Cadaver dogs have joined the search for more victims of Hurricane Helene after the death toll surpassed 160 – making it one of the country’s deadliest storms in history.
Helene swept through the southeastern states after making landfall on the Florida Gulf Coast last week, carving a destructive and deadly path across large portions of the area.
Power and cellular service was knocked out in some towns and cities, creating panic among those unable to receive information about the storm’s strength.
Western North Carolina was one of the hardest-hit areas, specifically in the Blue Ridge Mountains and other areas in and around Asheville, where at least 57 people were killed and hundreds remain missing.
More than 1.3 million people across six states are still without power, which includes 347,000 households in North Carolina, The Guardian reported.
About 100,000 residents in Asheville were without running water after pipes were washed away, leaving residents to wash themselves and dishes in nearby creeks.
A cargo plane of food, water and other emergency supplies was delivered by FEMA to the hardest-hit areas on Tuesday, including nearly two million ready-to-eat meals and more than a million liters of water.
Search crews and cadaver dogs made their way through the knee-deep mud and debris that remained in the small mountain town of Swannanoa, right outside of Asheville, on Tuesday, in an attempt to recover more bodies.
There are ten search and rescue teams on the ground in North Carolina with nine more set to arrive to help in the search efforts, CNN reported.
North Carolina was hit with the worst flooding in a century, destroying roads and trailer homes that ended up floating away during the storm.
Three-hundred roads remain closed as they await recovery operations, BBC reported.
In some areas, more than two feet of water was dumped after the intense rainfall.
‘Communities were wiped off the map,’ Roy Cooper, North Carolina’s governor, said at a news conference on Tuesday.
‘It was really challenging to watch how quickly it rose up and then just to watch whole buildings floating down the river,’ said Sarah Calloway, a deli-owner in the state.
Cliff Stewart, a Marine Corps veteran, is relying on food drop-offs from friends as he sits in his flooded home with no electricity.
He said the water was so intense that it topped the wheels on his wheelchair and sent his medicine bottles floating throughout the house.
‘Where am I going to go?’ he said. ‘This is all I’ve got. I just don’t want to give it up, because what am I going to do? Be homeless? I’d rather die right here than live homeless.’
In Augusta, Georgia, Sherry Brown, a resident, kept her refrigerator running by using power from the alternator of her car and collected water in coolers to take ‘bird baths’ with.
In another part of the city, people waited on lines for hours in an attempt to get water from one of the five centers set up to serve more than 200,000 people in the wake of the aftermath.
The destruction is becoming eerily visible as floodwaters start to recede – leaving behind the haunting sight of mangled homes and cars piled on top of each other.
But the true level of devastation is still unfolding and the number of deaths is only expected to rise as search and recovery efforts are still continuing.
President Joe Biden estimated the recovery cost to be billions of dollars in North and South Carolina.
‘We have to jump start this recovery process,’ he said on Tuesday.
‘People are scared to death. This is urgent.’
More than 150,000 households have registered for assistance with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the number of families who need help is also expected to rise in the coming days.
President Biden also approved mobilizing military assets in the near future to assist in the long-term recovery process.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
