People still in the dark almost 3 weeks after Hurricane Helene are finding power through community and creativity

(CNN) — In the 20 long days since Hurricane Helene cut through the southeastern United States, yanking down electric lines and washing away power poles, millions of people have gradually had their lights restored.

But tens of thousands are still dealing with the intense stress of not having electricity and have had to find some creative ways to get by.

CNN spoke with a number of people this week who have been without power for nearly three weeks, including some who just had power restored.

Their stories highlight the community they found when Helene forced them to turn to neighbors and friends for basic necessities like a warm shower, a home-cooked meal or clean clothes.

In North Carolina’s hard-hit Asheville, one man told CNN he has held evening cookouts with others in his apartment complex to share food since the storm pummeled the area. He finally has water, but showers at his place are cold, so he has an innovative way of washing himself: a water bottle and body wash concoction.

In the small Georgia town of Hazlehurst, a woman told CNN she spent more than $1,000 on the generator that kept her refrigerator cold. She felt grateful for the neighbor who called and told her to come over to do laundry and have a bite.

No power to cook, but gas for the grill

Evan Kolosna’s six-unit apartment in Asheville went dark when a tree crashed down on the line that connected his building to the transmission lines, he said.

On the second night without power, a neighbor started a fire pit to cook their meat before it spoiled, and neighbors got to know each other as they sat around the flames.

“Since then, we kinda have evening gatherings,” he said.

Kolosna told CNN he is using his car’s power as a charger for his electronic devices. Sometimes he powers them at work, a nonprofit for the homeless where he is a case manager.

His water just came back on, so they no longer have to use rainwater to flush toilets or just go out in the woods. But there’s still no hot water.

“I actually developed a pretty good system where I can ‘shower’ by filling one bottle with water and a little bit of body wash and shake that up,” Kolosna said. “And then put that on a rag and then lather myself down with that. And then use another one or two just clean bottles of water on another washcloth just to rinse myself off.”

Kolosna said he left for a few days for the comfort of a friend’s place in Greenville, South Carolina – where he also grabbed some supplies – before coming back for his job at the nonprofit, a facility that houses 85 full-time residents.

Kolosna is now accustomed to life without power at home, but he said he hopes it comes back in the next day or two.

‘The goodness of others is what’s gotten us through’

In the south Georgia town of Hazlehurst, Susie Stevenson is one of thousands of residents who went without power for nearly three weeks following Helene. Her power was restored late Tuesday night – marking the end of a 19-day long period without light, hot food or running water.

“I took a bath in a pond a couple of times and once in a creek,” Stevenson told CNN Wednesday. The rest of the time she took showers at friend’s homes. Dinner often consisted of cold Chef Boyardee eaten straight from the can, she added.

All together, Stevenson says she spent $530 on a generator to power her refrigerator and another $500 on the gas needed to fuel it. Still, she lost a lot of food she doesn’t have the money to replace, Stevenson said.

“The goodness of others is what has gotten us through,” Stevenson told CNN on Monday when her power was still out. “Just when I wonder where I’m going to wash clothes, I get a call this morning telling me to come shower, wash clothes and eat tonight.”

In her part of Georgia, about 100 miles west of Savannah, the streets are littered with downed trees, fallen power lines and other debris.

Leslie Breedlove, another Hazlehurst resident, also went nearly three weeks without power until it was restored Tuesday. The well and pump that supply her home with water need electricity to work, so she got by on food donations and by taking showers and washing her clothes at other people’s houses.

The first thing she did when the lights turned on was the dishes, she said.

“I’ve never been through anything like this before,” Breedlove told CNN on Wednesday morning.

While she was excited to have power and water, she said she still doesn’t have internet access, which her daughters need for school.

Students in her county are expected back in class on Monday, October 21, Jeff Davis County Schools said in a social media post this week. “For families still without power on Monday, please notify your school’s front office to keep them informed,” the post said.

Power crews battling heavy debris first

There just under 1,000 customers still reporting outages in Jeff Davis County as of Wednesday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us.

Stevenson’s Hazlehurst home is powered by an electric cooperative called Satilla REMC, which is struggling to access hard hit areas in the county, along with Appling, Atkinson and Coffee counties, because of the severity of the damage.

“Helene is without a doubt the most devastating storm to ever impact our region,” the cooperative’s CEO, Romeo Reyes, said in a social media post Tuesday. “It has forced us to rethink and change many of the processes and procedures that we have used to manage storms in the past.”

Jim Tucker, a spokesperson for the cooperative, said they hope to have everyone’s power back on by Sunday.

Hurricane and tropical storm warnings from the National Weather Service were in place across Georgia when Helene struck the state. Hazlehurst saw the worst impacts on September 27.

Stevenson said nobody in the city knew they were in the storm’s direct path until the last minute.

“We were so unprepared for this storm,” Stevenson told CNN. “We didn’t get any kind of evacuation warnings or shelter in place.”

“Someone should have done something – the county or city – there should have been a contingency plan in place,” she added.

But officials point to the storm’s extraordinary intensity, which outmatched local resources and preparation efforts.

It was a 100-year storm that was “completely off the grid for us,” said Charles Wasdin, director of the Jeff Davis County Emergency Management Agency.

“We had severe challenges that we did not anticipate,” he said. “Total devastation.”

Wasdin said it will be months before all the storm debris is removed.

CNN also reached out to Jeff Davis County officials for their response.

As power restoration crews struggle to reach storm-damaged areas, Tucker said, the process has been further slowed.

“In many cases we have had to spend hours clearing fallen trees and other storm-related debris before we can even begin to repair the power lines,” he said.

On Monday, before her power had been restored, Breedlove said she was thankful for the line workers.

“We are a small town, but we’re strong with one another and helping one another,” Breedlove said.

Stevenson, too, said the area needed a lot of help. “I know other places are having hard times, too. I pray they also get as much help as they can.”

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CNN’s Monica Garrett and Steve Almasy contributed to this report.