North Carolina Officials Confirm 94 Storm-Related Deaths After Hurricane Helene

Officials confirmed Monday at least 94 storm-related fatalities in North Carolina due to Hurricane Helene.

In an update, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human services (NCDHHS) said the deaths were reported across 20 counties, Fox News reported, noting most of those tragic losses occurred in Buncombe County.

The outlet stated:

NCDHSS told Fox News Digital that these fatalities were confirmed by the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME).

NCDHSS said there are no missing persons numbers at this time because there are different sources of where missing persons and welfare check requests were reported during the storm.

Authorities are working to accumulate those numbers as searches are underway.

Gov. Roy Cooper (D) recently signed a relief package which allocated $273 million for recovery efforts in his state, per the Fox News article:

Nearly all the money will serve as the state’s share that is needed to meet the federal government’s match for state and local disaster assistance programs. Other money will be used in part to ensure public-school nutrition employees at closed schools get paid and to help officials administer elections in the coming weeks in the battleground state.

Several weeks after the storm hit the southeast portion of the United States, many people are still living without power while some are having to pull water from nearby streams to flush their toilets, Fox Weather reported on Saturday.

In addition, many roadways remain impassable and helicopters are being used to reach people living in the isolated areas of the state.

Aerial video footage shows the devastation in Asheville, where the area is covered in dirt and mud:

Meanwhile, using laser scans and GPS cameras, two geologists have mapped out over 600 landslides in North Carolina that happened amid the hurricane, WHV 11 reported on Sunday:

 

“Once we get up into the air, once we get satellite imagery we expect to find hundreds if not thousands of landslides,” one of the men told the outlet.