Wildfires force mandatory evacuation order in western North Carolina

Wildfires in North Carolina have forced an evacuation in one county as emergency crews work to bring the flames under control in an area of the state still recovering from Hurricane Helene.

The North Carolina Department of Public Safety announced a mandatory evacuation starting at 8:20 p.m. Saturday for parts of Polk County in western North Carolina about 80 miles (128.7 kilometers) west of Charlotte.

“Visibility in area will be reduced and roads/evacuation routes can become blocked; if you do not leave now, you could be trapped, injured, or killed,” a social media post by the agency warned residents of specific roads.

The public safety department said a shelter had been established in Columbus, North Carolina.

The North Carolina Forest Service’s online wildire public viewer indicated three active fires in Polk County and two others in nearby Burke and Madison counties, with another wildfire burning in Stokes County on the northern border with Virginia.

North Carolina’s western region was hit hard by Hurricane Helene in September. Among the extensive damage, flooding washed away more than a mile (1.6 kilometers) of eastbound lanes on Interstate 40 leading to eastern Tennessee and remained partially closed to traffic until March.

The hurricane damaged or impacted 5,000 miles (8,046 kilometers) of state-maintained roads and damaged 7,000 private roads, bridges and culverts in North Carolina.