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    • How deadly was Helene in North Carolina, Asheville? Using the numbers
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    How deadly was Helene in North Carolina, Asheville? Using the numbers

    Eira Gwyneth Posted on

    It may be hard to believe, but it has been a week since Tropical Storm Helene hit western North Carolina, leaving behind destruction, death and now a sense of uncertainty about the future in the cities that are working tirelessly to recover .

    Helene hit western North Carolina on Friday morning, September 27, dropping several inches of rain on communities that had already received several inches of rain this week. When it reached the Carolinas, Helene was a tropical storm, but less than 12 hours earlier it made landfall as a catastrophic Category 4 hurricane near Perry, Florida, around 11 p.m. ET on Thursday, September 26.

    As the storm moved inland, it caused a power outage for millions of people, damaged or destroyed hundreds of homes and numerous roads, and has now left behind a rising death toll.

    How many people died because of Helene?

    As of Thursday, October 3, more than 200 people have died from Hurricane Helene.

    108 people have died in North Carolina. Additionally, South Carolina has reported 41 deaths, Georgia 33, Florida 19, Tennessee 11 and Virginia two, for a total of 214.

    Hundreds are still missing in western North Carolina.

    How much rain fell in western North Carolina due to Tropical Storm Helene?

    While Helene dumped rain on the western part of the Carolinas, the area had already been inundated by storms the week before. According to the National Weather Service, communities received how many inches of rain they received between Tuesday, September 24th and Saturday, September 28th.

    • Busick in Yancey County had the most recorded rain during the period with 30.78 inches
    • Spruce Pine: 24.12 inches
    • Hendersonville: 21.96 inches
    • Mountain Home: 17.09 inches
    • Candler: 16.18 inches
    • Tryon: 15.78 inches
    • Grandfather Mountain: 15.42 inches
    • Highland: 14.86 inches
    • Banner Elk: 14.85 inches
    • Mills River: 13.26 inches
    • Swannanoa: 13.21 inches

    How strong were the wind gusts from Helene in Asheville, Western North Carolina?

    Mt. Mitchell in Yancey County, about 35 miles from Black Mountain and the highest mountain in the United States east of the Mississippi, had some of the strongest wind gusts in the Carolinas, reaching 106 miles per hour at one point. According to the National Weather Service, the strongest wind gusts will occur in western North Carolina, the foothills and the Piedmont.

    • Frying Pan Mountain, just outside Waynesville, experienced wind gusts of 78 miles per hour.
    • Charlotte saw wind gusts of 66 miles per hour
    • Kings Mountain experienced wind gusts of 56 miles per hour
    • Rutherford County, home to Lake Lure and Chimney Rock, experienced gusts of 55 mph
    • Spruce Pine experienced wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour
    • Asheville experienced wind gusts of 46 miles per hour

    What peak did the rivers in western North Carolina reach during Helene?

    A week after Helene first hit the region, rivers across the region are still swollen. On September 27, rivers burst their banks, exceeding major flood levels by more than three meters in some areas. Rivers flooded communities throughout Western North Carolina, swallowing nearly entire communities. All that was left behind was mud and rubble.

    According to the North Carolina State Climate Office at North Carolina State University, the French Broad River in Fletcher peaked at 30.31 feet on September 27 as Helene moved through the area. In Asheville, the French Broad reached a height of 24.67 feet, 1.5 feet above its previous highest peak. Further downstream at Blantyre, the river exceeded its 1916 peak of 27.1 feet and reached 27.38 feet before the gauge stopped reading on Friday afternoon.

    The crest of the Swannanoa River at Biltmore reached a height of 26.1 feet, more than five feet above its peak in 1916 and slightly above the apparent 26-foot crest in April 1791, the climate bureau noted.

    How many people are still without power in Western North Carolina?

    As of Friday morning, nearly 80,000 customers were still without power in Buncombe County. Duke Energy said it expects most of the more than 600,000 power outages in the Carolinas to be resolved by Friday evening.

    Check out how many other customers are still without power in various areas of the Carolinas below.

    How many National Guard members are deployed to Western North Carolina, Asheville?

    National Guard members in 16 U.S. states have been activated to provide assistance in areas most affected by Hurricane Helene. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, the North Carolina National Guard has more than 1,100 active-duty soldiers and airmen and deploys nearly 400 vehicles, including 26 aircraft.

    President Joe Biden, who visited the area on Wednesday, announced that he had sent 1,000 troops to bolster the North Carolina National Guard with relief efforts.

    According to the U.S. Department of Defense, a total of approximately 6,700 Guardsmen support these diverse communities.

    Deadliest hurricanes in the United States

    The latest death toll attributed to Hurricane Helene makes it the fifth deadliest hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland since 1950 and the deadliest since Katrina in 2005, USA TODAY reports. Here’s a look some of the deadliest hurricanes to hit the United States

    The 10 deadliest hurricanes, based on information from the National Hurricane Center, are listed below by rank, name, year and number of deaths.

    1. Katrina, 2005: 1,392
    2. Audrey, 1957: 416
    3. Camille, 1969: 256
    4. Sandy, 2012: 219
    5. Helene (provisional), 2024: 214
    6. Diane, 1955: 184
    7. Ian, 2022: 156
    8. Agnes, 1972: 122
    9. Harvey, 2017: 103
    10. Hazel, 1954: 95

    USA TODAY and Kelly Puente contributed to this report.

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    Eira Gwyneth
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