I-40 shoulder washed away in North Carolina in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Helene

Rescue efforts are underway in western North Carolina in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Helene.

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[Winston]

That stretch of I40 is scary on a good day, and terrifying on a rainy night.

[thomasmcdaniel]

This Devastation will take years to get back to normal.. if it ever does.🙏😔

[BruceLeigh-euwm]

Can you imagine being the first vehicle to come up on this? If nobody went into the water that is amazing.

[sharonsciandra]

We in Guilford county were so spared. The storm veered more west and saved us. Thank you Jesus....

[karenweaver]

I am so heartbroken for this community. My late husband’s daughter was married there. The people are super friendly and kind. Stayed at the Biltmore one night. I had falling and broke a rib, my husband was on dialysis and not well. I had folks helping us left and right, will me in my 🙏.

[andredya]

How long it will take to reopen I-40?
As a truck driver I used to drive very often on I-40. This is going to be truck driver nightmare

[jeffbrown]

It's going to be a long time before this reopens. What a mess.

[cardboardcrawlersrc]

Thats a little more than the shoulder.

[jojobaker]

Maybe this will Keep the Californians out of Ashland.

[bwsmyhero]

I live in Eastern North Carolina, but I love the mountains, so I am very sad to see the devastation and loss of life happening there. I think they’re concerned that their economy might suffer as well, because this time of year, leaf-spotting tourists usually go to mountain regions to see the fall colors. Tourists may be reluctant to go there because of the devastation and unsafe driving conditions. I pray for those affected by Helene.

[awboat]

wow that is worse than I thought it was. This going to take a very long time to repair.

[rctheycallme]

I just drove through that tunnel last week.

[charlielemmel]

That's not just the shoulders that's half of the interstate

[osmadchlo]

That was a 4 lane highway! In places there, the whole 2 outside lanes fell off or were completely undermined. It was not the "shoulder". Get real, stop minimizing this! People are suffering!

[Jeremy_the_unfallible_n-a]

An elevated road that runs right beside a river, sounds rather expected

[MrTenkara]

The man made structure on the right is damaged from high speed water erosion while the Forest on the left is unharmed. Rivers need natural vegetation buffer zones to absorb the extra water from the increasingly high flows. If they just rebuild it like it was it will be washed down stream in a few years.

[UncleDavesKitchen]

How do they fix this? Fill in the lost soil and build again on top of that?? Yipes, this is massive damage. Nepal is having the same problems right now with flooding

[susannell]

Alit of People dont know it but Yellowstone's Roads got washed out like that a year ago or two. Steamboat was getting HOT! It Downpoured like Crazy!

[jennyaldrich]

This is very sad I wonder how did all the vehicles get off the highway when the lane fell? I still can't believe this happened.

[RonL-yv]

That’s more than the shoulder if someone bothered to look, it the whole east bound lanes at one area.