BLACK MOUNTAIN, N.C.—Hurricane Helene’s death toll reached 200 on Thursday and could rise higher still, as searchers made their way toward the hardest to reach places in the mountains of western North Carolina, where the storm washed out roads and knocked out electricity, water, and cellular service.
Officials in Georgia and North Carolina added to their states’ grim tallies, padding an overall count that has already made Helene the deadliest storm to hit the U.S. mainland since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
A week after the storm came ashore in Florida before carving a path of destruction through the Southeast, connections between friends, neighbors, and even strangers have provided hope in the worst-affected areas….