Truck drivers of a convoy laden with supplies from Gorham to aid Hurricane Helene victims in western North Carolina witnessed the destruction in a tour after unloading last week.

“It was sad, just horrible,” convoy organizer Dennis Nickerson said Monday about the devastation he saw.

Nickerson said places were wiped out with nothing left. “We don’t understand how they could start over,” he said.

Nickerson, a Gorham businessman, organized a whirlwind mission that left Oct. 17 and returned home Oct. 19. The convoy, with seven trucks and two drivers in each,  hauled blankets, sleeping bags, bottled water, food, clothes, diapers, pet food and tools.

The pickups with trailers, along with a donated Fed Ex tractor trailer volunteers filled with 14 pallets of goods, delivered the supplies to a North Carolina church near Asheville. It served as a hub where supplies were distributed.

“They told us we were the largest donor to date,” said Nickerson, adding that forklifts unloaded the Maine trucks in a little more than one hour. “They were happy.”

Nickerson said electricity in the area where the church is located had been restored and the Red Cross and Salvation Army were on scene. Church volunteers in Biltmore “were cooking for 10,000 per day,” Nickerson said.

Food trucks along the roadsides were also dishing up food for the homeless.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services attributed 96 deaths to Hurricane Helene as of Oct. 22. But Nickerson said authorities don’t have a clue as to how many people are still missing.

Ben Wallace and Colby Smith, employees of Great Falls Construction in Gorham, shared driving a truck the firm donated for use on the mission. “It looks like a war zone,” Wallace said about the hurricane-ravaged area.

Colby Smith said one town looked like a pile of debris and a strip mall is now a gravel lot. Another convoy was setting up sheds as shelters along a road, he said.

“Downtown Asheville got devastated,” Wallace said.

The outlying area five miles away looks like a “Third World country,” Wallace said, with piles of cars, an overturned tractor-trailer, and a gas station totally crumbled. “Roofs caved in, walls blown out, trash and debris littering the streets. Oh my, all that mud, everywhere,” Wallace said.

He saw a refrigerator resting 16 feet up in a tree. “I was overwhelmed with emotions,” Wallace said.

The local drinking water is unfit for consumption and Smith estimated it would take three or four months to get water filtration systems back on line.

Smith said he can’t put into words the devastation he saw. “Oh, man, it was unbelievable,” Smith said. “It seems unreal.”

Wallace said the hurricane shredded homes. “It was a big wrecking ball,” he said.

Water 17 feet deep swept away homes. “Rows of houses just gone,” Nickerson said, with just concrete slabs left. “Imagine 17 feet of water in Westbrook.”

Seeing news reports of the decimated towns, Nickerson awoke one morning with an idea to help the victims and placed a sign outside his Gorham home seeking donations, which soon began to pour in. He then organized the convoy to transport donations.

The convoy delivered an estimated 110,00 pounds of relief. “Nickerson went above and beyond,” Wallace said. “It was all new stuff. People still care for people.”

A woman asking for diapers approached the Gorham convoy when it arrived, Wallace said, and Smith added locals were coming by and “grabbing stuff.”

Wallace said one trailer in the convoy had a flat tire on the way to North Carolina. But a convoy service truck carrying tools soon had it back on the road.

Because of his business commitments, Nickerson can’t make another trip now, but he’s willing to help someone organize one.

Wallace said the area needs more help. Dumpsters and people with chainsaws are needed to help clear and haul away debris, he said.

Smith said his father, Jon Smith, owner of Great Falls Construction, hopes to pull another group together for a working mission to North Carolina.