Hurricane Helene aggressively stormed through North Carolina, prompting a mass evacuation for thousands of prison inmates last week.
Roughly 2,000 inmates from five prisons in the North Carolina mountains were evacuated after Hurricane Helene damaged community water and electrical utility systems that serve the prisons, according to The Charlotte Observer.
On Monday, nearly 400 women were relocated from the Western Correctional Center for Women in Swannanoa and the Black Mountain Substance Abuse Treatment Center for Women in Black Mountain to other correctional facilities.
Meanwhile, 841 men incarcerated at Avery-Mitchell Correctional Institution in Spruce Pine were transported to seven other prisons across the state on Department of Adult Correction buses on Wednesday.
More than 800 men were also bused from Mountain View Correctional Institution in Spruce Pine and Craggy Correctional Center in Asheville.
The 248 men in Craggy Correctional were taken to Alexander Correctional Institution in Taylorsville, while the 557 men in Mountain View were relocated to six prisons in central and eastern parts of the state, stated the N.C. Department of Correction.
"All offenders are safe, and the department is taking appropriate steps to ensure continued health and safety of staff and offenders," officials said in a news release.
Officials decided Sunday to evacuate the facilities based on the damage, according to the announcement.
It's unclear as to how long repairs to the damaged prisons will take.
"There's a very long time frame for those repairs – particularly for water," Keith Acree, spokesman for the Department of Adult Correction, told the news outlet on Thursday.
