At Least 57 Dead in One N.C. County After Hurricane Helene

Western North Carolina has been one of the areas hit hardest by Hurricane Helene, largely in part to the catastrophic flash flooding that destroyed the area. Now, rescue and recovery efforts are underway in the small Appalachian counties, which could take years to recover.

One county that has been particularly impacted is Buncombe County, where Asheville is located. In an afternoon press conference on Tuesday, Oct. 1, Sheriff Quentin Miller said that there have been 57 confirmed deaths so far, which represents over a third of the total death toll, which is continuing to climb. (In an update the previous day, the death toll had been 40.)

Asked about the scope of the damage caused by Helene, Scott Dean of the National Urban Search and Rescue Team said that “there’s no one place where we’ve been where there hasn’t been severe flooding” and that they are dealing with “miles and miles of complete devastation.”

Dean went on to explain that throughout the county “we’re dealing with a lot of major issues from bridge closures to no power, no water, just complete infrastructure failure.”

“We are working very hard to try and find everybody who is missing,” he added, as Miller said at another point that officials are “working around the clock.”

Officials previously said an estimated 600 people were missing in Buncombe County, according to the Associated Press and ABC News.

In a Facebook post shared earlier on Tuesday, Asheville government officials said that despite their best efforts to “restore our city as quickly as possible,” due to the extensive damage, “process is slow.” 

The government officials also shared a photo that showed the access road to Bee Tree was completely destroyed.

“I think we’re all kind of coming out of that shellshock,” Asheville resident Alexis Dossett told ABC affiliate WSOC-TV after witnessing the damage caused by Helene. “It took me seeing this for the first time to really grasp everything that everybody’s been through.”

Water distribution centers have been opened throughout the county for residents who have been left without clean water after Helene damaged to local water systems, according to Buncombe County officials. Ready-to-eat meals are available at the distribution centers, as well. 

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Speaking with PEOPLE on Tuesday, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell told PEOPLE that an “active rescue mission” is ongoing in North Carolina, where many have been stranded and isolated by the damage caused by Helene, which made landfall in Florida on Thursday, Sept. 26 as a Category 4 storm.

Criswell told PEOPLE that supplies are now being airlifted into portions of the state in wake of the storm, adding, “It’s going to be [an ongoing effort] and we’re going to sustain this for as long as its needed.”

Unlike storm surge, which is easy to warn of, flash flooding is much more unpredictable, according to Criswell. The severity of the flood is based on three main factors: the rate of the rainfall, the amount of the rainfall and where the rain falls. 

All three factors, she said, “will determine how fast it will go down these valleys and impact these communities.” But there is often very little time to deliver a warning to those in danger.

“We can give general areas of where we think the most rainfall is going to be,” Criswell added. “But until it starts to fall, it’s really hard to predict exactly which part of the communities are going to face the worst of it.”