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Massive hurricane Helene wreaked havoc over six states in the southeast United States, devastating neighborhoods and killing over 116 people.
Western North Carolina’s mountainous terrain has seen houses and bridges swept away, communities devastated, and the tourist destination of Asheville cut off.
Rescuers are focused their efforts on reaching those villages by Monday, but recovery is challenging because many routes are inaccessible.
The death toll is anticipated to grow as hundreds of search teams continue their recovery operations and family look for missing loved ones.
The topography and remoteness of North Carolina’s mountain communities hinder rescue efforts, since many highways remain closed due to damage and floods.
“The North Carolina mountains are beautiful, but there is a lot of rugged terrain on a sunny, beautiful day,” North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper told CNN on Monday morning.
Many areas were entirely cut off, he explained.
Cooper asked people to keep off the roads so that rescuers can reach them.
Buncombe County Manager Avril Pinder stated on Sunday that rescuers were working to guarantee that citizens in Asheville received essential supplies by Monday.
Helene began as a hurricane, the most violent on record to strike Florida’s Big Bend, before continuing on to Georgia, the Carolinas, and Tennessee.
The bulk of deaths were documented in North and South Carolina, as Helene passed through as a tropical storm.
According to the BBC’s US partner CBS News, the hurricane has killed at least 46 people in North Carolina and at least 27 in neighboring South Carolina.
Major General Todd Hunt reports that the North Carolina National Guard has rescued more than 119 persons, including one newborn. The greatest rescue involved 41 individuals north of Asheville, he stated.
On Sunday night, officials reported that at least 30 individuals had perished in Buncombe County alone. Around 1,000 individuals remain unaccounted for in the county, with family looking for loved ones without mobile phone service or electricity in some circumstances.
According to poweroutage.us, 500,000 residents in North Carolina and Georgia were without power on Monday morning, as did 750,000 in South Carolina.
The American Red Cross has created over 140 shelters for those who have been evacuated from their homes throughout the Southeast. The shelters are presently being used by around 2,000 individuals, according to the group.
Cooper has warned that Helene has caused “historic proportions” of destruction in North Carolina.
Recovery from the storm is expected to cost between $95 billion and $110 billion (£71 billion to £82 billion) countrywide.
The remnants of Hurricane Helene are scheduled to reach the mid-Atlantic on Monday.
However, additional storms may be on the way, according to authorities, as hurricane season does not officially conclude until November 30.
