Southeast US reels as storm Helene death toll hits 200 / Photo: © AFP
Southeast US reels as storm Helene death toll hits 200
More than 200 people are now confirmed dead after Hurricane Helene carved a path of destruction through several US states, officials said Thursday, making it the second deadliest storm to hit the US mainland in more than half a century.
US President Joe Biden made his second straight day of visits to the country's southeast to grieve with residents of a region traumatized by a disaster that has upended life for millions. The storm flooded towns, made countless roads impassable, knocked out power and water service, and left communities shell-shocked.
A compilation of official figures by AFP confirms 201 fatalities across North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Virginia.
More than half of the deaths were in flood-ravaged North Carolina, which is experiencing an unprecedented disaster described by some as post-apocalyptic.
"I see you, I hear you, I grieve with you -- and I promise you, we have your back," Biden said during a stop at a damaged pecan farm in Ray City, Georgia.
Helene is the deadliest hurricane to hit the US mainland since 2005's Katrina, which killed 1,392 people.
Despite hundreds of rescues across six states and an enormous response including thousands of federal personnel and thousands more National Guard members and active-duty troops assisting local responders, the death toll from the sprawling storm is expected to rise.
Many residents are still unaccounted for in a mountainous region known for its pockets of isolation.
"We are continuing to find survivors," North Carolina's Buncombe County, the epicenter of the tragedy where more than 60 people are confirmed dead, said in its latest update, adding there are residents still cut off from the outside world due to landslides and destroyed bridges.
In Asheville, a city of about 100,000 at the foot of picturesque mountains, and popular with tourists, thick mud covers streets. Buildings and other structures along river banks have been washed away.
Authorities maintain their desperate search for survivors in remote areas, while downtown, restaurants and aid groups are providing free food and water. Repair crews are struggling to restore power to hundreds of thousands of customers still without electricity.
- Families 'lost everything' -
Biden traveled Thursday to Florida's northern Gulf coast, where Helene roared ashore last week as a powerful Category 4 hurricane with wind speeds of 140 miles (225 kilometers) per hour.
He took an aerial tour of the devastation, then walked past rows of destroyed homes in Keaton Beach, near where the storm made landfall.
Homes were "just wiped away, just an entire island gone," Biden said afterward while visiting Georgia.
"Families, they lost everything, including loved ones," he added, and pledged the full support of the federal government in helping communities recover.
Researchers say climate change likely plays a role in the rapid intensification of storms, because there is more energy in a warmer ocean for them to feed on.
Biden said Wednesday while touring North Carolina that a person "must be brain-dead" to deny the climate crisis and its impact. Former president Donald Trump, who is seeking re-election in November, has called climate change a hoax.
The Sierra Club said Helene fed off record warm water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico, supercharging the storm's power.
"Make no mistake: the unimaginable devastation we're seeing across the Southeast is the climate crisis in action," warned executive director Ben Jealous.
M.Vargas--ESF
