The storm washed out hundreds of roads and damaged bridges across the southern Appalachians, leaving residents in already isolated communities stranded amid widespread power outages and communication blackouts. Federal, state and local authorities across the region pushed further into the mountain suburbs, including those surrounding Asheville, clearing roads as food, water and other aid was airdropped to residents in need.tizen-led volunteer groups in the mountains of western North Carolina have supplemented officials’ disaster relief operations, delivering aid to stranded communities on-foot and by helicopter and mule trains.
At 226 confirmed fatalities as of Friday, Helene is the fourth-deadliest hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. mainland since 1950. The deadliest is Katrina, which killed 1,392 people in 2005, followed by Audrey in 1957 at a death toll of 416. Third on the list is Hurricane Camille in 1969, a Category 5 storm that made landfall along the Mississippi Coast and claimed 256 lives.
The Asheville Police Department said Friday that 270 of 300 people reported missing have been found alive and well. Police are working on 75 active missing persons cases in the city, with assistance from the FBI and Department of Homeland Security.
Helene’s death toll surpassed the milestone of 200 on Thursday, according to a USA TODAY analysis. At least seventy-two fatalities were reported in Buncombe County alone, which encompasses Asheville and many surrounding neighborhoods.
Meanwhile, residents throughout the Southeast were grappling with the storm’s immense damage.
Dena Banks, 41, lingered near the steps of her home in Barnardsville, North Carolina, and tried to imagine what it might look like to rebuild.
“We lost everything,” Banks said, standing beside her mud-caked belongings that were scattered across the porch and grassless yard. “The house has got to be knocked down because it was waist deep.
North Carolina officials updated the state’s death toll to 115. South Carolina reported 46 deaths. Thirty-three fatalities have been reported in Georgia, 19 in Florida, 11 in Tennessee and 2 in Virginia.
F upederal climate records are safe from Helene’s aftermath, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Friday. NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, headquartered in Asheville, N.C., has confirmed that all of its staff has been accounted for, and its data holdings – including its paper and film records – are safe.
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