Before and after photos show that Helen wiped parts of North Carolina off the map

(CNN) New before-and-after aerial photos paint a grim picture of Hurricane Helene’s devastation in parts of western North Carolina, where access has become difficult after the storm destroyed much of the state’s roads and bridges.

The monster Category 4 hurricane left a path of destruction more than 500 miles across the Southeast and killed more than 200 people, becoming the second deadliest hurricane to hit the continental US in the past 50 years.

Many of those deaths occurred in North Carolina, where the storm caused heavy rains and historic devastating flooding.

According to the U.S. National Weather Service, the storm dropped so much water on the southern Appalachians in a three-day span that it was a once-in-1,000-year rainfall event for the region.

All that water came down the mountains, causing in some places slopes to turn into devastating landslides, tearing homes off their foundations. But in the end everything got lost in the rivers.

Water levels rose even higher than before, creating a new path as they washed away dozens of bridges, roads and homes downstream.

Chimney Rock, North Carolina, before and after Hurricane Helene.
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Such was the case at Chimney Rock, North Carolina, which borders the Broad River.

“Everything has disappeared on both sides of the river,” said the city’s mayor, Peter O’Leary. “Everything you take for granted has literally been washed away. Every business, every building was destroyed or seriously damaged,” O’Leary told CNN affiliate WSOC-TV.

After Helen, a house in North Carolina was swept away by strong water.
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Chimney Rock was not alone. Even major population centers like Asheville that were mistakenly thought to be safe havens from extreme events like Helene, which were made worse by climate change, suffered widespread damage.

Photos show one house after another being partially or completely destroyed by the rivers, which washed away their banks and created new homes.

They also reveal the ongoing challenges of finding people still missing, when parts of villages no longer exist, and the magnitude of the challenge of restoring these places in a landscape completely altered by nature. We do.

Buildings along the river were washed away after Hurricane Helene.
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A river bridge and its road no longer exist in North Carolina after Helen.
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Where once there were buildings and bridges in North Carolina, there is now a roaring river.
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CNN’s Paul P. Murphy contributed to this report.