the potential for untreated water in the distribution system,” ABC said.

The notice is still in effect days later. And the leaders of several area senior homes told the station they don’t see that ending anytime soon.

As for the six North Carolina retirement facilities run by Ascent Healthcare Management, three including Greene’s still don’t have even any running water, according to Kimberly Smith, the firm’s vice president of operations.

The others that do must be incredibly careful that they boil it before using, said Libby Bush, president and CEO of Asheville’s Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Community, to the network.

“It has been challenging to keep up with the current and most accurate information,” Bush said.

Despite the plumbing troubles, phone and Internet service has been widely restored to the facilities, both officials said.

Smith added that state and federal agencies — including the Federal Emergency Management Agency — have been extraordinarily helpful, bringing to the area shower trailers, portable toilets, generators and hand-washing stations.

“All the regulatory people have kind of come together to help the nursing homes,” Smith said.

Greene also said he was impressed by the Red Cross/FEMA disaster assistance center in Asheville when he visited.

Helene — the monstrous Category 4 hurricane that cut through Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia and Tennessee — killed about 230 people, making it the deadliest mainland hurricane since the infamous Katrina barreled into New Orleans in 2005, ABC said.

Damages from the storm, which hit North Carolina in late September, are likely to exceed $50 billion — and most of its victims are not insured, CBS added.

Mega-hurricanes such as Helene and Milton — fueled by warming waters that are the product of climate change — are “vastly different” than the storms of years gone by, according to John Dickson, president of Aon Edge Insurance Agency, which specializes in flood coverage.

“One of the things that we’re seeing is the energy content that these systems can retain is significantly greater than it used to be,” Dickson told CBS.

“The weather seems to be, in many cases, moving faster than we as a society are able to keep pace with it.”