Sheriff: Rescuers ’will not rest’ in search for Helene’s victims

By | 10/04/2024 01:05 PM EDT

With at least 215 killed, Helene is already the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. since Katrina in 2005.

Dominick Gucciardo walks to his home past a bus that rests against a church in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

Dominick Gucciardo walks to his home past a bus resting against Laurel Branch Baptist Church in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene on Thursday in Pensacola, North Carolina. Mike Stewart/AP

PENSACOLA, North Carolina — The search for victims of Hurricane Helene dragged into its second week Friday, as exhausted rescue crews and volunteers continued to work long days — navigating past washed out roads, downed power lines and mudslides — to reach the isolated and the missing.

“We know these are hard times, but please know we’re coming,” Sheriff Quentin Miller of Buncombe County, North Carolina, said at a Thursday evening press briefing. “We’re coming to get you. We’re coming to pick up our people.”

With at least 215 killed, Helene is already the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. since Katrina in 2005, and dozens or possibly hundreds of people are still unaccounted for. Roughly half the victims were in North Carolina, while dozens more were killed in South Carolina and Georgia.

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In Buncombe County alone, 72 people had been confirmed dead as of Thursday evening, Miller said. Buncombe includes the tourist hub of Asheville, the region’s most populous city. Still, the sheriff holds out hope that many of the missing are alive.

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