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The death toll from Hurricane Helene rose to 227 on Saturday as efforts continued for more than a week to find bodies from the deadly storm that ravaged the US Southeast and claimed lives in six states.
On September 26, the hurricane hit the southern US coast as a Category 4 storm, destroying roads and flooding homes and other facilities in northern Florida, and leaving millions without electricity and cell phone service. According to officials, it is likely that the number of dead will increase even further as the fate of many others is still unknown.
Helene is the deadliest hurricane to hit the United States since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. About half of the victims were recorded in North Carolina, while dozens more died in Georgia and South Carolina.
The town of Asheville, which lies in the western mountains of North Carolina, was hit particularly hard. Flooding destroyed thousands of businesses and homes in the basin that stretches between the mountains along the French Broad River.
MaryAnn Tierney, regional administrator with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), said disaster-affected residents in North Carolina have received $27 million from the federal agency.
The governor's office, Roy Cooper, said more than 83,000 people have signed up for individual assistance. FEMA-approved aid for Buncombe County, which includes Asheville, has topped $12 million for survivors, Tierney said Saturday.
"The aid is for the immediate needs of the survivors," she said during a press conference.
Hurricane Helene formed several thousand kilometers away in the Gulf of Mexico, but brought the greatest destruction several hundred kilometers inland, damaging parts of Florida, Georgia, the inhabited ranges of North and South Carolina and up to the state of Tennessee.
Nearly 1.8 million homes and businesses in seven states from Florida to Ohio were without power the night Hurricane Helene hit. According to insurance company officials and experts, the damages caused by Hurricane Helene are expected to reach the value of about 100 billion dollars./ VOA
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