Storm survivors at a packed shelter in Asheville are still in shock

“The shelter is still in need of more water, clothing and toiletries,” she said.

What they’ve also run out of, Chase said, is space.

“As somebody checks out, we get somebody else in,” she said. “But most everybody is cooperating. They know it’s going to take everybody working together to make it work. It’s times like this we see the communities come together.”

In downtown Asheville, Abby Moore, general manager of Old Europe Pastries, helped her hungry neighbors get through the ordeal by giving them wedding cake.

“There were a lot of locals that were just devastated, and they were just looking for a bite to eat or anything,” Moore said. “We had a bunch of weddings that we were not able to do, obviously, this week and next week.

“And those cakes were already made. So we actually had to cut up all those wedding cakes and gave them away to the people.”

Moore said she and three co-workers rode out the worst of the storm inside the cafe.

“The wind was whipping through here at an alarming pace, but this building is completely brand new and basically all concrete so we knew that we were safe,” Moore said. “After that, the rest of the day was chaos, absolute chaos, but not in a bad way, a good way for us. People saw that we were open and they were able to come in.”