ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Widespread devastation left behind by Hurricane Helene came to light Monday across the South, revealing a wasteland of splintered houses, crushed cargo containers and mud-covered highways in one of the worst storms in U.S. history. The death toll topped 130.
A crisis unfolded in western North Carolina, where residents stranded by washed-out roads and by a lack of power and cellular service lined up Monday for fresh water and a chance to message loved ones days after the storm that they were alive.
At least 132 deaths in six Southeastern states are attributed to the storm — a number that climbed Monday as a clearer picture emerged of the damage it inflicted on an area stretching from Florida’s Gulf Coast northward to the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia.
Debris is seen Monday in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Asheville, N.C.
The toll steadily rose Monday as emergency workers reached areas isolated by collapsed roads, failing infrastructure and widespread flooding.
During a briefing Monday, White House homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall suggested as many as 600 people weren’t accounted for as of Monday afternoon, saying some might be dead.
President Joe Biden plans to travel to North Carolina on Wednesday.
Government officials and aid groups worked to deliver basic supplies by air, truck and even mule to the hard-hit tourism hub of Asheville and its surrounding mountain towns. At least 40 people died in the county that includes Asheville.
Several main routes into Asheville were washed away or blocked by mudslides, including a four-mile section of Interstate 40, and the city’s water system was severely damaged, forcing residents to scoop creek water into buckets so they could flush toilets.
People line up for water Monday at Mountain Valley Water in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in West Asheville, N.C.
Others waited in a line for more than a block at Mountain Valley Water, a water seller, to fill up milk jugs and whatever other containers they could find.
Derek Farmer, who brought three gallon-sized apple juice containers, said he was prepared for the storm but now was nervous after three days without water. “I just didn’t know how bad it was going to be,” Farmer said.
Officials warned that rebuilding from the widespread loss of homes and property would be lengthy and difficult. The storm upended life throughout the Southeast, where deaths were also reported in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia.
Helene roared ashore in northern Florida late Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane and quickly moved through Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee with torrential rains that flooded waterways.
A medical helicopter takes off Monday near downtown in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Asheville, N.C.
Federal Emergency Management Agency officials said Monday that hundreds of roads were closed across western North Carolina and that shelters housed more than 1,000 people.
North Carolina’s governor, Roy Cooper, took an aerial tour of the Asheville area and later met with workers distributing meals.
“This has been an unprecedented storm that has hit western North Carolina,” he said afterward. “It’s requiring an unprecedented response.”
Officials implored travelers from coming into region for the next several days to keep the roads clear for emergency vehicles. More than 50 search teams spread throughout the region in search of stranded people.
The storm unleashed the worst flooding in a century in North Carolina. Rainfall estimates in some areas topped more than 2 feet since Wednesday.
Debris is seen Monday in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Asheville, N.C.
Biden said the federal government would be with survivors and others in the nation’s southeast affected by Helene “as long as it takes.”
Ten federal search and rescue teams were on the ground and another nine were on their way, while trucks and cargo planes were arriving with food and water, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said. FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell surveyed damage with North Carolina’s governor Monday.
Volunteers showed up too. Mike Toberer decided to bring a dozen of his mules to deliver food, water and diapers to the hard-to-reach mountainous areas.
“We’ll take our chainsaws, and we’ll push those mules through,” he said, noting that each one can carry about 200 pounds and travel 2 mph.
Western North Carolina suffered relatively more devastation because that’s where the remnants of Helene encountered the higher elevations and cooler air of the Appalachian Mountains, causing even more rain to fall.
Carrie Owenby looks at her phone Monday after a neighbor with power dropped an extension cord for neighbors who have no power in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Asheville, N.C.
Asheville and many surrounding mountain towns were built in valleys, leaving them especially vulnerable to devastating rain and flooding.
Plus, the ground already was saturated before Helene arrived, said Christiaan Patterson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
“By the time Helene came into the Carolinas, we already had that rain on top of more rain,” Patterson said.
Climate change exacerbated conditions that allow such storms to thrive, rapidly intensifying in warming waters and turning into powerful cyclones, sometimes within hours.
Photos: Hurricane Helene inundates the southeastern US
Thomas Chaves, left, and Vinny Almeida walk through floodwaters Friday from Hurricane Helene in an attempt to reach Chaves's mother's house in the Shore Acres neighborhood of St. Petersburg, Fla. Authorities were trying to get a handle on the storm's extreme swath of destruction, which stretched across Florida, Georgia and much of the southeastern U.S., leaving at least 30 people dead in four states and millions without power.
Workers clear debris Friday in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Cedar Key, Fla. Tangled piles of nail-spiked lumber and displaced boats littered the streets. A house lay crushed under a fern-covered oak tree toppled by the winds.
This GOES-16 GeoColor satellite image taken at 5:46 p.m. EDT and provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows Hurricane Helene in the Gulf of Mexico moving towards Florida, Thursday, Sept. 26 2024. (NOAA via AP) The Category 4 hurricane had maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (225 kph) and made landfall late Thursday where Florida's Panhandle and peninsula meet, a rural region home to fishing villages and vacation hideaways.
Residents are rescued from floodwaters Friday in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Crystal River, Fla. Residents waded or paddled through ruddy floodwaters, hoping to find their loved ones safe, and rescue crews used fan boats to evacuate stranded people in bathrobes or wrapped in blankets.
A Citrus County firefighter carries 11-year-old Michael Cribbins while conducting rescues in floodwaters Friday in Crystal River, Fla., after Hurricane Helene.
Halle Brooks kayaks Friday down a street flooded by Hurricane Helene in the Shore Acres neighborhood of St. Petersburg, Fla. The damage reached much farther. Hospitals in southern Georgia were left without electricity as officials warned of severe damage to the power grid, and streets in Atlanta plunged into reddish-brown water. In Tennessee, dozens of people were rescued from a hospital roof, and authorities ordered the evacuation of downtown Newport, a city of about 7,000 residents, due to the “catastrophic failure” of a dam.
Faith Cotto comforts her mother, Nancy, as they look at the remnants of their home Friday in the Shore Acres neighborhood of St. Petersburg, Fla. The house burned during flooding from Hurricane Helene.
A man and his dog are rescued Thursday after his sailboat became disabled during Hurricane Helene approximately 25 miles off Sanibel Island, Fla.
A boat rests on a street Friday after being relocated during flooding caused by Hurricane Helene in Hudson, Fla. It was the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted an above-average season this year because of record-warm ocean temperatures.
A person looks over a flooded street due to Hurricane Helene late Thursday in New Port Richey, Fla.
A patron looks at flooding Friday from Hurricane Helene in the Paces neighborhood of Atlanta.
A partially submerged vehicle sits in floodwater Friday after Hurricane Helene passed in Atlanta.
An American flag sits in floodwaters Friday in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in the Shore Acres neighborhood of St. Petersburg, Fla. Floodwaters inundated cars and buildings, and the winds ripped off the roofs of businesses, houses and churches.
Bradley Tennant looks through his house Friday flooded with water from Hurricane Helene in the Shore Acres neighborhood of St. Petersburg, Fla.
The business Chez What is seen Friday after Hurricane Helene moved through Valdosta, Ga.
Workers remove debris Friday in Cedar Key, Fla., in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
Nate Martir, a law enforcement officer from the Florida Fish Wildlife and Conservation Commission, holds an American flag that was lying on the ground amid debris, while patrolling Friday in a high-water-capable swamp buggy in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Cedar Key, Fla.
Clarissa Lucky gives a tour of her home Friday that flooded from Hurricane Helene near DeSoto Park, Fla., in Tampa.
A damaged 100-year-old home is seen Friday in Valdosta, Ga., after an oak tree landed on it during Hurricane Helene.
Jamir Lewis wades through floodwaters Friday with his daughters, Nylah and Aria, in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Crystal River, Fla.
People and pets are rescued from flooded neighborhoods Friday in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Crystal River, Fla.
An airboat transports residents rescued from floodwaters Friday in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Crystal River, Fla.
A person walks past building foundations along the water Friday in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Cedar Key, Fla.
Jennifer Lange, center, walks amid the destruction in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, in Horseshoe Beach, Fla., Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
John Taylor puts up an American flag on his destroyed property in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, in Horseshoe Beach, Fla., Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Volunteers from convoyofhope.org wait for fellow volunteers before they open a food distribution operation in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, in Perry, Fla., Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Chae Tillman fills fuel containers Saturday at a gas station in Adell, Ga., in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
Dennis Johnson cleans out debris from his mother-in-law's heavily damaged home in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, in Horseshoe Beach, Fla., Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Dustin Bentley, center kisses his wife Jennifer Bentley, left, after retrieving family photos from their flood damaged home as his mother Janet Sams looks on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, in Newport, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
