More than 1,000 people have been reported unaccounted for in a devastated North Carolina county where 10 people have already been confirmed dead after Hurricane Helene, officials said Sunday.
Authorities in Buncombe County reported the horrifying toll in an emergency meeting announcing emergency medical shelters and ongoing rescue efforts in areas almost overwhelmed by stormwater.
They also announced a special website to appeal for help finding those unaccounted for — with “more than 1,000 reports so far,” one local official told the live-streamed meeting.
“We’re doing the best we can,” Buncombe County Sheriff Quentin Miller said of conditions making it almost impossible to reach the stranded due to collapsed roads, failing infrastructure and widespread flooding.
Many of the unaccounted for are hoped to just be those without electricity and efforts to let loved ones know they are safe, officials said.
However, the county, home to Asheville, already has 10 of the Tar Heel State’s 11 confirmed deaths — a terrible toll expected to soon rise, Gov. Roy Cooper conceded.
“We know there will be more,” he said Sunday.
Emergency response teams have rescued more than 40 people in the Ashville area, including an infant, thanks to a combination of 911 calls and pleas for help on social media, North Carolina Adjutant General Todd Hunt said.
Critical supplies are being airlifted to stranded communities as crews scramble to clear roads and restore communication lines.
As of Sunday afternoon, Helene has killed at least 60 people and left millions without power since the storm slammed into Florida on Thursday.
“It’s been about 24 hours since we last heard from my parents,” Katie Pate of Fairfax, Virginia, posted on X. “The SPRUCE PINE / BURNSVILLE area of WNC has been decimated by the storm. I recognize cellular service is deeply impacted. I also recognize maybe there is emergency info. I haven’t seen yet.”
In Texas, Jessica Drye Turner begged for someone to rescue her family members stranded on their rooftop in Asheville, surrounded by rising flood waters. “They are watching 18 wheelers and cars floating by,” Turner wrote in an urgent Facebook post on Friday.
But in a follow-up message, which became widely circulated on social media on Saturday, Turner said help had not arrived in time to save her parents, both in their 70s, and her six-year-old nephew. The roof had collapsed and the three drowned.
“I cannot convey in words the sorrow, heartbreak and devastation my sisters and I are going through nor imagine the pain before us,” she wrote.
With Post wires