Hurricane Helene left nearly 100 dead on Sunday afternoon in six states in the southeastern United States, including North Carolina, where most of the deaths were recorded and the Government authorized a declaration of a “major disaster” to speed up assistance efforts.
The latest official death toll put the total at 93 in six states. The worst hit was North Carolina, where officials counted 36 dead; 25 in South Carolina, including two firefighters; 17 in Georgia; 11 in Florida; two in Virginia; and two in Tennessee.
The death toll is expected to rise in the evening, with a CBS news count putting the death toll at 105, including 30 in Buncombe County, North Carolina, one of the hardest hit areas.
Helene made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on Florida’s southeastern coast Thursday night and made its way north, bringing torrential rain and gale-force winds that have created devastating scenes for rescue and recovery teams today.
North Carolina is one of the worst hit states, especially on its western flank: an example of the catastrophe has been the town of Asheville, partially submerged, with its houses destroyed and streets full of debris, according to local media.
Governor Roy Cooper said at a press conference today that heavy rains in the state’s mountains caused landslides that washed away roads and knocked down power poles and telecommunications towers as they passed through residential areas.
Some 280 state highways are still closed, hampering emergency work, so authorities are airlifting supplies, food and water to stranded people, and about 1,000 people are in shelters, Cooper said.
North Carolina airports in Asheville and Charlotte are the main airports in the US currently affected by cancellations and delays, although most of their operations are continuing.
The governor called Helene “one of the worst storms in modern history” of the state and anticipated more casualties, as there are numerous reports of missing persons.
A similar scenario is being faced in Unicoi County, in eastern Tennessee, where authorities are searching for more than 70 missing people, officials said at a press conference on Sunday morning.
The hardships are being compounded by power outages that are leaving 2.4 million people without power in the five worst-hit southeastern states, and another 130,000 in the five northern neighbors where the hurricane weakened.
Helene, which was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone on Friday, is no longer being monitored by weather authorities but is expected to dump heavy rains in the southern Appalachian mountain range through tomorrow.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is coordinating hundreds of personnel in rescue and recovery efforts, and its administrator, Deanne Criswell, said today on X that some communities hit by Helene were still suffering the ravages of Hurricane Idalia (2023).
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