Miami, US, Oct 4 (EFE).- The death toll from Hurricane Helene, which hammered the southeastern United States last week, has risen to more than 215, while rescue teams on Friday were searching around the clock for hundreds of missing people.
The storm struck northwestern Florida on Sep. 26 as a category 4 hurricane, before moving through Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Virginia.
CBS reported that the number of fatalities has risen to 219 people, while NBC said “at least 215” had been killed as a result of the massive flooding caused by the storm.
The search and rescue teams in the southeastern US on Friday were struggling with impassable roads, destroyed bridges, flooded towns and more than 700,000 homes that are still without power.
North Carolina has been the worst affected, where more than 100 people have died.
In Buncombe County, where the city of Asheville is located, more than 200 people are reported missing, according to the local Sheriff’s Office, Quentin Miller.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has deployed up to 1,500 emergency personnel and has distributed some 45 million dollars in aid to victims.
The US defense department has sent 1,000 active soldiers to assist in the relief efforts in North Carolina.
Following US president Joe Biden’s visit to the affected areas on Wednesday and Thursday, which included an aerial tour of Asheville, his vice president and Democratic candidate in the presidential election in November, Kamala Harris, will do the same on Saturday in North Carolina, after visiting areas in Georgia earlier this week.
Republican candidate and former president Donald Trump was due to travel to Georgia on Friday, where he will be met by the state’s Republican governor Brian Kemp.
In Tennessee, a vigil was held on Thursday to honor four workers at a plastics company who died as a result of the floods caused by Helene, the deadliest hurricane in the last 50 years in the continental United States.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation opened investigations into the plant’s response after complaints from factory employees, who have alleged that they were not allowed to evacuate after flood warnings were issued in Erwin, located on the border with North Carolina. EFE
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