Law enforcement confirms the second person killed in a fiery wrong-way collision in Madison County this weekend was Ryan Ricky Houston, a man who had been on the run from authorities since Thursday.
The crash happened around 11 p.m. Friday, Aug. 2. North Carolina Highway Patrol says Houston was behind the wheel of a stolen 2019 Jaguar that crashed head-on into a Ford truck along I-26 West near exit 11.
More than 2 million people remained without power late Sunday across the Southeast in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, including more than 430,000 in North Carolina, where the deadly storm pulverized homes, trapped residents, spawned landslides, and submerged communities under raging floodwaters.
At least 90 people have died across multiple states since the record-breaking storm hit Florida’s Big Bend as a Category 4 hurricane with 140-mph winds Thursday, before moving north through Georgia, Tennessee, and the Carolinas and weakening to a post-tropical cyclone. The death toll is expected to rise.
On Sunday, North Carolina officials were still trying to grasp the level of devastation. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said at a news conference that at least 11 people died in the devastated state, “and tragically we know there will be more.”
Buncombe County Manager Avril Pinder said more than 1,000 people were reported missing through the county’s online portal but added that she expected the number to drop dramatically when cell service is restored. Rescue crews are “still trying to save every single person we can” in the hard-hit community, Pinder said.
Hundreds of roads were washed away, cellular service for over 250,000 people was cut off, and vast swaths of cities such as Asheville were left underwater. Cooper said Helene had become “one of the worst storms in modern history for parts of North Carolina.”
Officials said earlier that more than 200 people had been rescued in the state by water and helicopter crews.
Ryan Cole, the assistant director of Buncombe County Emergency Services, said the wreckage was overwhelming. “We have biblical devastation through the county. We’ve had biblical flooding here,” Cole said.
At least two people in eastern Tennessee have died due to the recent devastation caused by Helene, officials said Sunday. One death was confirmed in Unicoi County and the other in Johnson County.
“We do expect this number to change,” spokesperson Myron Hughes of the Unicoi County Emergency Management Agency said during a 5 p.m. news conference. Tennessee officials reported that 153 people were still unaccounted for in the state as of Sunday afternoon.
Leave a Reply