Thirty killed in one county after hurricane swamps North Carolina
At least 30 people have been confirmed dead, with many more still missing, in a single county in North Carolina following the catastrophic flooding caused by Hurricane Helene.
As more details of the storm’s devastation became clear on Sunday, it appeared Buncombe County, home to the mountain city of Asheville, was the worst hit. The hurricane had previously battered Florida and Georgia.
“We’re witnessing biblical-level destruction,” said Ryan Cole, an emergency official in Buncombe County. “This is the most severe natural disaster any of us have ever experienced.”
Nationwide, at least 105 people have lost their lives since Helene made landfall in Florida on Thursday, according to CBS, a partner of the BBC. That number is expected to rise as more areas become accessible to rescue teams.
Helene, which began as the strongest hurricane on record to strike Florida’s Big Bend, moved north into Georgia, the Carolinas, and Tennessee. Most of the confirmed fatalities have been reported in North and South Carolina, where Helene weakened to a tropical storm.
By Sunday evening, officials in North Carolina announced that 30 deaths had been confirmed in Buncombe County alone. Crews across the state are struggling to restore power, reopen roads, and address widespread damage from fallen trees and communication outages.
Some residents returned to find their homes destroyed on Sunday. And with some 1,000 people still unaccounted for in Buncombe County, relatives are working to locate family members with limited mobile service.
“This storm has brought catastrophic devastation… of historic proportions,” North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said.
The American Red Cross has opened more than 140 shelters for those in south-eastern states who evacuated their homes. More than 2,000 people are currently using the shelters, the organization said on Sunday.
The search for survivors is ongoing and federal emergencies have been declared in six states, including Florida and Georgia.
“The devastation we’re witnessing in Hurricane Helene’s wake has been overwhelming,” President Joe Biden said on Saturday.
He was briefed by Deanne Criswell, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), who he directed to speed up support to storm survivors, including the deployment of extra teams to North Carolina.
Although Helene has weakened significantly, forecasters warn that high winds, flooding, and the threat of tornadoes could continue.
There could be as many as 25 named storms in 2024, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned earlier this year.
Between eight and 13 of those storms could develop into hurricanes and a handful already have including Helene. More storms could be on the horizon, officials warned, as the official end of hurricane season is not until 30 November.
