Specifically in Western North Carolina, the people were not prepared or expecting to receive the effects of flooding from a hurricane, due to only the coastal parts of North Carolina typically being severely effected in the past. This flooding has also unexpectedly effected the quality of the water, due to the many people in Western North Carolina relying on home wells as their source of water. The flooding has caused mass contamination of the water in the wells with many being contaminated by E. coli. Many people in the area are unaware of these dangers of contamination, as they did not need to worry about it as much before, and education efforts are in progress to help make sure people are not contaminated with E. coli. In addition to this, the layout of Western Carolina, being a mountainous region, caused even worse effects on the people living in the area, as the geography of the land caused extremely powerful rushes of water coming down the mountains, the velocity and gravity causing the water to gain speed. This caused extreme damage, in contrast to flatter land in which flooding was not a problem due to the flooding having no where to travel.

https://news.northeastern.edu/2024/10/17/hurricane-helene-recovery-north-carolina/