The list of deaths from the hurricane Helene it doesn’t stop increasing. The storm unleashed its fury of strong winds and torrential rain over a stretch of almost 1,000 kilometers in the southeastern United States, hitting six different states. The latest counts put the deaths caused by the natural disaster at 180. With that number, it becomes the deadliest hurricane to hit the continental United States since the Katrina, which left more than 1,800 dead in 2005. Above that figure was the hurricane Maria, which left more than 4,600 deaths in Puerto Rico alone (Commonwealth of the United States).
A count carried out by the CNN news channel distributes the 180 registered fatalities as follows: 91, in North Carolina; 36, in South Carolina; 25, in Georgia; 17, in Florida; 9, in Tennessee, and 2, in Virginia. The Associated Press put the confirmed deaths at more than 160. There are still people missing, leading to fears that the death toll could increase. In any case, the death toll in the United States has exceeded that of the hurricane Ian two years ago, which left 156 dead in the United States and another 12 in Cuba.
The catastrophe has been the subject of political anger just over a month before the presidential elections. Republican candidate Donald Trump, accustomed to politicizing disasters when he was president, lied about his successor, Joe Biden, being asleep and unreachable as the storm raged. It was also invented that the Democratic authorities had colluded to not give aid to areas with a Republican majority. Not only did Biden himself deny him, but the governors and Republican authorities of the affected areas thanked him for the immediate help and willingness to attend to their most urgent needs.
Biden and the vice president and Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, separately visited some of the most affected areas this Wednesday. Biden has flown to Greenville, South Carolina, and then has toured areas of that State and North Carolina. This Thursday he will head to Florida and Georgia, as announced by the White House. Harris, for his part, has initially moved to Georgia.
“Before the hurricane came HeleneI ordered my team to do everything possible to help communities in the storm’s path. “I mobilized the entire federal government to provide all possible resources to the fight to save lives and help those who urgently needed it,” Biden recalled this Wednesday.
The president has announced the deployment of up to 1,000 troops to bolster the North Carolina National Guard and ensure the delivery of vital supplies of food, water and medicine to isolated North Carolina communities. They will join hundreds of North Carolina National Guard members deployed under state authorities in support of the response.
“The hurricane Helene It has been a storm of historic proportions. My heart goes out to everyone who has suffered unthinkable losses. We are here to help you and we will remain here as long as necessary,” insisted the president, who wore wellies during his visit. He has been received, among others, by Esther Manheimer, mayor of Asheville, the hardest hit town. In the city, in the mountains of Western North Carolina, the dead number in the dozens and the water has devastated everything in its path.
Evelyn Hockstein (REUTERS)
Biden has flown by helicopter over the affected areas, many of them still flooded. Local authorities have described the landscape left by the storm as apocalyptic. Hundreds of roads had to be cut off and the insistent rains flooded entire towns.
Many North and South Carolina residents remain without running water, cell service and electricity nearly a week after Helene made landfall in Florida on Thursday in northwest Florida as a Category 4 hurricane, with sustained winds of up to 140 miles per hour. Their entry into the continent occurred through a relatively sparsely populated area, the so-called Big Bend, and in which massive evacuations had been carried out. The storm then moved into Georgia and into the Carolinas and Tennessee, where preparations had been weaker and where incessant torrential rains overflowed streams and rivers.
Hurricanes continue to kill years after hitting
A new study published this Wednesday in the journal Nature reveals that storms and hurricanes continue to kill long after they pass through the affected areas. Researchers analyzed more than 500 tropical cyclones that affected the continental United States between 1930 and 2015, and compared the number of deaths in a state after their passage with the mortality rate of the area under normal conditions, before the storm. .
According to the study, tropical cyclones cause between 7,000 and 11,000 more deaths in the United States over the course of 15 years than would be expected if the storm had not hit. The excess deaths are not directly linked to the storm, but to complex and varied indirect factors such as loss of income, exposure to pollutants and other health problems that arise after the storm.
