North Carolina
30 Dead in One County Alone in Rural North Carolina
The full scope of the damage wrought by Hurricane Helene on the southeastern US continues to emerge as floodwaters recede. Perhaps no locale has been hit harder than North Carolina’s mountainous Buncombe County, where the death toll stands at 30 and is expected to rise, reports the Asheville Citizen Times. The county includes the city of Asheville on the Swannanoa River.
- Hundreds remain missing in Buncombe, though communication issues and the chaos of rescues—neighbors taking in neighbors—are a factor.
- “We have biblical devastation,” says Ryan Cole, an emergency official in the county, per the BBC. “This is the most significant natural disaster that any one of us has ever seen.”
- Many residents were still struggling without water, food, power, and cellphone service, per the New York Times. In Swannanoa, also in Buncombe, helicopters have been dropping food at a church. And the wastewater treatment plant in nearby Weaverville was damaged by 8 feet of water.