Aerial footage shows Asheville, North Carolina before and after Helene's devastation
Aerial footage is capturing the extent of Hurricane Helene's cataclysmic impact on Asheville, North Carolina.
Across the Southeast, the storm has killed at least 200 people since its historic landfall along Florida's Big Bend region Sept. 27. Almost 1 million homes and businesses are without power throughout the Carolinas, Florida, Georgia and Virginia while thousands remain with no running water, primarily in western North Carolina.
Helene is the fourth deadliest hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. mainland since 1950 and the deadliest since Katrina, which killed 1,392 people in 2005.
The death toll in Buncombe County, which encompasses Asheville, North Carolina, grew from 61 to 72 people Thursday, Sheriff Quentin Miller confirmed in a news briefing. At least 108 deaths have been reported across North Carolina.
The system reached the town with nearly 100,000 people as a tropical storm unleashing torrential rain that destroyed hundreds of homes and damaged roads.
Need help in Asheville, NC?Mapping locations of water, food, shelter, WiFi
County delivers meals and water with daily limits
Buncombe County officials are offering ready-to-eat meals and bottled water with daily limits of two meal packages per adult and one per child. Residents can access water for flushing toilets at a distribution site on Tuesdays and Fridays.
President Joe Biden flew over Asheville Wednesday to witness the devastation and visited Greenville, South Carolina. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has sent more than $6.2 million to go toward North Carolina victims as the Biden administration offers over $20 million to Helene survivors across the Southeast.
The North Carolina National Guard has hauled 12 aircraft pallets containing more than 100,000 pounds of food and over 38,000 pounds of water to Asheville, according to a Thursday Biden-Harris Administration news release.
Insurers and forecasters have projected that Helene's damage across the region will cost somewhere between $15 billion and $100 billion.
To donate to Helene relief efforts
- American Red Cross: redcross.org
- GoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/c/act/hurricane-helene
- The Salvation Army: www.disaster.salvationarmyusa.org
- United Way: support.unitedway.org/page/Helene
- World Central Kitchen: wck.org
- Humane Society Disaster Relief: www.humanesociety.org
For a broader list of organizations you can donate to click here.
Contributing: Asheville Citizen-Times, John Bacon, Zachary Huber, Jorge L. Ortiz, Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA TODAY
This story has been updated to add new information.