North Carolina searches for survivors cut off by Hurricane Helene

Natural Disasters

Oct 1

North Carolina will resume search and rescue operations on Tuesday, intent on delivering aid and making contact with hundreds of people cut off by washed-out roads and damaged cellphone towers in the wake of Helene.

Hurricane Helene caused significant destruction and loss of life as it moved through the southeastern United States. The storm made landfall in Florida's Big Bend region as a Category 4 hurricane, bringing winds of 140 mph. It then moved through Georgia, the Carolinas, and Tennessee, causing widespread damage and flooding.

The storm killed more than 100 people across North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Virginia, and the death toll is expected to rise once rescue teams reach isolated towns and telecommunications are restored.

"There are a lot of people hurting. When you don't have power, when you don't have cell phone service, when you don't have water, this is a catastrophic situation for you," North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper told MSNBC on Monday night.

"Some of our communities are completely wiped out," Cooper said.

The state was coordinating 92 search and rescue teams from 20 states and the U.S. government, Cooper said. Most efforts were in the western part of the state where the storm ripped up roads, leveled trees and tossed homes about.

On Monday emergency workers delivered a million liters of water, 600,000 meals and hundreds of pallets of airlifted supplies, he said.

In North Carolina, some 300 roads were closed and more than 7,000 people have registered for U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance, officials said on Monday. The National Guard was flying 1,000 tons of food and water to remote areas by plane and helicopter, they added.

Helene was a hurricane when it slammed into the Florida Gulf coast on Thursday, tearing a destructive path through southeastern states for days on end.

The storm resulted in at least 52 deaths across five states. Hundreds of water rescues were conducted, including a dramatic operation in rural East Tennessee where patients and staff were evacuated by helicopter from a flooded hospital.

Authorities had warned residents to evacuate, but some stayed behind. In North Carolina, a lake overtopped a dam, leading to evacuations, although there were no immediate concerns about the dam failing. In Tennessee, a city of about 7,000 people was evacuated due to concerns about a nearby dam, but officials later confirmed the structure was intact.

Atlanta saw a record 11.12 inches of rain in 48 hours, the most in a two-day period since records began in 1878. Some neighborhoods were flooded so severely that only car roofs were visible above the water.

The storm made landfall near where Hurricane Idalia hit last year at nearly the same intensity. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the damage from Helene appears to be greater than the combined effects of Idalia and Hurricane Debby in August.

The hurricane caused catastrophic damage to utility infrastructure, with more than 100 high voltage transmission lines damaged in Georgia. In South Carolina, crews had to cut through debris to assess the damage in some areas.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted an above-average hurricane season this year due to record-warm ocean temperatures. Helene was the eighth named storm of the season, which began on June 1.