Hurricane Helene left more than 100 dead and 600 missing in the US, Biden confirms

The president of the United States, Joe Biden, reported this Monday, September 30, that the deaths caused by the Hurricane Helene
There are more than a hundred and there are close to 600 people missing.

“We will continue to send resources, including food, water, communications and life-saving equipment,” Biden said. “We will be there (…) as long as it takes to finish this job,” he added.

The last official death toll was 93 deaths in six states.. The hardest hit is North Carolina, where officials counted 36 deaths. There are 25 in South Carolina, including two firefighters; 17 in Georgia; 11 in Florida; two in Virginia; and two others in Tennessee.

However, the number could increase, as According to a CBS count, the death toll is 105, with 30 deaths in Buncombe County.

Helene entered Florida’s southeast coast as a Category 4 hurricane on Thursday night and made its way north, with torrential rains and gale-force winds causing devastating scenes as rescue and recovery teams struggle.

North Carolina is one of the worst affected states, especially on its western flank: an example of the catastrophe has been the town of Asheville, partially submerged, with its houses destroyed and streets full of debris, according to local media.

The governor, Roy Cooper, explained in a press conference that the heavy rains that fell in the mountains of the state caused landslides that washed away roads, knocked down light poles and telecommunications towers on their way to residential areas.

Some 280 state highways are still closed, making emergency work difficult.so authorities are bringing resources, food and water to trapped people by air; besides There are about 1,000 people in sheltersCooper said.

North Carolina’s airports, located in Asheville and Charlotte, are the largest in the US and are affected by cancellations and delays, although they continue with most of their operations.

The governor considered that Hurricane Helene is “one of the worst storms in modern history” of the state and anticipated more victimssince there are numerous reports of missing people.

They face a similar scenario in Unicoi County, east of Tennessee, where authorities are searching for more than 70 missing people, according to authorities reported in a press conference on Sunday morning.

The hardships are being increased by blackouts that keep 2.4 million people without power in the five most affected southeastern states, and another 130,000 in the five northern neighbors where the hurricane weakened.

Helene, which was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone on Friday, is no longer being monitored by weather authorities, but will leave heavy rain in the southern Appalachian mountain range.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is coordinating hundreds of personnel in rescue and recovery tasks, and its administrator, Deanne Criswell, noted in X that some communities hit by Helene were still suffering the ravages of Hurricane Idalia (2023) .