PERRY, Fla. (AP) North Carolina officials vowed to bring more water and other supplies to flood-affected areas Monday after Hurricane Helene left a trail of destruction across the southeastern United States. United States and while the death toll from the storm approached one hundred.
At least 91 people died in several states. A North Carolina county where the mountain city of Asheville is located reported 30 deaths.
Governor Roy Cooper predicted the number would rise as rescuers and other emergency workers reached places isolated by blocked roads, damaged infrastructure and widespread flooding.
Authorities were airlifting supplies to the isolated city of Asheville. Buncombe County Manager Avril Pinder promised that food and water would arrive on Monday.
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.
Authorities warned that rebuilding after widespread losses in homes and property would be long and difficult. The storm disrupted life throughout the southeast of the country. Deaths were also reported in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia.
Cooper 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.
The president of the United States, Joe Biden, described the impact of the storm as “devastating” and said he would visit the area this week as long as it did not complicate the rescue and recovery effort.
In a brief conversation with reporters, he said the government would provide states with everything we have to help with their response to the storm.
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 reported, including one in East Tennessee’s Unicoi County, where dozens of patients and medical staff were evacuated by helicopter from a hospital rooftop on Friday.
More than two million customers were still without power Sunday night. South Carolina had the most power outages and Governor Henry McMaster asked for patience as crews dealt with numerous downed power 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.
Whittle reported from Portland, Maine, and Collins reported from Columbia, South Carolina. Haya Panjwani in Washington, Kate Brumback in Atlanta and Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, contributed to this report.
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