Man captures video as building caught in floodwaters gets ripped in half by telephone pole

ASHEVILLE, NC (CNN) – Incredible video shows the extent of the damage Helene wreaked on North Carolina as part of a building caught in floodwaters is ripped apart by a telephone pole.

Chris Faber captured video of a building floating by Friday from his third-story apartment in Asheville. He says he saw trees and shipping containers as well as complete buildings wash down the bloated Swannanoa River.

The video shows what appears to be the exterior wall of a building in the water. The wall slams into a telephone pole outside, and the floodwaters continue to push it through the pole, ripping the wall in half.

That debris was confirmed to be at least part of a local tea business called Asheville Tea Co., which lost everything to Helene.

The owner, Jessie Dean, says she thought moving everything at least three feet off the ground would be enough to avoid floodwaters. She had no idea her entire building would be swept away.

“It’s unfathomable,” Dean told CNN. “We put so much love and heart and soul into that space.”

She says all of the company’s employees and their families are safe.

Asheville and the surrounding Buncombe County was one of the places hit hardest by Helene. At least 61 people have been confirmed dead in the county, nearly half of the total death toll of at least 189 people, The Associated Press reports.