More than 1,000 people are missing in devastated North Carolina after Hurricane Helen, where 10 people have already been confirmed dead, authorities said Sunday.
At an emergency meeting, Buncombe County officials announced emergency medical evacuations and continued rescue efforts in areas nearly flooded with rainwater and reported horrific casualties.
It also announced the launch of a special website to appeal for help in searching for missing people. “We've received over 1,000 calls so far,” one local official said at a livestreamed meeting. Ta.
“We're doing everything we can,” Buncombe County Sheriff Quentin Miller said, noting that collapsed roads, failing infrastructure and widespread flooding have made reaching stranded people nearly impossible. he said.
Officials say they hope many of the missing are people without electricity and unable to make efforts to alert their loved ones that they are safe.
But the county, where Asheville is located, has already seen 10 of the Tar Heel State's 11 confirmed deaths, and Gov. Roy Cooper acknowledged that the deadly toll is expected to rise soon.
“I know there's more to come,” he said Sunday.
North Carolina State Lt. Gen. Todd Hunt said emergency response teams rescued more than 40 people, including young children, in the Asheville area thanks to a combination of 911 calls and requests for help on social media.
Critical supplies are being airlifted to stranded communities as crews scramble to clear roads and restore communication lines.
As of Sunday afternoon, at least 60 people had died in Helen and millions were without power since the storm tore through Florida on Thursday.
“It's been about 24 hours since I last heard from my parents,” Katie Pate of Fairfax, Virginia, posted on X. “The Spruce Pine/Burnsville area of WNC has been devastated by the storm. We are aware that cell phone service has been significantly impacted. We are also aware that there may be emergency information. I haven’t.”
Jessica Dry Turner from Texas is pleading for someone to help her family stranded on a rooftop in Asheville surrounded by rising floodwaters. “They watch 18-wheelers and cars drive by,” Turner wrote in an emergency Facebook post Friday.
But in a follow-up message that was widely shared on social media on Saturday, Ms Turner said help did not arrive in time to save her parents, who are in their 70s, and her six-year-old nephew. The roof collapsed and three people drowned.
“Words cannot convey the sadness, heartbreak, and devastation my sisters and I are experiencing, nor can I imagine the pain before our eyes,” she wrote.
with post wire
