Nearly three weeks after Hurricane Helene devastated parts of North Carolina, authorities are still working to identify 13 victims among the 95 confirmed fatalities in the state, officials said.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services released updated figures showing that while the death toll has risen, over a dozen victims remain unnamed, highlighting the ongoing challenges in the storm’s aftermath.
The department’s data shows the majority of deaths were directly related to flooding, which led to landslides, blunt force trauma and drownings in flooded vehicles.
Drowning emerged as the leading cause of death, claiming 32 lives, followed by 20 fatalities from landslides and 18 from blunt force injuries, according to the data.
The storm’s impact was particularly severe in the mountainous regions of the state, areas typically less prepared for such intense tropical weather systems. Buncombe County reported the highest number of Helene-related deaths, at 42, followed by Yancey County with 11, Henderson County with seven and Haywood County with five.
Christina Esmay, a spokeswoman for the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office, told local newspaper The News & Observer that initial reports of over 70 deaths in the county were inflated.
The sheriff’s office was able to identify who had died because of the hurricane, who was from Buncombe County and who had died from other causes as more information became available in the days following the storm.
The victims’ ages ranged widely, from a 4-year-old girl killed in a vehicle crash in Catawba County to an 89-year-old Henderson County woman found amid the remnants of her home after floodwaters swept it away. Some bodies were discovered more than a week after the storm passed.
Governor Roy Cooper addressed the ongoing efforts in a news conference on Tuesday, saying that the count was not definitive. “I want to caution that this is not a definitive count because the task force is continuing its work,” he said. “The number will continue to fluctuate as more reports come in and others are resolved.”
The state has established a task force working with local law enforcement to investigate cases of missing persons, with 89 individuals still unaccounted for. The North Carolina Department of Public Safety is consolidating reports from various agencies to follow up on missing person cases.
Adding to the challenges of recovery efforts, officials reported a wave of misinformation spreading online about disaster relief. This has complicated aid distribution and even put federal responders in danger, with reports of armed militias threatening workers.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency told Newsweek it had to adjust operations at multiple sites because of threats against its workers stemming from rampant misinformation about the agency’s response to Helene.
Cooper emphasized the danger of this trend, saying that the flow of misinformation not only breeds confusion and demoralizes storm survivors and response workers but can also lead to threats and intimidation.
As recovery efforts continue, authorities are urging the public to rely on official sources for information and to report any missing persons to local law enforcement agencies.
