A week into the search and rescue operations in Buncombe County, which includes the hard-hit tourist city of Asheville and where more than 72 have been killed, the county doesn’t have an official tally of people who are unaccounted for or missing.
The county sheriff said his office believes more than 200 people are missing, although other officials said the number is constantly changing when crews make contact with people who hadn’t been accounted for or receive new names of people who may be missing.
”We’re continuing to find people. We know we have pockets of people who are isolated due to landslides and bridges out,” said Avril Pinder, the county manager. ”So they are disconnected but not missing.”
Frank Johnson, who owns a company that makes robotic cutting machines in Mars Hill, North Carolina, said he feels like he is running a relief mission on his own. He’s using his own workers, volunteers and supplies and know-how from his company to get water, food, fuel and other supplies to his neighbors.
”I’ve been hearing there are entire neighborhoods gone. I’m still not sure people have the whole grasp of what we’re dealing with,” Johnson said.
Electricity is being slowly restored, as the number of homes and businesses without power dipped below 1 million for the first time since last weekend, according to poweroutage.us. Most of the outages are in the Carolinas and Georgia, where Helene struck after coming into Florida on Sept. 26 as a Category 4 hurricane.
