About 30 people remain missing nearly a month after Hurricane Helene devastated western North Carolina, state officials said at a news conference on Monday.
The latest count, of 26 missing people, was down from an estimate of 92 provided by Gov. Roy Cooper last week. No additional deaths have been reported since.
Some 95 people have died across 21 counties in North Carolina, state officials said.
“We know that Helene has been the deadliest and most devastating storm in North Carolina history,” Mr. Cooper said.
The remnants of Helene caused catastrophic damage to Asheville and other communities in western North Carolina in September. More than 5,000 customers are still without power, and though much of the water has been restored, the city remains under a boil-water notice as employees work to clean the North Fork reservoir, which supplies much of the city’s drinking water.
Helene made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane along the Gulf Coast of Florida, more than 400 miles from Asheville. But the heavy rains from the storm swelled the Swannanoa River, which runs through the city, flooding and washing out homes and businesses.
More than 200 people across at least six states were killed as Helene moved through the southeast, dumping heavy rain that devastated the mountainous regions of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee.
The fierce floodwaters swept homes and roads into piles of debris. Of the 1,200 roads that were closed after the storm, more than 750 have reopened. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has provided $4.3 billion in funding to help people across several states recover from the storm; about $1.4 billion of that went to North Carolina.
“This will take billions of dollars and years of bipartisan focus from everyone working together to make it happen,” Mr. Cooper said of the recovery effort. “We need western North Carolina to recover.”
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