The death toll from Hurricane Helene reaches 182, the deadliest storm since Katrina

The death toll from Hurricane Helene has risen to 182 – a number that is expected to rise as hundreds remain missing.

The frightening figure – making Helene the deadliest storm to hit the US since Hurricane Katrina in 2005 – covers six states in the South.

North Carolina – one of the hardest-hit areas due to severe flooding that washed out entire communities – has lost 91 people. There were 36 deaths in South Carolina; Georgia had 25; Florida has lost 19; Tennessee lost 9; and Virginia lost two, according to CNN.

Among the dead are several first responders and officers who remained at their posts in the face of the storm's dangers.

South Carolina firefighters Chad Satcher, 53, and Landon Bodie, 18, died Friday when a tree fell on their engine while responding to a fire in the town of Saluda.

Sheriff's Capt. Michelle Quintero – who ran the Madison County Jail in Florida directly in the storm's path – died Sunday when a levee burst and she was swept away by floodwaters. Quintero had been driving through Helene's fallout to reach her prison and care for the inmates when the tragedy occurred.

North Carolina Rep. Jim Lau was swept away by floodwaters while taking a lunch break while on duty as a security guard at the Macon County Courthouse.

According to First Coast News, Vernon Davis, a 30-year firefighter, died Friday in Blackshear when a tree fell on his truck while he was helping clear roads.

And in East Tennessee, a police K-9 named Scotty was caught in sudden flooding and disappeared.

However, hundreds are still missing, suggesting the death toll will continue to rise.

In Buncombe County, North Carolina alone, at least 600 people were missing on Tuesday, as much of the mountainous region is still cut off from the outside world – both physically by now-vanished roads and bridges and because communications are so difficult due to massive power outages is almost impossible.

“There are reports of up to 600 people missing because they cannot be contacted,” President Biden said Monday. “God willing, they are alive.”

In much of the South—particularly the Appalachian regions of Tennessee, Georgia, and North and South Carolina—the situation is similar.

Even if no more bodies emerge from the rubble, the storm's death toll could continue to rise in the coming years – even into the thousands, according to one study.

Strong storms like Hurricane Helene could directly lead to 7,000 to 11,000 deaths over the following 15 years, according to a study published Wednesday in Nature.

The study examined mortality rates after 501 tropical cyclones between 1930 and 1950 and found that loss of income and health problems directly attributable to storms result in an “undocumented mortality burden” that accounts for more than 5.1% of all deaths along the Atlantic coast the USA leads.

Aside from Katrina, Helene's death toll is unmatched in more than half a century of hurricanes.

The only storm to cause more deaths during this time was Hurricane Camille in 1969, which killed 256 people.