It may be hard to believe, but it has been a week since Tropical Storm Helene hit Western North Carolina leaving in its wake destruction, death and now a sense of uncertainty of what the future may hold among the towns and cities that are working tirelessly to recover.
Helene hit Western North Carolina on the morning of Friday, Sept. 27, dumping inches of rain on communities that had already seen multiple inches of rain that week. By the time it reached the Carolinas, Helene was a tropical storm but less than 12 hours earlier it made landfall as a catastrophic Category 4 hurricane near Perry, Florida, on Thursday, Sept. 26 around 11 p.m. ET.
As it made its way inland, the storm caused millions to lose power, hundreds of homes and scores of roads were damaged or destroyed and has now left a rising death toll.
How many people have died because of Helene?
As of Thursday, Oct. 3, more than 200 people have died due to Hurricane Helene.
In North Carolina, 115 people have died. In addition, South Carolina has reported 41 fatalities, Georgia 33, Florida 19, Tennessee 11 and Virginia two for a total of 214.
Hundreds are still missing in Western North Carolina.
How much rain fell in Western North Carolina due to Tropical Storm Helene?
While Helene dumped rain on the western portion of the Carolinas, the area had already been drenched the week before by storms. Here’s how many inches of rain communities saw between Tuesday, Sept. 24 and Saturday, Sept. 28, according to the National Weather Service.
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Busick in Yancey County had the most recorded rain in the period of time at 30.78 inches
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Spruce Pine: 24.12 inches
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Hendersonville: 21.96 inches
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Mountain Home: 17.09 inches
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Candler: 16.18 inches
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Tryon: 15.78 inches
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Grandfather Mountain: 15.42 inches
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Highlands: 14.86 inches
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Banner Elk: 14.85 inches
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Mills River: 13.26 inches
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Swannanoa: 13.21 inches
How high were wind gusts in Asheville, Western North Carolina from Helene?
Mt. Mitchell in Yancey County, which is around 35 miles from Black Mountain and is the highest peak in the United States east of the Mississippi River, had some of the highest gusts for wind in the Carolinas, hitting 106 mph at one point. Here are the top wind gusts in Western North Carolina, the Foothills and into the Piedmont, according to the National Weather Service.
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Frying Pan Mountain, just outside of Waynesville, saw wind gusts of 78 mph.
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Charlotte saw wind gusts of 66 mph
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Kings Mountain saw wind gusts of 56 mph
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Rutherford County, home to Lake Lure and Chimney Rock, saw gusts of 55 mph
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Spruce Pine saw wind gusts as high as 50 mph
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Asheville saw wind gusts of 46 mph
What did the rivers in Western NC crest at during Helene?
Rivers across the region still remain swollen a week after Helene first hit down on the region. On Sept. 27, rivers burst from their banks surpassing major flood stages by more than 10 feet in some areas. Rivers overtook communities across Western North Carolina, almost swallowing whole communities leaving nothing behind but mud and debris.
At its peak, the French Broad River in Fletcher crested at 30.31 feet on Sept. 27 as Helene moved through the area, according to the North Carolina State Climate Office out of North Carolina State University. In Asheville, the French Broad hit 24.67 feet, 1.5 feet above its previous highest crest. Further downstream at Blantyre, the river surpassed its 1916 crest of 27.1 feet to hit 27.38 feet before the gauge stopped reporting on Friday afternoon.
The Swannanoa River at Biltmore crested at 26.1 feet, more than five feet above what it did at its maximum in 1916 and slightly above the apparent 26-foot crest in April 1791, noted the climate office.
How many people are still without power in Western North Carolina?
Close to 80,000 customers are still without power in Buncombe County as of Friday morning. Duke Energy said it expects to have most of the 600,000-plus power outages in the Carolinas resolved by Friday night.
Check how many other customers are still without power in the different areas in the Carolinas below.
How many National Guard members are deployed in Western North Carolina, Asheville?
National Guard members across 16 states in the U.S. have been activated to provide assistance to areas impacted the most by Hurricane Helene. In North Carolina, the National Guard has over 1,100 soldiers and airmen on active duty and is making use of nearly 400 vehicles, including 26 aircraft, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.
President Joe Biden, who visited the area on Wednesday, announced that he has dispatched 1,000 troops to reinforce the North Carolina National Guard with relief efforts.
All together around 6,700 guardsmen are providing support to these different communities, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.
Deadliest hurricanes in the United States
The recent death toll attributed to Hurricane Helene makes it the fifth deadliest hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. mainland since 1950 and the deadliest since Katrina in 2005, according to reports from USA TODAY. Here’s a look at some of the deadliest hurricanes to have hit the U.S.
The 10 deadliest hurricanes, based on National Hurricane Center information, are listed below by their rank, name, year and number of deaths.
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Katrina, 2005: 1,392
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Audrey, 1957: 416
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Camille, 1969: 256
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Sandy, 2012: 219
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Helene (preliminary), 2024: 214
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Diane, 1955: 184
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Ian, 2022: 156
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Agnes, 1972: 122
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Harvey, 2017: 103
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Hazel, 1954: 95
USA TODAY and Kelly Puente have contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: How deadly was Helene in North Carolina, Asheville? By the numbers
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