Medical Check-Ins in Remote Flooded Towns in southwest Virginia by Ivy Sheppard

More than a week after tropical storm Helene, some communities throughout the southeast are still without access to grocery stores, or doctors. In Damascus, Virginia where the entire downtown has been decimated by high waters, the non-profit Health Wagon has been going door to door, checking on people. WEHC’s Ivy Sheppard reports.

The town of Damascus, with a population of 700 people, is the midway point of the Virginia Creeper Trail. While nobody lost their lives in Damascus as a result of Helene, many remain cut off in their homes while some who’ve lost everything, are sleeping in tents. 

Mark Handy is a doctor from Abingdon, who’s working with the Health Wagon to bring medical supplies to people in the region. “Mainly elderly people who cannot get out. And the roads are washed out, they have no power. The devastating thing too about a lot of these people, they’re on oxygen, we’re trying to get them tanks up there. “

Officials and volunteers are busy checking on residents to ensure basic needs are met, until roads are safer in and out of this Appalachian town.