Although it’s been almost three weeks since Hurricane Helene hit North Carolina, authorities are still trying to name 13 of the 95 confirmed deaths in the state.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services released new numbers that show the death toll has gone up, but over a dozen victims still haven’t been named. This shows how hard things are still after the storm.
According to the department’s records, most of the deaths were directly caused by flooding, which caused landslides, blunt force injuries, and people drowning in their cars.
Twenty people died in landslides, 32 people died from drowning, and 18 people died from blunt force injuries, according to the statistics.
Mountainous parts of the state were hit the hardest by the storm because they are usually not as ready for such strong tropical storms. With 42 deaths, Buncombe County had the most Helene-related deaths. Yancey County came in second with 11, Henderson County with 7, and Haywood County with 5.
A spokesperson for the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office named Christina Esmay told the local newspaper The News & Observer that the first stories of more than 70 deaths in the county were not accurate.
As more information came in in the days after the storm, the sheriff’s office was able to figure out who had died because of the hurricane, who was from Buncombe County, and who had died otherwise.
A 4-year-old girl was killed in a car accident in Catawba County, and an 89-year-old woman from Henderson County was found among the wreckage of her home after floods washed it away. It took more than a week after the storm to find some bodies.
At a news conference on Tuesday, Governor Roy Cooper talked about the ongoing activities and said that the count was not final. “I want to caution that this is not a definitive count because the task force is continuing its work,” he added. “The number will continue to fluctuate as more reports come in and others are resolved.”
The state has set up a task group that works with local police to look into cases of missing people. As of now, 89 people have not been found. To find out what’s going on with missing person cases, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety is putting together reports from different organizations.
Officials said that a lot of false information about disaster help was spreading online, which made it harder to get back on your feet. It’s been harder to get aid to people who need it, and reports say that armed militias are threatening government responders.
Newsweek was told by the Federal Emergency Management Agency that it had to change how it did business at several locations because of threats against its employees caused by widespread false information about how it responded to Hurricane Helene.
Cooper stressed how dangerous this trend is by saying that the spread of false information not only makes people confused and discourages people who are helping people who were affected by the storm, but it can also lead to threats and bullying.
As the search for survivors continues, the government is telling people to only get information from official sources and to call their local police if they see anyone who might be lost.