Helene death toll climbs past 100 in southeastern U.S.
The number of storm-related deaths climbed past 100 across the Southeast on Sunday, as authorities rushed to airdrop supplies, restore power and clear roads after massive rains from the powerful Helene left people stranded and without shelter.
Helene has left at least 116 people dead, CBS News has confirmed, and caused widespread destruction and knocked out power to several million people. Thirty fatalities were reported in Buncombe County, in North Carolina, one of the states that was hardest hit by the storm.
The storm crashed ashore in Florida's Big Bend area on Thursday night as a dangerous Category 4 storm. Helene was the third hurricane to hit the Big Bend region in the last 13 months.
From there, it quickly moved through Georgia, where Gov. Brian Kemp said Saturday that it "looks like a bomb went off" after seeing splintered homes and debris-covered highways from the air.
Weakened, Helene then soaked the Carolinas and Tennessee with torrential rains, sending creeks and rivers over their banks and straining dams.
The storm was expected to hover over the Tennessee Valley on Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said.
Millions of residents in the region remained without power Sunday afternoon, according to utility tracker Find Energy.
But Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Sunday night that 99% of the state had power.
President Biden has issued emergency declarations for Florida, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, all of which free up federal resources that will go towards recovery and assistance efforts.