Hurricane Helene resulted in deaths of at least 84 people. A single county in North Carolina reported 30 deaths over the weekend. Buncombe County, which includes the mountain city of Asheville, North Carolina, reported 30 people killed due to Hurricane Helene, pushing the overall death toll to at least 84 people across several states.
Helene made landfall late Sept. 26 as a Category 4 hurricane along a largely undeveloped expanse of pine trees and salt marshes on Florida’s Big Bend coast, before it weakened to become a tropical storm hours later. The storm produced far-reaching effects across much of the southern United States, producing flooding and tornadoes several hundred miles away.
In North Carolina, Helene’s heavy rains in the state’s western mountains caused massive flooding and mudslides in the Asheville region, cutting off most communication and making roads impassable. President Joe Biden on Sept. 29 approved the declaration of a federal major disaster in North Carolina and Florida.
Buncombe County, which includes the mountain city of Asheville, North Carolina, reported 30 people killed due to the storm, and several other fatalities reported in North Carolina Sunday pushed the overall death toll to at least 91 people across several states.