Hurricane Helene’s death toll in the United States has surpassed 200 after the states of Georgia and North Carolina reported more fatalities.
More than 50 percent of the deaths were reported from North Carolina, where entire communities were uprooted and devastated by the deadliest mainland storm since Katrina in 2005, which killed more than 1,800 people.
Hundreds of people are still missing and 780,000 homes suffered power outages even after a week of Helene making a landfall.
The rising death toll comes as President Joe Biden continues his two-day tour of the area visiting Florida and Georgia on Thursday.
Biden took an aerial tour of the damaged parts in Tallahassee, Florida, on Thursday where the hurricane made landfall as a category four storm.
Vice President Kamala Harris visited the city of Augusta, in Georgia, where power lines stretched along the sidewalk and utility poles lay cracked and broken. She paid tribute to those who had died in the disaster while also seeking to project a tone of unity and hope for communities now facing a long road to reconstruction. Meanwhile, in North Carolina, Biden flew by helicopter over toppled trees, twisted metal and towering piles of debris in the city of Asheville, where many roads remained inaccessible.
