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ASHEVILLE, NC – It's been one year since Helene devastated parts of the region in Western North Carolina and some of the first eyes-in-the-sky are reflecting on the devastation that followed.

Without cell service and washed-out roads , hundreds of people were left stranded in the mountains.

Al Mattress, a helicopter pilot with a commercial flight company, Total Flight Solutions, said he received an early morning call from one of the company's clients. The client asked them to check on a family member in western North Carolina.

Mattress says he got up in the air as quickly as he could. He was one of the first to see what was actually going on in the region.

"Watching it unfold, ya know, this water was still rising," Mattress tells FOX. "I had gotten there personall

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