'THANK YOU SO MUCH': How social media is helping locate the missing after Helene

After days of calling and texting relatives to no avail, Vignette Truett posted their names on a Facebook group chat in hopes someone could tell her they were still alive.

“I have people im still waiting to hear from!" her post uploaded on Sunday read. "I have not stopped one second...super hard to sleep...rest....eat or anything really....without thinking about the worst."

Hunched over her phone in a hotel in western North Carolina, Truett is among hundreds of people who have turned to social media for help locating friends and loved ones in areas devastated by Hurricane Helene’s record-setting rain and the ensuing flooding.

Widespread communications blackouts have made obtaining information difficult. So far officials have received about 600 missing persons reports – a number they hope will decrease significantly as telecommunication are restored. At least 100 people have been confirmed dead across the Southeast.

In Burnsville, North Carolina, a small town in the Blue Ridge Mountains where Truett has lived since 2019 with her husband and mother-in-law, the devastation is widespread. Photos from local officials and those who managed to escape the wreckage show cracked roads, collapsed bridges and buildings swept away by a cresting river.

Residents across town have not had power or cellular service since late last week. And since many homes get water from well pumps, many residents don’t have running water – a major worry for those waiting to hear from their loved ones.

“We’re still trying any rescue teams, shelters and people we can contact,” Truett, 24, told USA TODAY by phone. She and her husband managed to keep cell service at their hotel in Boone, a town about 50 miles northeast of Burnsville. “We have been going nonstop for what feels like a month, but it’s only been a few days.”

Many take to social media for help locating loves ones

As rescue crews make their way deeper into the mountains, residents and family members have galvanized, creating online groups where users share resources and names of those who’ve been contacted.

It was through such a group that Dona Gardner, a schoolteacher in Seneca, South Carolina, was able to confirm some of her friends and relatives were still alive.

While scouring one Facebook group, Gardner came across the photo of her friend’s daughter with a comment saying she was OK. Her friend’s daughter had managed to hike five miles over destroyed roads, creeks and debris to downtown Burnsville, where she met with her family.

Later, Gardner saw a post in which a stranger asked residents in Weaverville, a small town north of Asheville and south of Burnsville, to check in. One comment named her cousin and said she was safe.

“We've since heard from all of my family now, but it was first on social media that we found out they were okay,” she said. “It’s pretty amazing.”

From Florida, North Carolina residents await word from friends

In a coastal town near Tampa, Florida, hundreds of miles from her home in Burnsville, Suzanne Vale and her husband hovered over their phones. They awaited calls from several of their neighbors who they've tried to reach since Thursday.

Over a week ago, the couple drove from their home in the Blue Ridge Mountains to their house in Dunedin as Helene approached the Big Bend coast. While their Florida home was unscathed, their worry immediately centered on Burnsville, where washed-out bridges and roads left residents trapped with no means to communicate with the outside world.

After dozens of unreturned phone calls, emails and Facebook messages, Vale now hopes someone in a Burnsville Facebook group will confirm her neighbor's safety.

"It's beyond comprehension what’s happened," Vale said.

Residents conduct wellness checks, post results

Some people hiked into the Appalachian Mountains to find out for themselves if their loved ones were OK. Upon their return, several uploaded lists of names of neighbors and others they passed while checking in on their own family – giving several people the first notification that their relatives were still alive.

“THANK YOU SO MUCH. My parents are on this list,” one person replied to a post.

Another wrote: “I’m from Florida and so happy to see my long time friends name on this list. Their family and friends have been worried sick.”

Among those hiking in search of relatives is Gardner’s 26-year-old son, Carlton Gardner. He set out Monday morning to locate his in-laws who live in Pensacola, a neighborhood just south of Burnsville.

“We've heard nothing, and it’s been several days,” Gardner said. “They live on a hill, thankfully, so we're hoping for the best. But we do know there are mudslides in that area.”

Before Carlton Gardner left, he told his mother he’ll send her a list of names of people he comes across in the mountain suburbs so she can upload it to Facebook.