A week after Helen hit the southeast, power outages and impassable roads hampered rescue efforts as the death toll reached 200.

CNN
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A week earlier, Helen was plowing through Florida, pummeling towns and cities along the Gulf Coast, while millions of people ahead of the hurricane’s path dealt with even heavier pre-season rain. Forecasters warned of impacts that could be felt locally.

In the southeast, roads were covered with cars, not feet of water. The bridges were still up. The lights were still on. The town of Chimney Rock — a popular North Carolina state park with breathtaking views and an iconic rock formation — was still waiting for visitors.

A week later, 202 people have now been confirmed dead in six states, making Helen the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland United States since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Eight additional deaths were reported Thursday in Georgia, while officials in West Florida reported one more death. Those in South Carolina reported two.

Survivors are still in despair after the historic storm battered their homes and communities. Chimney rock washed away roads and bridges along the massive storm’s path.

Survivors are looking for each other, bringing food and water, helping to dig out and cut fallen trees. Everyone is hoping for small wins like getting their cell phone service back or finding an open gas station.

“This is not something that happened in the last few weeks,” Zeb Smathers, Canton’s mayor, told CNN Thursday. “We’re going to be advocating for these areas in western North Carolina for many, many years.”

More than 940,000 customers across the Southeast were without power as of Thursday afternoon PowerOutage.us. Most are in the Carolinas, where regional energy provider Duke Energy says “major parts of the power grid … were simply destroyed.”

Helen’s flash floods took down many power poles and power lines, requiring infrastructure to be rebuilt before power could be restored, but helped restore power to more than 3.3 million homes, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Thursday.

Hundreds of roads have been closed, hampering efforts to send aid to hard-hit communities. Those who left before Helene delayed their return to check on the status of family, friends and their homes. Some areas are too inaccessible to be delivered by mules and air.

In Weaverville, North Carolina, things are looking up for about 5,000 residents, but “they’re still pretty tough,” Mayor Patrick Fitzsimmons told CNN on Wednesday. The mayor speaks from the grocery store: the only place in town where Wi-Fi works, he said.

Relief efforts are underway across the affected areas as linemen restore power and the military and relief teams bring in people and supplies. On Wednesday, President Joe Biden sent 1,000 troops from Fort Liberty in eastern North Carolina to the devastated areas. Western part of the state. Biden visited North and South Carolina on Wednesday, while Vice President Kamala Harris visited Augusta, Georgia, which is still under a curfew and boil water advisory.

Before Hélène, Katie Button’s popular Asheville, North Carolina, restaurants Cúrate and La Bodega thrived. Now, he says, it can take up to a month for restaurants to even have access to running water.

As the community tries to come to grips with the extent of Helen’s devastation, Button told CNN he’s focused on doing what he can to help those in need.

His restaurants partnered with chef José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen to provide food and water to those cut off after the storm.

He estimates they will have prepared 3,000 meals for residents of Asheville and the surrounding community by the end of Wednesday.

“We’re able to do this because World Central Kitchen is trucking in water that we can use,” Button said.

“We make at least 1,000 meals a day. And then they deliver those meals by helicopter to people whose road access is completely cut off. There are a lot of challenges.”

Robert Gaudet, founder and CEO of the Cajun Navy, a volunteer disaster recovery and response group, has witnessed the devastation of dozens of natural disasters firsthand.

But he told CNN he was lost in words of the devastation caused by Hurricane Helen.

“We’ve done a lot of disasters. We went to Maui for wildfires. We’ve never seen anything like this,” he said.

“When property and homes are covered in mud, and an entire city is washed into a lake … it’s not just what you see, but you can drive for hours and hours and see the destruction and the damage, and you lose the sense of what life was like and how it’s gone so quickly for you.”

Gaudet, who founded the Cajun Navy after Katrina, said the death toll is hard on him personally.

“We do a lot of (disasters) and to hear that more than 100 individuals have lost their lives — they’ve all been rescued so far, it’s just horrible,” he said.

Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite Internet service, has announced that it will offer free service for 30 days in areas affected by Hurricane Helen.

“Starlink is now free for 30 days for those affected by Hurricane Helen or those who wish to support response and recovery efforts in affected areas” Starlink said in X.

After 30 days, customers will be “transferred to a paid residential subscription that will be tied to your location during that time,” the company said, adding: “We will re-evaluate the need based on conditions in the area.”

On Thursday, FEMA announced it had provided more than 67 Starlink satellite units to first responders in North Carolina, where the agency said less than 50% of cellular service sites were still down.

FEMA is still working with state and local officials to determine how many people are still missing after Helen, Administrator Dean Criswell told CNN’s Jim Acosta on Wednesday.

More than 3,500 FEMA personnel, including 1,200 in North Carolina alone, have been dispatched to assist with search and rescue and recovery efforts, Criswell said.

“When you look at the infrastructure damage to water, cell lines, power, the ability to get them back up and running (the mountain area) is going to be complicated by the way it’s built,” he said.

The agency is sending in extra staff, and fixing up some facilities will take weeks, not days.

“We know this is going to be a protracted process,” he said. “How do we continue to bring in resources that can sustain demand for the next few weeks or until it takes to restore some critical services like water to these communities?”

The executive said his agency is working with cellphone companies to come up with “cells on wheels,” or COWS, to ensure residents can contact emergency services and their loved ones.

“We’re seeing some cell phone service starting to improve, but we know it’s still lacking in many areas,” Criswell said. “We’re going to go further so we can expand that reach.”

He urged those who cannot find their loved ones to call 211 and help the missing persons account.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated how Helen ranks among deadliest hurricanes. It was the deadliest to hit the US mainland since Katrina.