PERRY, Fla. (AP) The southeastern United States was grappling Sunday with a rising death toll, a lack of vital supplies in isolated and flooded areas and widespread loss of homes and property after the devastating aftermath of the hurricane. Helene became more evident, as authorities warned that reconstruction would be long and difficult.
A North Carolina county that includes the mountain city of Asheville reported 30 deaths due to the storm, bringing the total number of deaths to at least 84 people in several states.
Authorities sent supplies by air to the entire region around Asheville. Buncombe County Administrator Avril Pinder promised to send more water and food to the town, which is known for its artistic, cultural and natural attractions, by Monday at the latest.
We listen to them. We need food and we need water, Pinder declared in a conference call with reporters on Sunday. My staff has been submitting every support request possible to the state and we have been working with every organization that has been in contact. What I promise you is that we are very close.
The storm disrupted life throughout the southeast of the country. Deaths were also reported in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia.
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper predicted the death toll would rise as rescuers and other emergency workers reached areas left isolated by damaged roads, collapsed infrastructure and widespread flooding.
He asked residents of western North Carolina to avoid travel, both for their own safety and to keep roads clear for emergency vehicles. More than 50 search teams were distributed throughout the region in order to locate stranded people.
A total of 41 people were rescued during a single operation north of Asheville. Another mission focused on saving a single child. Crews located the people through calls to the 911 emergency number and through messages on social media, said North Carolina National Guard Adjutant General Todd Hunt.
Hurricane Helene made landfall Thursday night as a Category 4 storm in Florida’s Big Bend region with winds of 140 miles per hour (225 kilometers per hour). After weakening, the meteor crossed Georgia and later reached the Carolinas and Tennessee, where it dumped torrential rains that overflowed rivers and streams and left dams at their limit.
Hundreds of water rescues have been recorded, including one in East Tennessee’s Unicoi County, where dozens of patients and medical staff were removed by helicopter from the rooftop of a hospital on Friday.
Several million people were still without power as of Sunday afternoon. South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster asked for patience as crews had to deal with a large number of downed poles.
We want the population to remain calm. Help is on the way, it will just take time, McMaster told reporters gathered outside the airport in Aiken County.
The storm caused the worst flooding in North Carolina in a century. The Spruce Pine community received more than 2 feet (61 centimeters) of rain between Tuesday and Saturday.
Jessica Drye Turner pleaded from Texas for someone to rescue her relatives stranded on the roof of a home in Asheville amid rising floodwaters. They are watching cargo trucks and cars float by, Turner wrote on Facebook on Friday.
But in a follow-up message on Saturday, Turner indicated that help did not arrive in time to save his parents, both in their 70s, and his 6-year-old nephew. The roof collapsed and the three drowned.
“I cannot find words to express the pain, heartbreak and devastation that I and my sisters are going through,” he wrote.
Western North Carolina was isolated by mudslides and flooding.
The state sent water, food and other supplies to Buncombe County and Asheville, but mudslides blocking Interstate 40 and other roads prevented aid from arriving. The county’s own water supplies were across the Swannanoa River, far from where most of the county’s 270,000 residents live, officials said.
Authorities are making plans to deploy officers to places that still had water, food or gas due to reports of arguments and threats of violence, the county police chief said.
Whittle reported from Portland, Maine, and Collins from Columbia, South Carolina. Associated Press writers Haya Panjwani in Washington and Kate Brumback in Atlanta contributed to this report.
