Rescuers fought their way along washed-out roads and through mud-filled ravines on Monday to deliver food, water and emergency supplies to devastated communities across the mountains of southern Appalachia.
President Biden said he would visit the region, possibly later this week, as the death toll from Hurricane Helene rose to at least 111 across six states. Almost a third of those killed were in the county surrounding the city of Asheville, N.C.
Though the hurricane made landfall in northwestern Florida on Thursday evening, the damage has spread far and wide in the days since, with strong winds and flash flooding decimating cities and counties far from any coastline.
The damage in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee has been especially dire. Neighborhoods across the region have been utterly destroyed by floodwaters and landslides, and Asheville’s drinking water system was severely damaged.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency said on Monday that officials have been working to truck in drinkable water to the city of about 94,000 people. But the lack of cellphone communication, along with widespread power outages and blocked roads, have left officials unsure of the extent of the damage in many of the small mountain towns ringing Asheville.
Power and cell service has been a problem all across the South. More than two million customers were still without power by midday Monday from Florida to Ohio, with the most in South Carolina, according to the tracking site poweroutage.us.
FEMA said in an update on Monday that more than 100 roads had been cleared across North Carolina, but nearly 300 remained impassable, along with more than 100 each in South Carolina and Georgia.
Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia told reporters on Monday that Helene “spared no one” as it ripped across the state. The death toll there had risen to at least 25, he said.
A spate of electricity outages in the state were concentrated around Augusta, a city of about 200,000 people, where most residents were still without power on Monday.
Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina predicted that the number of dead would continue to rise in his state as rescuers made their way into more of its western mountain towns.
President Biden said he would visit the devastated region as soon as he could do so without drawing resources away from relief efforts. Mr. Biden told reporters at the White House that federal emergency officials would not leave the region “until the job is done,” and called Helene a “history-making” storm.
“Communities are devastated,” he added. “Loved ones, waiting, not sure if their loved ones are OK, and they can’t contact them because there’s no cellphone connections. Many more folks displaced, with no idea when they’ll be able to return to their home, if ever — if there’s a home to return to.”
There were nearly 3,000 people in 78 shelters across five states on Monday morning, according to FEMA. So far, more than 6,300 rescue and aid personnel have been deployed from FEMA, the National Guard, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Communications Commission, among others, the agency said.
Mr. Biden noted that he had approved emergency declarations in Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia and Alabama, as well as disaster declarations for North Carolina, Florida and South Carolina.
“There have been reports of over 100 dead as a consequence of the storm, and there are reports of up to 600 people unaccounted for because they can’t be contacted,” the president added. “God willing, they’re alive.”
The post Biden Will Visit Region Ravaged by ‘History-Making’ Helene appeared first on New York Times.