Hurricane Helene leaves ‘biblical devastation’ in North Carolina

Hurricane Helene has left “biblical devastation” in parts of North Carolina, officials say, after it tore across five south-eastern US states and left more than 60 people dead.

A clearer image of the destruction in hard-hit North Carolina emerged on Sunday, where, after barrelling through Florida and Georgia, Helene brought torrential rain and swamped towns with flooding and mudslides.

More than 400 roads are closed in the state, where 11 people have died. Homes have been destroyed, towns have been cut-off, water systems are down and hundreds of thousands are without power.

“This storm has brought catastrophic devastation… of historic proportions,” Governor Roy Cooper said.

The American Red Cross has opened more than 140 shelters for those in south-eastern states who evacuated their homes. More than 2,000 people are in the shelters, the organisation said on Sunday.

In North Carolina’s Buncombe County, Sheriff Quentin Miller said around 1,000 people were still unaccounted for.

“We have biblical devastation through the county,” said Ryan Cole, an emergency official for the county, which contains the mountain city of Asheville. “This is the most significant natural disaster that any one of us has ever seen.”

Asheville, which is home to about 94,000 people and is a popular tourist destination, was largely cut off by flooding on Saturday after Helene ripped through the region as a tropical storm.

Erin Quevedo, the owner of a flooded salon in the city, spoke to The Asheville Citizen Times while ankle-deep in mud.

“The salon was completely destroyed. It looks like the water came up to about five feet inside,” she said. “Right now, all we’re doing is we’re trying to salvage what we can.”

Rescue operations are ongoing in North Carolina and supplies, including food and water, are being delivered by air to affected areas that cannot be reached due to closed roads.

“People are desperate for help and we are pushing to get it to them – [it is] a massive effort,” Governor Cooper said.

The North Carolina National Guard has rescued more than 119 people – including one infant, according to Major General Todd Hunt. He said the largest rescue was of 41 people north of Asheville.

Many petrol stations are closed throughout North Carolina with long queues of cars at those that are still open. Meanwhile, the few open supermarkets have been crowded by customers attempting to buy bottled water.

More than 300,000 North Carolinians were without power as of Sunday morning, officials said. This, combined with mobile service outages, has complicated efforts to reach those who are calling the emergency services.

Another challenge has been navigating downed trees and debris, and officials in the worst-hit area of western North Carolina said all roads there were closed.

Helene began as a hurricane – the most powerful on record to hit Florida’s Big Bend, and moved north into Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee after making landfall overnight on Thursday.

The damage is estimated at between $95bn and $110bn (£71bn-£82bn). The scale of the destruction will become clearer in the coming days.

The search for survivors is ongoing and federal emergencies have been declared in six states, including Florida and Georgia.

As of Sunday morning 63 people were confirmed to have died across five states, according to the BBC’s US partner CBS, but that toll is expected to rise as search efforts uncover more victims.

The highest death toll in an individual state was South Carolina, where 24 people have been killed. Seventeen people died in Georgia and 11 were killed in Florida, according to the governors of the two states.

“The devastation we’re witnessing in Hurricane Helene’s wake has been overwhelming,” President Joe Biden said on Saturday.

He was briefed by Deanne Criswell, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), who he directed to speed up support to storm survivors, including deployment of extra teams to North Carolina.

Although Helene has weakened significantly, forecasters warn that high winds, flooding and the threat of tornadoes could continue.

There could be as many as 25 named storms in 2024, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned earlier this year.

Between eight and 13 of those storms could develop into hurricanes and a handful already have including Helene. More storms could be on the horizon, officials warned, as the official end of hurricane season is not until 30 November.