The death toll from Hurricane Helene has risen to over 100 people across six states as officials scramble to get water, food and supplies to the most impacted areas, CBS News reported Monday morning.
Helene first touched down in Florida on Thursday and ripped its way through Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina and North Carolina, where the devastation has been most severe.
In North Carolina alone, 42 people have died, 30 of whom were in Buncombe County, which includes Asheville, a city home to nearly 100,000 people. Supplies have been slow to reach the county, with mudslides and flooding blocking interstate highways, The Asheville Citizen Times reported.
More than 400 roads in North Carolina are still closed and Asheville mayor Esther Manheimer is urging residents to prepare for a long-term water outage, WLOS News 13 reported.
The category 4 hurricane is already one of the deadliest storms in American history, just behind Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Ian in 2022. There have been hundreds of water rescues and evacuations across the southeast, including over 100 rescues In North Carolina.
The Red Cross has opened more than 140 shelters to temporarily house over 2,000 people, the organization told the BBC.
“It’s still very much an active search and rescue mission,” FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell told the Associated Press.
On Sunday, President Joe Biden declared Hurricane Helene a major disaster in North Carolina and ordered federal aid to “supplement state, tribal, and local recovery efforts.”
"I am deeply saddened by the loss of life and devastation caused by Hurricane Helene across the Southeast,” Biden said in a statement. “As the storm continues to track north, Vice President Harris and I remain focused on life-saving and life-sustaining response and recovery efforts.”
The White House said Biden intends to visit impacted areas this week, provided it does not interfere with recovery efforts.
