NEWLAND, N.C. — The violent water smashed into the fellowship hall, pushing a propane tank through a wall, encasing the structure in mud and devastating the church in this mountain community just over a month before the hotly contested presidential race draws to a close.

“This is a flood like we’ve never had,” said Larry Jones, a deacon at Minneapolis Baptist Church, one of the polling places in rural Avery County ravaged by the remnants of Hurricane Helene last month. The site is one of several in the county unable to open in time for the election.

Three days after the storm, Jones and his wife managed to hike up to his elderly mother-in-law’s house by wading through mud up to their knees. The roads and bridges were blocked. He made it to his church a few days later and has been organizing volunteer efforts ever since.

“It’s been a full-time job,” he said.

Helene’s crushing aftermath is colliding with another political storm Thursday as in-person early voting begins in North Carolina, one of several battlegrounds expected to play outsized roles in the election. In addition to the presidential race, voters in North Carolina will also decide on their controversial race for governor and contests for attorney general and state school superintendent.

In a swing state where turnout is critical, some roads are still barely passable. Door-knocking seems impractical, and political town halls are suddenly not a top priority in a region initially desperate for food and water.

“There’s simply nothing left in some of the areas,” said Patrick Gannon, the public Information director for the North Carolina Board of Elections.

In Asheville and its surrounding counties, power, water service and cellphone communications have been gradually restored on a limited basis since the storm — but the recovery is just beginning.

“We were out of power for a long time,” Jones said. “It’s like we’re in the pioneer days.”

Would-be voters are instead searching for supplies, cleaning out their homes, haggling with insurance adjusters and struggling to scrounge up any sense of normalcy for their families.

“Since this happened,” Jones said, “I haven’t watched any news at all.”

The Postal Service has been providing election officials with a daily update of the roads that are blocked and can’t allow deliveries. The officials are then matching up the information to their list of people who’ve requested absentee ballots and contacting them to determine how best to get ballots to them.

“We’re doing everything we possibly can to find voters whose ballots may be missing,” Gannon said.

The state also plans to put up 15 tents across the region before the election. The hardened temporary structures will include bathrooms and security systems. It’s not clear where exactly they’re going yet, but several of them are expected in Avery County, one of several counties in western North Carolina near Asheville that are scrambling to update their election plans.

“We’ve had to expand our polling places for people to have access again,” said John Anglin, the GOP chair in Yancey County. “This is not a partisan issue. This is an American issue.”

In previous years, rural counties often had just one early voting site. This year, some have expanded the number of sites to accommodate hard-hit areas still recovering from Helene. In Avery County, where 76% of registered voters turned out for the 2020 election, officials have buckled down to ensure a smooth first day of early voting. Joseph Trivette, the county’s deputy director of elections, said the county had two early voting sites for the first time after Helene damaged polling sites in 14 out of 19 precincts.

State election officials said they had to deal with an unprecedented scenario in 2020 with the Covid pandemic. But this year is different: They’ve had less time to prepare.

“We’re on round two of different occurrences for a presidential election,” Trivette said. “But we just adapt.”

The political consequences of another upended election are unclear. Asheville is known as one of the state’s most liberal pockets, and it is likely to skew heavily for Vice President Kamala Harris, but its surrounding rural counties are expected to largely support former President Donald Trump. Low voter turnout could make the difference for either campaign.

As early voting kicks off, election officials say they recognize the high stakes. In Newland, they’re opening up new site at Riverside Elementary, near one of the hardest-hit communities — and using the Starlink satellite service to help power the tabulation for three precincts now consolidated into one polling location.

“My grandma always told me the importance of voting,” Trivette said. “So just to be a part of that now and help people vote, it just means a lot more.”