Aerial footage captures the extent of Hurricane Helen’s devastating impact on Asheville, North Carolina.
The storm has killed at least 200 people across the Southeast since making historic landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region on September 27th. Approximately 1 million homes and businesses across the Carolinas, Florida, Georgia and Virginia are without power, and thousands remain without running water. , primarily in western North Carolina.
Helen is the fourth deadliest hurricane to hit the continental United States since 1950 and the deadliest since Katrina in 2005, when 1,392 people died.
The death toll in Buncombe County, North Carolina, which includes Asheville, rose from 61 to 72 on Thursday, Sheriff Quentin Miller confirmed at a news conference. At least 108 deaths have been reported across North Carolina.
The system reached the town of about 100,000 people as a tropical storm brought heavy rain, destroying hundreds of homes and damaging roads.
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County will deliver meals and water with daily limits
Buncombe County officials are providing ready-to-eat meals and bottled water, with a limit of two meals per adult and one meal per child per day. Residents will have access to water to flush their toilets at distribution stations on Tuesdays and Fridays.
President Joe Biden flew over Asheville and visited Greenville, South Carolina, on Wednesday to witness the devastation. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is sending more than $6.2 million to victims in North Carolina, as the Biden administration says it will provide more than $20 million to Helen survivors across the Southeast.
The North Carolina National Guard transported 12 aircraft pallets containing more than 100,000 pounds of food and more than 38,000 pounds of water to Asheville, according to a news release from the Biden-Harris administration on Thursday.
Insurers and forecasters predict Helen’s damage across the region will be between $15 billion and $100 billion.
To donate to Helen relief efforts
For a more extensive list of organizations to which you can donate, click here.
Contributors: Asheville Citizen Times, John Bacon, Zachary Huber, Jorge L. Ortiz, Dinah Boyles Pulver, USA TODAY
This story has been updated to add new information.