North Carolina man hikes 11 miles up mountain to get to elderly parents trapped in ‘post apocalyptic’ Asheville after Hurricane Helene

Sam Perkins would walk to the ends of the earth for his parents – and this weekend he almost did.

Saturday morning, Perkins, 38, set out on a perilous journey, traveling 7 treacherous miles to make sure they were okay at their home in the North Carolina mountains.

“I did this because I have parents who are great to me,” he told DailyMail.com

Hurricane Helene had just devastated the western part of the state and he hadn’t heard from his parents in 48 hours.

“I was doing the math in my head,” Perkins said. “If they needed medical attention, if they needed water, I had to get to them quickly.”

His parents, although resourceful, are in their seventies.

With the clock ticking, Perkins got into his car and drove toward their home, which is nestled on a mountain between Spruce Pine and Little Switzerland.

“My parents live in an absolute gem of the North Carolina mountains,” he wrote on Facebook. ‘Under normal circumstances it is pleasantly very isolated.

‘I didn’t know Helene demolished roads, houses and utilities there. This area is completely cut off from resources in all directions.”

In North Carolina, Helene’s brutal destruction has killed more than a hundred people. At least 30 people have been killed in Buncombe County, home to Ashville.

The storm caused massive destruction, flooding roads and destroying buildings and homes.

At least 280 roads are closed across the state, according to Governor Roy Cooper.

Perkins tried driving different routes to get to his parents, but soon discovered that the roads were “impassable for vehicles.”

At the bottom of the mountain he left his vehicle and undertook the rest of the 18 kilometer journey on foot.

During his walk, Perkins came across sights that he described to DailyMail.com as “very post-apocalyptic.”

He said high winds and possibly tornadoes had “destroyed soil, roads and trees.”

Perkins described the destruction as “constant.” He said there were “trees down for miles, mudslides and collapsed roads.”

As he climbed the mountain, the devastation “became worse.”

He came across hard-hit individuals living on the mountainside doing what they could to clear fallen branches and trees with chainsaws.

Perkins noted that they would have “a trek” to get back to civilization.

To reach his parents’ house, he walked 2,200 treacherous feet.

‘I’m a good walker and for me it was difficult.’

But when he finally reached his parents’ house, he saw something that brought him immediate relief.

“I walked over to their property,” Perkins told DailyMail.com. ‘And I met my father among the fallen trees and felt the greatest relief of my life.

“I hugged him and made a ball and went into the house and did the same with my mother.”

Both his parents were fine. They had plenty of food, and although they were running low on water, they had enough propane to do some cooking.

He also learned that his parents were trapped.

The area, which had always been isolated, was ‘now really an island.’

There were also “very few locations” where phone or internet services were available.

“At some point, people are going to run out of supplies,” Perkins said. He added that medicine and baby food were “critically needed”.

Fortunately, Perkins’ parents live in “a close-knit neighborhood,” where residents help each other provide food.

But this spirit of solidarity was not limited to his parents’ neighborhood. During his walk up the mountain, Perkins encountered chainsaw crews from Florida, Indiana and other states affected by Hurricane Helene.

“They all came to help.”