Biden pushes to 'jump-start' hurricane recovery; at least 144 dead. Tuesday updates
Editor's Note: This page is a summary of news on Hurricane Helene's aftermath for Tuesday, Oct. 1. For the latest, view our live updates file for Wednesday, Oct. 2.
ASHEVILLE, N.C. ? Search and rescue operations across Western North Carolina made some headway Tuesday as authorities worked to clear roads and provide electricity, running water and cellular service to communities struggling since the furious assault of Hurricane Helene and its remnants.
President Joe Biden wants the recovery expedited.
Speaking from the White House after getting an interagency briefing on the government’s response, Biden said he has heard from southeastern governors and leaders in affected areas, which will require billions of dollars to restore. On Monday, Biden said he expects to ask Congress to approve a supplemental bill to help cover federal costs for Helene relief efforts.
“We have to jump-start this recovery process,” said Biden, who plans to survey damage in South Carolina and North Carolina on Wednesday. “People are scared to death. People are wondering whether they’re going to be able to make it. We still haven't heard from a whole lot of people. This is urgent. People have to know how to get the information they need.”
The death toll from the storm grew to at least 144 Tuesday, with expectations the number will continue to mount as rescuers continue searching for survivors in North Carolina and Tennessee. The current total includes 64 people who died in North Carolina ? 57 of them in Buncombe County ? 36 in South Carolina, 25 in Georgia, 11 in Florida, six in Tennessee, and two in Virginia, a USA TODAY analysis found.
Although hundreds of people have been reported missing, that number is expected to decline as more telecommunications come back online and emergency workers access remote areas.
More than 1.9 million homes and businesses in parts of the Southeast were still without power late Tuesday, according to USA TODAY’s power outage tracker. South Carolina remained the state with the most outages with over 666,000 customers left in the dark.
More than 1,500 state transportation workers were rolling Thursday in 1,500 trucks armed with 1,000 chainsaws working to clear roads. Duke Power said crews are "assessing the damage and making repairs." Still, for some residents of western North Carolina, power, water, and Wi-Fi likely won't be restored for weeks. Landslides have taken away mountain properties. Sinkholes have claimed other homes. Asheville and the surrounding communities face long-term trauma.
"And I’m not talking about days," Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer told the Citizen-Times, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK. "We want them to plan for longer than that.”
Tropical storm tracker: Hurricane center watching Kirk, 2 other disturbances in the Atlantic
Developments:
? More than 12,000 requests for help have been logged by the Register of Deeds in Asheville, North Carolina, as people try to locate their loved ones. Volunteers are spreading out in western North Carolina ? especially in hard-hit Buncombe County ? to make door-to-door welfare checks.
? USA TODAY published a map of resources in the Asheville, North Carolina, area that shows where residents can find shelter, water, food, and more. The tool is available here.
? The World Central Kitchen, the charity founded by celebrity chef Jose Andres, said it has served more than 64,000 meals in affected areas of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee. WCK said it has also deployed five water tankers in Asheville to address the severe shortages in the city and its surroundings.
? Far out in the Atlantic, the former Tropical Storm Kirk became the seventh hurricane in the ocean's season, the National Hurricane Center said Tuesday afternoon. Although it's forecast to reach Category 3 strength, Kirk it poses no direct threat to any land areas, NHC forecasters said.
? The North Carolina Department of Adult Correction said all inmates were safe. Several facilities were operating on generator power but none had flooded, the department said.
? Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced Tuesday night the gas tax will be suspended amid storm recovery efforts as more than 596,000 homes and businesses in his state remained without power.
Biden to visit North Carolina: Will tour Helene damage as Trump chides response
Vice President Harris to travel to Georgia, NC
Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Georgia on Wednesday to survey the impacts of Hurricane Helene and receive an on-the-ground briefing about the continued recovery efforts that are occurring in communities across the state. Harris will also provide updates on federal actions that are being taken to support emergency response and recovery efforts throughout the Southeast.
In remarks at FEMA headquarters in Washington this week, Harris pledged the Biden-Harris administration “will continue to do everything we can to help you recover and to help you rebuild – no matter how long it takes.”
A White House official confirmed Harris will also travel in the coming days to North Carolina, where the western part of the state including Asheville was battered by the storm.
Senators plead for help
A dozen senators representing states devastated by Helene requested Tuesday that Congress approve additional resources to help in the wake of the disaster. They're also joining Biden in urging lawmakers to consider an emergency session before Election Day to get their work done.
In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the Democratic and Republican senators from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, and Virginia wrote that the damage from the storm will be at least in the tens of billions of dollars.
"Although the true level of devastation is still unfolding, it is clear that Congress must act to meet the unmet needs in our states and address the scope and scale of destruction experienced by our constituents," the senators wrote. "This may even require Congress to come back in October to ensure we have enough time to enact legislation before the end of this calendar year."
- Riley Beggin
Hurricane 'will not stop how we do elections'
North Carolina election officials are scrambling to ensure over 7 million registered voters can cast ballots on Nov. 5 despite overwhelming damage to homes, businesses and infrastructure across the western part of the state. North Carolina is electing a governor, congressional representatives, a state Legislature and is one of several battleground states that could determine the next U.S. president.
"The destruction is unprecedented, and this level of uncertainty, this close to Election Day is daunting," Karen Brinson-Bell, head of the state's Board of Elections, said Tuesday.
She said she expects to have a full assessment of the storm's impact on election facilities and other issues by the end of the week. But she said Helene will not "stop how we do elections. Just because there's been a hurricane, we might have to do it a little differently."
Tourist draw in Blue Ridge Mountains encounters another calamity
The small town of Spruce Pine, North Carolina, has recovered before, and it will recover again, according to Spencer Bost.
The executive director of Downtown Spruce Pine,near the Blue Ridge Parkway, Toe River and Appalachian Trail describes the small town as “heaven on Earth,” a place where manufacturers of furniture and other goods once provided good jobs, but where residents now have a median household income of about $44,600. A 2007 arson that destroyed a large section of the downtown district and later the COVID-19 pandemic were big blows to the town.
Now Spruce Pine is making a name for itself as a tourism destination and as a source for high-quality quartz ? a key component in the manufacturing of silicon chips that power electronics as well as medical and solar devices. But Helene has disrupted all of that with devastating floodwaters. He said October “pays the bills for a lot of our businesses,” when tourists come to Spruce Pine to camp, hike, fish and take in the autumn colors of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Bost is concerned and thinks companies that mine the area should pay more to support the small communities where they draw their raw materials. He has set up a fundraising effort on the town’s website in hopes that a post-hurricane spike in web traffic will translate into assistance for its businesses.
“Every time we find a way to build back, but how many times after you’ve been punched can you get back up?” He then answered his own question: “We will get back up.”
? Phaedra Trethan
Helene recovery will cost billions, take years, White House says
The Biden administration said efforts to rebuild communities from the devastating floods in the Southeast caused by Hurricane Helene will cost billions of dollars and take several years to complete.
“This is a multibillion-dollar undertaking,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Tuesday at a White House press briefing. “The rebuilding is something that is not for today, but that is going to be extraordinarily costly and is going to be a multiyear enterprise.”
Mayorkas said search-and-rescue efforts remain ongoing in some areas while other communities have shifted to a response-and-recovery phase.
More than 1,200 federal urban search-and-rescue workers are on the ground across multiple states, Mayorkas said. FEMA has helped distribute 2.6 million ready-to-eat meals and, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre added the agency has sent more than 7.5 million liters of water.
Mayorkas said about 1.3 million people remain without power, down from a peak of 5.1 million. “This is an all-of-government, frankly, all-of-community effort,” he said.
Helene one of the deadliest storms to hit the US
Helene is considered to be one of the deadliest hurricanes to make landfall in the mainland U.S. in the modern era. The number of victims could grow as cleanup and rescue operations intensify.
Only eight hurricanes have killed more than 100 people since 1950. The last time a storm as deadly as Helene hit the U.S. came in 2017 when Hurricane Harvey made landfall near Houston and was blamed for 103 deaths.
Other deadly hurricanes, based on National Hurricane Center information, include:
Katrina in 2005 with 1,392 deaths
Audrey in 1957 with 416 deaths
Camille in 1969 with 256 deaths
Sandy in 2012 with 219 deaths
Diane in 1955 with 184 deaths
Ian in 2022 with 156 deaths
- Fernando Cervantes Jr. and Dinah Voyles Pulver
Hurricane one-two punch too much for some
SUWANNEE, Fla. ? Billie Mincks loves this small coastal community. But after the battering of Hurricane Idalia last year and now Hurricane Helene, he thinks it’s time to go. When he spoke to the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida after Idalia, he didn’t know how long he’d be displaced. Unlike some residents of the Dixie County community of about 300, his rental home repairs had been completed and he was again living in it with his wife, Tori Johnston. Then came Helene, and when he returned to his house he found it destroyed.
“I just can’t do this again,” Mincks said while waiting to receive food and other supplies being issued by relief organizations. “Helene was so much worse, it made Idalia look like a small thing.” Read more here.
? Douglas Soule, USA TODAY NETWORK - Florida
Helene floodwaters swept factory workers away
In hard-hit Erwin, Tennessee, a group of employees at Impact Plastics clung to spools of flexible yellow plastic pipes on the back of a semitruck for hours Friday waiting for help as the swollen Nolichucky River raged around them. But the truck toppled over, and at least seven people were swept away and remain missing or have died.
Jacob Ingram, who has worked at Impact Plastics for almost eight months, said as waters rose outside, managers wouldn’t let employees leave. Instead, managers told workers to move their cars away from the rising water, Ingram said. The company denied ordering workers not to leave.
"We are devastated by the tragic loss of great employees,” founder and CEO Gerald O’Connor said in a statement.
? Tyler Whetsone, Knoxville News Sentinel
Factory employees' harrowing tale: Helene floodwaters swept them away
Mountain terrain, monstrous rain triggered catastrophic flooding
Forecasters had warned that Hurricane Helene would become a "once-in-a-generation" storm for portions of the Appalachians, and the forecast proved tragically accurate. Helene’s rainfall would have been enough to cause flooding anywhere, but it was exacerbated by a weather front that had stalled over the Appalachians before then-Tropical Storm Helene arrived, said David Easterling, a rain expert with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Environmental Information in Asheville, North Carolina.
The mountains themselves in some places further enhanced the rainfall because they contribute to the lift that produces more rain in thunderstorms, Easterling said. High winds were taking trees down and knocking out power lines, as well as the mudslides and landslides that were taking poles down throughout the area, he said.
“You just get a mudslide and you might end up with 5 to 10 feet of mud,” he said. “There’s no telling how much loss of life there has been." Read more here.
? Doyle Rice and Dinah Voyles Pulver
Helene's brutal toll: More than 100 dead; Biden to survey damage: Monday updates
Town's promising revitalization devastated by Helene
MARSHALL, N.C. – Marshall was a bustling Appalachian town with big department stores before its fortunes waned and buildings became vacant. But in recent years, it had undergone a revival, renewed by an influx of art, music and dining. The once-dilapidated jailhouse has been turned into a boutique hotel and restaurant.
Now the downtown has been shattered by Hurricane Helene: Streets full of thick mud. Mangled debris. Twisted train tracks and overturned vehicles.
Residents in Marshall ? like elsewhere in Western North Carolina just a couple of days after the storm ? are scrambling to find what they needed without power or phones as National Guard helicopters buzz above the area.
“It’s a tragedy,” said Keaton Griffin, as he shoveled mud and debris into a wheelbarrow. Read more here.
? Chris Kenning
On the waterfront of destruction: North Carolina town tries to stay afloat
They came to Asheville for healing. All they see is destruction
Taylor Houchens moved to Asheville about four years ago for healing. The mountains, the forests, the lakes ? they all called to the licensed professional counselor, as they have to countless others who've journeyed to the North Carolina city looking to relax, reset and rejuvenate. As a result, Asheville has drawn a thriving local wellness community, one that includes all manner of mental health practitioners, holistic coaches and healers.
Now, in the wake of Hurricane Helene, that community has been devastated ? and Houchens says he isn't sure where to go from here.
"It's devastation. It's apocalyptic. It's tragic," Houchens, who specializes in trauma therapy, says on a phone call while driving to stay with his family in Savannah, Georgia. Read more here.
? Charles Trepany
Contributing: Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA TODAY; Kelly Puente, Evan Gerike, Asheville Citizen Times; Reuters
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Helene updates: Biden wants to 'jump-start' recovery; 144 dead