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Authorities reported on Sunday that the death toll from the devastating storm Helene has risen to at least 93, with one county in North Carolina alone accounting for 30 fatalities. Rescuers are working tirelessly to reach those in distress across the southeastern United States.
The storm’s aftermath has sparked a political response, as President Joe Biden, along with the candidates vying for his job—Kamala Harris and Donald Trump—revealed their plans to visit the most affected regions. Many of these areas are strategically important battlegrounds for the November election.
Severe winds and intense rainfall battered regions across Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. As a result, numerous homes were devastated, roads were submerged, and millions experienced power outages.
“We’re hearing (of) significant infrastructure damage to water systems, communication, roads, critical transportation routes, as well as several homes that have been just destroyed by this,” the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Deanne Criswell, said Sunday.
The death toll from the severe weather has reached at least 93, with local authorities reporting casualties of 37 in North Carolina, 25 in South Carolina, 17 in Georgia, 11 in Florida, two in Tennessee, and one in Virginia, according to data compiled by AFP. Officials expect this number to grow as the situation evolves.
“We have another devastating update. We now have 30 confirmed losses due to the storm,” Quentin Miller, the sheriff in North Carolina’s Buncombe County, which includes the tourist city of Asheville, told a briefing.
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Concerns over potential dam failures have led to ongoing flood warnings in various areas of western North Carolina.
Conditions were expected to improve in the affected areas by around Tuesday, National Weather Service director Ken Graham said.
Nearly 2.2 million households remained without power on Sunday, according to tracker poweroutage.us.
US Department of Energy official Matt Targuagno said that crews were working hard to restore electricity but warned it would be “a complex, multi-day response.”
Thousands of people continued to seek assistance in shelters run by the American Red Cross, organization official Jennifer Pipa said.
Making its way to Florida’s northern Gulf coast, Hurricane Helene arrived as a massive Category Four storm, featuring winds of 140 miles (225 kilometers) per hour. Even as it diminished in strength, it left a trail of destruction in its wake.
North Carolina experienced some of the most severe flooding, prompting Governor Roy Cooper to report that rescuers had to rely on airlifts to deliver supplies in certain regions where roads were either damaged or submerged.
“I don’t know that anybody could be fully prepared for the amount of flooding and landslides that they are experiencing right now,” Criswell said on CBS, adding that more search and rescue teams were being deployed.
William Ray, leading the state’s emergency management department, emphasized that the situation remains extremely risky.
The area experienced extensive road closures, with hundreds of routes still impassable and numerous bridges obliterated by floodwaters.
According to Kristin White of the US Department of Transportation, four significant interstate highways were closed in both North Carolina and Tennessee, as several bridges continued to be non-operational.
