Hurricane Helene’s death toll reached 200 on Thursday and could rise higher still, as searchers made their way toward the hardest to reach places in the mountains of western North Carolina, where the storm washed out roads and knocked out electricity, water and cellular service.

Officials in Georgia and North Carolina added to their states’ grim tallies, padding an overall count that has already made Helene the deadliest storm to hit the U.S. mainland since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

A week after the storm came ashore in Florida before carving a path of destruction through the Southeast, connections between friends, neighbors and even strangers have provided hope in the worst-affected areas.

While government cargo planes brought food and water to these areas and rescue crews waded through creeks searching for survivors, those who made it through the storm leaned on one another for support.

Sarah Vekasi, who makes and sells pottery out of her Sarah Sunshine Pottery store in Black Mountain, North Carolina, said she’s struggling with the trauma of Hurricane Helene and uncertainty about the future of her business.

“All I can say is that I’m alive. I’m not doing great. I’m not doing good. But I’m extremely grateful to be alive, especially when so many are not,” Vekasi said.

One thing that makes her feel a little better is the fellowship of the daily town meeting at the square.

“It’s incredible being able to meet in person,” said Vekasi, who was cut off by impassible roads for days. More than 150 people gathered for Wednesday’s session, as local leaders stood atop a picnic table shouting updates.

In pictures: Rage of Hurricane Helene

Martha Sullivan took careful notes so she could share the information — roads reopened, progress in getting power restored, work on trying to get water flowing again — with others.

Sullivan, who has lived in Black Mountain for 43 years, said her children invited her to come to Charlotte after the storm, but she wants to stay in her community and look after her neighbors.

“I’m going to stay as long as I feel like I’m being useful,” Sullivan said.

In remote mountain areas, helicopters hoisted the stranded to safety while search crews moved toppled trees so they could look door to door for survivors. In some places, homes teetered on hillsides and washed-out riverbanks.

Electricity is being slowly restored, as the number of homes and businesses without power dipped below 1 million for the first time since last weekend, according to poweroutage.us. Most of the outages are in the Carolinas and Georgia, where Helene struck after barreling over Florida’s Gulf Coast on Sept. 26 as a Category 4 hurricane. Deaths have been reported in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia, in addition to the Carolinas.

Robin Wynn lost power at her Asheville home early last Friday and was able to grab a bag of canned goods and water before getting to a shelter despite water up to her knees.

“I didn’t know where I was going, didn’t know what was going to happen next. But I got out and I’m alive,” Wynn said Wednesday.

Now that she’s back home, her neighbors have been watching out for one another. Plenty of people have come around to make sure everyone has a hot meal and water, she said.

Eric Williamson, who works at First Baptist Church in Hendersonville, normally makes home visits to members who can’t physically get to church. This week, he’s their lifeline, delivering food that meets dietary restrictions and tossing out food that had spoiled.

Beyond checking in on the essentials, he says it’s important to just socialize with folks in a moment like this to help them know they aren’t alone.

He has a handwritten list of everyone he needs to visit. “They don’t have telephone service, even if they have a landline, a lot of that isn’t working,” Williamson said. “So we’re bringing them food and water, but also just bringing them a smile and a prayer with them just to give them comfort.”

Volunteers in Asheville gathered Wednesday before going out to help find people who have been unreachable because of phone and internet outages. They took along boxes of drinking water and instructions to return in person with their results.

Even notifying relatives of people who died in the storm has been difficult.

“That has been our challenge, quite honestly, is no cell service, no way to reach out to next of kin,” said Avril Pinder, an official in Buncombe County where at least 61 people have died. “We have a confirmed body count, but we don’t have identifications on everyone or next-of-kin notifications.”

Thursday marked the seventh day of search and rescue operations, Pinder said, adding the county doesn’t have an official tally of people who are unaccounted for or missing.

“We’re continuing to find people. We know we have pockets of people who are isolated due to landslides and bridges out,” she said. “So they are disconnected but not missing.”

President Joe Biden spoke with survivors and first responders and surveyed damage Thursday in Keaton Beach, Florida, walking past mountains of splintered wood, demolished homes and massive pieces of siding crumpled like paper. Biden met with people who had lost homes; one couple was living out of a trailer near the wreckage of their home, their personal belongings strewn on the ground.

The president also was due to visit Georgia Thursday.

Biden flew over the devastation in North and South Carolina on Wednesday. The administration announced a federal commitment to foot the bill for debris removal and emergency protective measures for six months in North Carolina and three months in Georgia. The money will address the impacts of landslides and flooding and cover costs of first responders, search and rescue teams, shelters, and mass feeding.

Employees at a plastics factory in rural Tennessee who kept working last week until water flooded their parking lot and power went out at the plant were among those killed. The floodwaters swept 11 workers away, and only five were rescued. Two are confirmed dead.

Tennessee state authorities said they are investigating the company that owns the factory after some employees said they weren’t allowed to leave in time to avoid the storm’s impact.

Hospitals and health care organizations in the Southeast mostly stayed open despite dealing with blackouts, wind damage, supply issues and flooding. Many hospitals halted elective procedures, while only a few closed completely.

In Florida, officials were turning to “low-risk” state prisoners to help clear the mountains of debris left behind.

“Department of Corrections, they do prison labor anyways. So they’re bringing them to do debris removal,” Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters on Wednesday.

Marine One carrying U.S. President Joe Biden flies, as Biden visits North and South Carolina to survey storm damage and meet with officials in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris travelled on Wednesday (October 2, 2024) to South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia to assess the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene in the U.S. Southeast, which has killed more than 160 people.

Mr. Biden landed on Wednesday afternoon in Greer, South Carolina, where he was met by South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham and North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, among others. The president had what appeared to be an intense conversation with the group on the tarmac, then boarded a helicopter for an aerial tour.

In pictures: Rage of Hurricane Helene

Before leaving Washington, Mr. Biden directed up to 1,000 active-duty troops to immediately deploy to assist with response and recovery efforts. Search-and-rescue teams have conducted nearly 1,500 structural evaluations and hundreds of rescues and evacuations, said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Former President Donald Trump, a Republican running against Harris in this year’s presidential election, falsely claimed that Mr. Biden, a Democrat, has been unresponsive to the hurricane’s destruction, an allegation local officials deny.

Ms. Harris arrived in Georgia on Wednesday and will head to North Carolina in the coming days.

Mr. Biden will be briefed in Raleigh, North Carolina, later on Wednesday as rescuers scour the state’s mountains for survivors, then head to Georgia and Florida on Thursday, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said.

More than $10 million has been provided directly to those affected by the storm, Helene, Jean-Pierre said.

Over 4,800 personnel from across the federal workforce have been deployed to help in recovery efforts, along with 8.8 million meals, more than 7.4 million liters of water and 150 emergency power generators, said Mayorkas.

Still, the Homeland Security secretary said federal funding may not be enough should another hurricane hit.

“We are meeting the moment, but that doesn’t speak about the future,” Mayorkas said. “We are expecting another hurricane hitting. … FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season.”

POTENTIAL ELECTION EFFECTS

North Carolina and Georgia are among seven key battleground states in the Nov. 5 election, which is expected to be won by thin margins. Harris now leads Trump by 2.6 percentage points in national opinion polls, according to aggregator FiveThirtyEight.

North Carolina election officials are scrambling to make sure the state’s over 7 million registered voters can cast a ballot in federal, state and local elections.

Earlier this week, Mr. Trump visited Georgia. Presidents and presidential candidates usually do not visit a storm-hit region immediately because of fears they will distract from rescue efforts and divert resources from local law enforcement officials and emergency responders.

Hurricane Helene slammed into Florida on Thursday as a powerful Category 4 hurricane before tearing a destructive path through Southeastern states for several days.

Mr. Biden quickly made major disaster declarations in several states, allowing survivors to apply for federal assistance. The White House also contacted hundreds of officials across North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina and Florida.

Mr. Biden may ask Congress to return to Washington for a special session to pass supplemental aid funding, he said earlier this week.

The process of rebuilding after Hurricane Helene will be extremely costly and take years, Mayorkas said.