Hurricane Helene leaves 'biblical devastation' in North Carolina

Hurricane Helene has near "biblical devastation" successful parts of North Carolina, officials say, aft it tore crossed 5 south-eastern US states and near much than 60 radical dead.

A clearer representation of the demolition successful hard-hit North Carolina emerged connected Sunday, where, aft barrelling done Florida and Georgia, Helene brought torrential rainfall and swamped towns with flooding and mudslides.

More than 400 roads are closed successful the state, wherever 10 radical person died. Homes person been destroyed, towns person been cut-off and powerfulness outages are affecting hundreds of thousands of residents.

"This tempest has brought catastrophic devastation to occidental North Carolina, of historical proportions," Governor Roy Cooper said, adding that supplies were being airlifted to residents.

“We person biblical devastation done the county,” said Ryan Cole, an exigency authoritative for Buncombe County, which contains the upland metropolis of Asheville. "This is the astir important earthy catastrophe that immoderate 1 of america has ever seen."

Asheville, which is location to astir 94,000 radical and is simply a fashionable tourer destination, was mostly chopped disconnected by flooding connected Saturday aft Helene ripped done the portion arsenic a tropical storm.

Erin Quevedo, the proprietor of a flooded salon successful the city, spoke to The Asheville Citizen Times portion ankle-deep successful mud.

"The salon was wholly destroyed. It looks similar the h2o came up to astir 5 feet inside," she said. "Right now, each we're doing is we're trying to salvage what we can."

Many petrol stations are closed passim North Carolina with agelong queues of cars astatine those that are inactive open. Meanwhile, the fewer unfastened supermarkets person been crowded by customers attempting to bargain bottled water.

More than 300,000 North Carolinians were without powerfulness arsenic of Sunday morning, officials said. This, combined with mobile work outages, has analyzable efforts to scope those who are calling the exigency services.

Another situation has been navigating downed trees and debris, and officials successful the worst-hit country of occidental North Carolina said each roads determination were closed.

• In pictures: Hurricane Helene destruction

Helene began arsenic a hurricane - the astir almighty connected grounds to deed Florida's Big Bend, and moved northbound into Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee aft making landfall overnight connected Thursda

The harm is estimated astatine betwixt $95bn and $110bn (£71bn-£82bn). The standard of the demolition volition go clearer successful the coming days.

The hunt for survivors is ongoing and national emergencies person been declared successful six states, including Florida and Georgia.

As of Sunday greeting 63 radical were confirmed to person died crossed 5 states, according to the BBC's US spouse CBS, but that toll is expected to emergence arsenic hunt efforts uncover much victims.

The highest decease toll successful an idiosyncratic authorities was South Carolina, wherever 24 radical person been killed. Seventeen radical died successful Georgia and 11 were killed successful Florida, according to the governors of the 2 states.

"The devastation we're witnessing successful Hurricane Helene's aftermath has been overwhelming," President Joe Biden said connected Saturday.

He was briefed by Deanne Criswell, caput of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), who helium directed to velocity up enactment to tempest survivors, including deployment of other teams to North Carolina.

FEMA deployed much than 3,200 unit and national partners to respond to Helene, the bureau said. This includes hunt and rescue teams that person conducted implicit 600 rescues passim the south-eastern US.

Although Helene has weakened significantly, forecasters pass that precocious winds, flooding and the menace of tornadoes could continue.

There could beryllium arsenic galore arsenic 25 named storms successful 2024, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned earlier this year.

Between 8 and 13 of those storms could make into hurricanes and a fistful already person including Helene. More storms could beryllium connected the horizon, officials warned, arsenic the authoritative extremity of hurricane play is not until 30 November.