(The Center Square) – North Carolina has a 97th fatality from Hurricane Helene, the state Department of Health and Human Services said Thursday.
An update since early in the week – then 26 – on the number unaccounted for has not been given. Recovery is in the fourth week since the storm, a Category 4 hurricane when making landfall in the Big Bend of Florida on Sept. 26, dissipated over the North Carolina mountains and Tennessee leaving a swath of destruction arguably the worst in state history.
The benchmarks had been Hurricanes Floyd in 1999, a once-in-500 years flood event, and Hazel in 1954, the only Category 4 hurricane to make landfall on state shores.
Communication and technology 70 years ago were infant compared to today. The crushing blow to eastern North Carolina 25 years ago was two-pronged, having “only” been a Category 2 but preceded by Hurricane Dennis 10 days earlier that saturated the grounds, making century-old trees easy to topple in addition to all the water on coastal plans that don’t get 300 feet above sea level on the eastern side of Interstate 95.
Gov. Roy Cooper said Wednesday state damage estimates are $53 billion. That would be three times Hurricane Florence in 2018, the last major natural disaster and one of a string of four hurricanes in 47 months to hit the southeastern part of the state.
Thursday after lunch, the number of power outages had decreased to 2,578 in Yancey County and 408 in Mitchell County, according to PowerOutage.us. At the storm’s height, more than 1 million statewide were without power.
Interstates 26 and 40 have road closures near the Tennessee border. A contract has been awarded for the I-40 closure, where two eastbound lanes fell into the Pigeon River. There remain 415 total road closures because of Helene, including 343 secondary roads, 38 state roads and 32 federal highways, according to DriveNC.org.
There are incentives for work to be completed on I-40 by Jan. 4 in the $10 million contract awarded by the state Department of Transportation to Wright Brothers Construction and subcontractor GeoStabilization. That work is only to stabilize the westbound lanes. Estimates have varied, but at least a year and billions in repair are the consensus opinion, including from U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Assistance has poured into the state through the federal and state governments, and public entities such as faith and civic organizations. Twelve different states are represented among more than 3,600 soldiers, airmen and National Guardsmen. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has paid more than $133 million in individual assistance funds already to more than 210,000 people, and 6,200 have been helped in transitional sheltering, a release from the governor says.
In emergency management, more than 1,600 responders from 39 state and local agencies have been on 147 missions. This would include search dogs, veterinarians and public health nurses in addition to emergency management teams.
