Helene death toll rises as Biden plans to visit devastated Carolina – NBC Chicago

President Joe Biden will survey the devastation in North and South Carolina on Wednesday as rescuers continue their search for people still missing after Hurricane Helene caused catastrophic damage in the Southeast, killing at least 151 people.

Many residents of both states were still without running water, cell service and electricity as the floods receded, revealing more of the death and destruction in Helene's path.

“We need to jump-start this recovery process,” Biden said Tuesday, estimating it will cost billions. “People are scared to death. This is urgent.”

While Biden is in the Carolinas, Vice President Kamala Harris will be in neighboring Georgia.

Helene, one of the deadliest storms in recent U.S. history, knocked out power and cell service for millions of people. More than 1.2 million customers were still in the dark early Wednesday in the Carolinas and Georgia. Some residents prepared their food on charcoal grills or hiked to high ground, hoping to find a signal to let their loved ones know they were alive.

On Tuesday, cadaver dogs and search teams trudged through knee-deep mud and debris in the mountains of western North Carolina looking for more victims. At least 57 people died in Buncombe County alone, home to the city of Asheville, a tourist haven known for its art galleries, breweries and outdoor activities.

In Swannanoa, a small community outside Asheville, receding floodwaters revealed stacked cars and trailers that had been washed away during the storm. The streets were caked with mud and debris and riddled with sinkholes.

Cliff Stewart survived water rushing up to three feet into his home, rolling over the wheels of his wheelchair and sending his medication bottles floating from room to room. Since he no longer has electricity and relies on food deliveries from friends, he has rejected offers to help him leave the country.

“Where should I go?” said the Marine Corps veteran. “This is all I have. I just don't want to give it up because what am I supposed to do? Be homeless? I would rather die here than live homeless.”

“Communities have been wiped off the map,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said at a news conference.

Across the border in East Tennessee, a caravan that included Gov. Bill Lee surveying damage outside the town of Erwin drove past a crew pulling two bodies from the rubble, a grim reminder that the Rescue and recovery operations are still ongoing and the death toll is high and is likely to rise.

President Joe Biden addressed the widespread destruction in the southeastern United States as a result of Hurricane Helene and discussed his plans to visit affected areas. “I was told it would be disruptive if I did it now,” the president said Monday. “We will not do this at the risk of misusing the response resources needed to address this crisis.”

In Augusta, Georgia, Sherry Brown converted electricity from her car's alternator to keep her refrigerator running. She took “bird baths” with water collected in coolers. In another part of the city, people waited in line for more than three hours to get water from one of five centers set up to serve more than 200,000 people.

What is being done to help?

Exhausted emergency crews worked around the clock to clear roads, restore power and phone service and reach those still stranded by the storm, which killed at least 166 people in six states, including many from falling landslides Trees were hit or houses were trapped in flooded cars. Nearly half of the deaths occurred in North Carolina, with dozens more in South Carolina and Georgia.

More than 150,000 households have signed up for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and that number is expected to rise rapidly in the coming days, said Frank Matranga, an agency official.

Nearly two million ready-to-eat meals and more than a million liters of water have been sent to the worst-hit areas, he said.

The storm triggered the worst flooding in a century in North Carolina, dropping more than 2 feet (61 centimeters) of rain in places.

Cooper's government said Tuesday that more than two dozen waterworks remained closed. Active U.S. military units may be needed to support the long-term recovery, he said, adding that Biden has given a “green light” to mobilize military assets soon.

A section of one of the region's main arteries, Interstate 40, reopened Tuesday after clearing a mudslide, but a collapsed section near the North Carolina-Tennessee border remained closed.

How some of the hardest hit areas are coping

Residents and business owners wore masks and gloves as they cleared debris Tuesday in Hot Springs, North Carolina, where nearly every building along the small town's main street was heavily damaged.

Sarah Calloway, owner of the deli and gourmet grocery store Vaste Riviere Provisions, said the storm reached the city frighteningly quickly. She helped fill sandbags the night before, but they proved useless. The water rose so quickly that she feared they would not be safe, even though she and others lived in an upstairs apartment. They called and requested rescue from a rapid water team.

“They tried to get to us, but they couldn’t at that point,” she said. “Fortunately, that’s when the water started to recede.”

“It was really challenging to watch how quickly it rose and then see whole buildings floating down the river. It was something I can’t even describe,” she said.

At Black Mountain Mobile Home Park in Swannanoa, Carina Ramos and Ezekiel Bianchi were overwhelmed by the damage on Tuesday. The couple, their children and their dog fled in the predawn darkness Friday as the rapidly rising waters of the Swannanoa River began to flood the lower end of the park.

At this point, trees blocked the roads and the couple abandoned their three vehicles, all of which were flooded.

“We stopped everything because we panicked,” Ramos said.

Her children lived with Ramos' parents and didn't even want to see the destroyed trailer.

“My daughter was crying and panicking,” Ramos said. “She says she doesn’t want her room to be full of toys being thrown everywhere.”

Cell service is down

Widespread damage and failures in communications infrastructure left many people without stable access to internet and cellular services.

Mayor Zeb Smathers of Canton, North Carolina, expressed disappointment Tuesday that so many of his constituents still lacked cell service and were not given a clear timeline for recovery.

“People are walking the streets of Canton with their cell phones in the air, trying to get a cell phone signal like it's a butterfly,” he told The Associated Press. “Every single aspect of this response has been extremely compromised by the lack of mobile communications. The one time we really needed our cell phones to work, they failed.”

Verizon teams are working to repair downed cell towers and damaged fiber optic cables and provide alternative forms of connectivity across the region, the company said in a statement.

AT&T, meanwhile, said it had launched “one of the largest mobilizations of our disaster recovery resources for emergency connectivity support.”

Efforts to restore service have been made more difficult by the region's terrain and widely dispersed population, said David Zumwalt, president and CEO of the Association for Broadband Without Boundaries.

Destruction from Florida to Virginia

Helene blew ashore in Florida late Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane, upending life across the Southeast, where deaths were also reported in Florida, Tennessee and Virginia.

Across Georgia, Helene's path inland caused a power outage and devastated lives from Valdosta to Augusta, where a line of cars waiting to collect water stretched for at least half a mile (0.8 kilometers) on Tuesday.

“It was tough,” said Kristie Nelson, who had no idea when her power would be restored. “I’m just craving a hot shower.”

With at least 36 deaths in South Carolina, Helene surpassed the 35 people killed in the state after Hurricane Hugo made landfall north of Charleston in 1989.

As Tennessee Gov. Lee flew to the eastern part of the state on Tuesday to survey the damage, residents said the governor and his entourage were the first help they had seen since the storm.

“Where was everyone?” asked a frustrated local. “We were here alone.”

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Kruesi reported from Hampton, Tennessee. Associated Press journalists Gary D. Robertson in Raleigh contributed to this report; Jeffrey Collins in Augusta, Georgia; John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia; Rebecca Santana in New Orleans; Shawn Chen in New York; Colleen Long in Washington and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio.