Helene flooding strands hundreds of North Carolina residents as storm’s death toll reaches 95.(CNN news)_

Helene flooding strands hundreds of North Carolina residents as storm’s death toll reaches 95.(CNN news)_

(CNN NEWS)_
The Southeast is grappling with widespread devastation after Helene made landfall Thursday as the strongest hurricane on record to slam into Florida’s Big Bend region and tore through multiple states, killing at least 95 people, knocking out power to millions and trapping families in floodwaters. In hard-hit North Carolina, days of unrelenting flooding have turned roads into waterways, left many without basic necessities and strained state resources. Here’s the latest:

• At least 95 dead across 6 states: Deaths have been reported in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee. At least 36 people are dead in North Carolina, according to county and state officials. At least 25 are dead in South Carolina, including two firefighters in Saluda County, authorities said. In Georgia, at least 17 people have died, two of them killed by a tornado in Alamo, according to a spokesperson for Gov. Brian Kemp. In Florida, at least 11 people have died, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Saturday, including several people who drowned in Pinellas County. Two people have died in Virginia, officials said Sunday, and four deaths have been reported in Tennessee.

• Scores of missing persons reports filed amid communication outages: Officials in Buncombe County, North Carolina – where at least 30 people have died – have received about 600 missing persons reports through an online form, County Manager Avril Pinder said Sunday. Former FEMA administrator Craig Fugate encouraged people not to lose hope. Communications being out and loved ones being unreachable “doesn’t necessarily mean the worst has happened,” he told CNN on Sunday, adding people will be reunited once cell phone reception and internet are restored. The state’s telecommunications partners activated disaster roaming on all networks, meaning “any phone on any carrier can access any network to place calls,” state Emergency Management Director William Ray said.

• Hundreds of roads closed in the Carpolinas, hampering water delivery: About 300 roads are closed in North Carolina and another 150 are closed in South Carolina, acting Federal Highway Administrator Kristin White of the US Department of Transportation said Sunday. North Carolina officials on Sunday acknowledged those closures have hampered delivery of water supplies to communities in need, like the city of Weaverville in Buncombe County, which is without both power and water, Mayor Patrick Fitzsimmons said.

Helene flooding strands hundreds of North Carolina residents as storm’s death toll reaches 95.(CNN news)_

• Millions without power in Southeast: About 2.1 million power customers are in the dark in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Virginia, according to PowerOutage.us. On Sunday, Michael Callahan, president of Duke Energy’s utility operations in South Carolina, said infrastructure repairs need to precede power restoration efforts. Still, the utility hoped to have most of its customers in that state back up by Friday, he said.

• President to visit disaster areas: President Joe Biden was briefed by FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell and Homeland Security Adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall on recovery efforts from Hurricane Helene and will visit impacted communities from the storm later this week “as soon as it will not disrupt emergency response operations,” the White House said Sunday evening. On Sunday, Biden spoke with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper as well as other officials across North Carolina, Tennessee, Florida and South Carolina. Former President Donald Trump on Sunday sent his condolences to those affected by Helene, which was the strongest hurricane on record to slam into Florida’s Big Bend region.

• ‘It looks like a bomb went off’ in Georgia: Helene “spared no one,” Gov. Brian Kemp said Saturday. Among the 17 people who died in Georgia were a mother and her 1-month-old twin boys, a 7-year-old boy and 4-year-old girl, and a 58-year-old man, according to Kemp. “It looks like a tornado went off, it looks like a bomb went off,” Kemp said.

• ‘Complete obliteration’ along Florida coast: Days after Helene slammed Florida on Thursday night as a Category 4 hurricane, countless residents are displaced, boil water notices are in place in multiple counties and power is out for over 147,000 customers. “You see some just complete obliteration for homes,” DeSantis said Saturday, noting Helene impacted some of the same communities affected by hurricanes Idalia last year and Debby last month.

• Federal government declares public health emergency in NC: North Carolina on Sunday joined Florida and Georgia as states where the federal government has declared a public health emergency. “We are working closely with state and local health authorities, as well as with our partners across the federal government, and stand ready to provide additional public health and medical support,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said. The government has deployed 200 people who are assessing how hospitals, nursing homes and other care facilities were affected, as well as sending medical care task forces. The announcement comes as President Joe Biden has approved federal disaster declarations for Florida, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee and, on Sunday, Virginia.

• Additional rain expected: Helene dumped “staggering” amounts of rain, including 12 to 14 inches in South Carolina, 12 to 16 inches in Florida and 12 to 14 inches in Georgia, said Ken Graham, the director of the National Weather Service. The storm became a post-tropical cyclone on Friday, but rainfall is expected to continue this weekend across parts of the southern Appalachian region: Additional totals of half an inch are expected for areas of western North Carolina, including Asheville, and eastern Tennessee, including Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. Up to 2 inches is possible for portions of Virginia and West Virginia through Monday. “Additional rainfall is not expected to exacerbate ongoing flooding but may lead to excessive runoff due to saturated soils,” the weather service said Sunday morning.