Hurricane Helene has left the southeast United States with significant flooding and damage, and there have been over 100 reported deaths.
Buncombe County, North Carolina, which includes the city of Asheville, reported 30 deaths. President Joe Biden will visit North Carolina after pledging government assistance as the state and others recover from the storm.
“It’s not just a catastrophic storm. It’s a historic, history-making storm,” Biden said. He also said that “damage from the hurricane stretches across at least ten states.”
While more than 100 deaths have been confirmed, US Homeland Security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall said on Monday that there could be upward of 600 deaths as a result of Hurricane Helene.
Hurricane Helene’s path and aftermath
The storm made landfall as a category-four hurricane in Florida’s panhandle last Thursday. By the time it reached Georgia, Helene was a tropical storm. However, the storm’s winds and heavy rainfall were significant enough to leave behind heavy destruction in its path across Georgia, Tennessee, and the Carolinas.
Thanks to Hurricane Helene, Buncombe County has seen some of the worst destruction. The National Guard and other organizations have been working on getting supplies into Asheville and other sites in the county.
“This is an unprecedented tragedy that requires an unprecedented response,” said North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials said they have sheltered thousands across western North Carolina. The officials also said there have been hundreds of road closures due to flooding and damage.
Cooper reciprocated Sherwood-Randall’s estimate that many more casualties are yet to be found due to Hurricane Helene’s destruction. He also said that the roads in Hurricane Helene’s path were destroyed, and entire communities have been “wiped off the map.”
“We have to make sure that we get in there and are smart about rebuilding and doing it in a resilient way,” Cooper said. “But right now, we’re concentrating on saving lives and getting supplies to people who desperately need them.”
He said that more than 50 search teams are working to find and save those who were in the storm’s most intense areas. Cooper urged residents in western North Carolina not to travel so as to allow emergency teams to clear roads.
“A lot of communities are completely cut off,” Cooper said. “And by the way, rivers are still rising, so the danger is not over. The flooding is likely not over.”
On CBS News on Sunday, Deanne Criswell, FEMA administrator, said, “I don’t know that anybody could be fully prepared for the amount of flooding and landslides that they are experiencing right now.”
