Thirty people are now confirmed dead in North Carolina's Buncombe County, home to the tourist hotspot of Asheville, as a result of superstorm Helene, authorities said Sunday, sending the overall U.S. death toll soaring.
"We have another devastating update. We now have 30 confirmed losses due to the storm," Sheriff Quentin Miller told a briefing carried by local media. "We're still conducting search operations and we know that those also may include recovery operations."
That brought the toll across a large swathe of the southeastern United States to at least 83, according to reports from local officials and media tallied by AFP.
