The Daily Populous Sunday October 6th, 2024 evening edition
Authored by apnews.com and submitted by WhileFalseRepeat

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The death toll from Hurricane Helene inched up to 227 on Saturday as the grim task of recovering bodies continued more than a week after the monster storm ravaged the Southeast and killed people in six states.

Helene came ashore Sept. 26 as a Category 4 hurricane and carved a wide swath of destruction as it moved northward from Florida, washing away homes, destroying roads and knocking out electricity and cellphone service for millions.

The number of deaths stood at 225 on Friday; two more were recorded in South Carolina the following day. It was still unclear how many people were unaccounted for or missing, and the toll could rise even higher.

Helene is the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. since Katrina in 2005. About half the victims were in North Carolina, while dozens more were killed in Georgia and South Carolina.

The city of Asheville, in the western mountains of North Carolina, was particularly battered. A week later workers used brooms and heavy machinery to clean mud and dirt outside of New Belgium Brewing Company, which lies next to the French Broad River and is among thousands of city businesses and households affected.

So far North Carolinians have received more than $27 million in individual assistance approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said MaryAnn Tierney, a regional administrator for the agency. More than 83,000 people have registered for individual assistance, according to the office of Gov. Roy Cooper.

In Buncombe County, where Asheville is located, FEMA-approved assistance has surpassed $12 million for survivors, Tierney said Saturday during a news briefing.

“This is critical assistance that will help people with their immediate needs, as well as displacement assistance that helps them if they can’t stay in their home,” she said.

She encouraged residents impacted by the storm to register for disaster assistance.

Debris left in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene is cleared Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Del Rio, Tenn. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

“It is the first step in the recovery process,” she said. “We can provide immediate relief in terms of serious needs assistance to replace food, water, medicines, other life safety, critical items, as well as displacement assistance if you cannot stay in your home.”

Helene’s raging floodwaters shocked mountain towns hundreds of miles inland and far from where the storm made landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast, including in the Tennessee mountains that Dolly Parton calls home.

The country music star has announced a $1 million donation to the Mountain Ways Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to providing immediate assistance to Hurricane Helene flood victims.

A person clears debris left in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Del Rio, Tenn. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

In addition, her East Tennessee businesses as well as the Dollywood Foundation are combining efforts, pledging to match her donation to Mountain Ways with a $1 million contribution.

Parton said she feels a close connection to the storm victims because so many of them “grew up in the mountains just like I did.”

“I can’t stand to see anyone hurting, so I wanted to do what I could to help after these terrible floods,” she said. “I hope we can all be a little bit of light in the world for our friends, our neighbors — even strangers — during this dark time they are experiencing.”

Walmart U.S. President and CEO John Furner said the company, including Sam’s Club and the Walmart Foundation, would increase its commitment and donate a total of $10 million to hurricane relief efforts.

In Newport, an eastern Tennessee town of about 7,000, residents continued cleaning up Saturday from the destruction caused by Helene’s floodwaters.

Mud still clung to the basement walls of one Main Street funeral home. The ground-floor chapel of another nearby was being dried out, a painting of Jesus still hanging on the wall in an otherwise barren room.

Newport City Hall and its police department also took on water from the swollen Pigeon River. Some of the modest, one-story homes along its banks were destroyed, their walls crumbled and rooms exposed.

Farther east in unincorporated Del Rio, along a bend in the French Broad River, residents and volunteers toiled to clean up. The smell of wood hung in the air as people used chainsaws to cut through downed trees, and Bobcats beeped as they moved mangled sheet metal and other debris. Many homes sustained damage, including one that slid off its foundation.

Associated Press journalists Jeff Roberson in Newport, Tennessee; Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa; and Denise Lavoie in Richmond, Virginia, contributed.

squintamongdablind on October 6th, 2024 at 02:24 UTC »

The Southeast United States received more than 40 trillion gallons of rain in the last week from Hurricane Helene and a run-of-the-mill rainstorm ahead of it. Helene itself was a 1000-year flood. As in, there was a 0.1% of it occurring in a year. Now imagine this hitting remote areas with only one road in and out, and limited communication infrastructure. That’s why we may never get a complete picture of lives lost, property damaged and impacted communities.

Peach__Pixie on October 6th, 2024 at 01:13 UTC »

I can't even imagine how much the loss of roads and bridges is impeding rescue and recovery efforts in the mountains. The infrastructure there just wasn't built for this kind of natural disaster, and access to some of these towns will be cut off for who knows how long. It's heartbreaking that these numbers will continue to climb.

fxkatt on October 6th, 2024 at 00:36 UTC »

Helene is the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. since Katrina in 2005. About half the victims were in North Carolina, while dozens more were killed in Georgia and South Carolina. The city of Asheville, in the western mountains of North Carolina, was particularly battered

77 dead in the Asheville area. And most of us thought that the worse damage would be the storm surge along the Florida Panhandle. That was the huge concern--at least as reported in most of major media.