North Carolina Helene-hit state could decide the race

ric "Rocky" Farmer is stoking a bonfire of what's left of his life. Billows of smoke rise from a mound of debris burning in front of what he once called his home - a large two-storey house that is now a contorted mass of twisted metal and broken beams.

- Ed Pilkington

When Hurricane Helene struck western North Carolina last month, the North Fork New River that runs beside his property overflowed, rising more than 6 metres (20ft). The raging waters lifted up a mobile home from upstream, slamming it into the corner of his house.

His struggle has now become entangled in the painfully close and tense US election. The state, where several tracker polls, including the Guardian's, show the contest between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris to be neck-and-neck, is one of seven battlegrounds that will decide the outcome of the presidential race on 5 November.

With polls so tight, what the disaster does to turnout, and with that to the candidates' chances, could tip the race.

Amid the wreckage of his home, Farmer is taking a philosophical approach. "Politics is like Mother Nature," he said. "You just watch what it does from the sidelines, then deal with the consequences."

Though he plans to vote, he is still not sure whether for Trump or Harris. "Guess I'll go with the lesser of the two evils - they're both evil as far as I'm concerned," he said.

The hurricane that struck on 27 September hit the Appalachian mountain region of western North Carolina hard, killing at least 96 people. Many roads are still closed and thousands of people have been displaced or remain without power and running water.

More than 1.2 million voters live in the region - about one in six of the state's electorate. The fear is that turnout will be depressed.

"Nobody's talking about politics here, because it doesn't matter," said Shane Bare, 45, a volunteer handing out donated coats. "If you can't flush your toilet or get to your mailbox, you could care less about the election."