Hurricane Helene

SWANNANOA, N.C. (AP) — President Donald Trump says he is considering “getting rid of” the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He made the remark Friday during a trip to two disaster zones, offering the latest sign of how he is weighing sweeping changes to the nation’s central organization for responding to disasters. Instead of having federal financial assistance flow through FEMA, the Republican president said Washington could provide money directly to the states. He spoke while visiting North Carolina, which is still recovering months after Hurricane Helene, on the first trip of his second term. He planned to visit wildfire-ravaged Los Angeles later in the day.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Truist Financial Corporation has announced that it is making hundreds of millions of dollars in loans available to residents, businesses and local governments affected by Hurricane Helene in North Carolina. The Charlotte-based bank said in a news release Wednesday that it will lend more than $650 million and offer more in grants and investments over three years. The company’s initiative comes as state legislators have approved hundreds of millions of dollars in Helene aid, while the governor’s office says more is needed. The Truist initiative includes $340 million in lending for small businesses, home mortgages and commercial real estate. It will offer another $310 million in low-cost, tax-exempt loans to municipalities for infrastructure.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency says money available to help communities hit by disasters has shrunk after back-to-back hurricanes Helene and Milton. Deanne Criswell warned during a Senate hearing Wednesday that the funding problems might jeopardize the ability to respond to new disasters in the future. The Biden administration has requested nearly $100 billion for disaster aid. The largest chunk of that money, about $40 billion, would go to FEMA’s disaster relief fund.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Republicans are voicing frustration over how the state is still struggling to recover from two hurricanes that ravaged the region long before Hurricane Helene hit in September. The issues bubbled to the surface Monday during a legislative committee hearing about a budget shortfall in the state Office of Recovery and Resiliency. At issue are projects stemming from hurricanes Matthew in 2016 and Florence in 2018. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper asked for money to eliminate the shortfall last month as part of a larger package to address Hurricane Helene’s historic flooding. One top recovery official says pausing projects is an “option on the table” if lawmakers don’t come up with enough cash.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The death toll from Hurricane Helene has inched up to 227 as the grim task of recovering bodies continues more than a week after the monster storm ravaged the U.S. Southeast. Helene came ashore Sept. 26 as a Category 4 hurricane and carved a wide swath of destruction as it moved northward from Florida. It destroyed homes, washed away roads and knocked out electricity and cellphone service for millions. The death toll could rise even higher. It is not clear how many people are unaccounted for or missing. Helene is the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. since Katrina in 2005.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Hurricane Helene has left millions without electricity, water and phone service across the Southeast in the six days since making landfall. Now many people are relying on old-fashioned ways of communicating and coping. In one North Carolina town, local leaders are updating residents at meetings in the town square. Message boards list the names of the missing. Mules delivered medical supplies to mountaintop homes. The death toll has topped 180, and many people remain unaccounted for. President Joe Biden surveyed the devastation in the Carolinas from the air on Wednesday and plans to tour disaster areas in Georgia and Florida on Thursday.

SWANNANOA, N.C. (AP) — Rescuers are scouring the mountains of western North Carolina for anyone still unaccounted for since Hurricane Helene’s remnants caused catastrophic damage across the Southeast. The death toll Tuesday reached 166 people. Residents in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina have been lining up for water and food and hunting for cellular signals after the storm deluged the region. In Augusta, Georgia, people waited in line for more than three hours to try to get water from one of five centers set up to serve more than 200,000 people. President Joe Biden plans to survey storm damage on Wednesday.

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Power is still out for well over 1 million people in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina five days after Hurricane Helene tore down trees and destroyed much of the electric grid. The hardest hit areas are places like Augusta, Georgia, and the Greenville-Spartanburg area in South Carolina. In Augusta, lines for water and food stretched for over a half-mile. It’s taking so long to restore power because crews have to fix transmission lines, then fix substations, then fix the main lines into neighborhoods and business districts, and finally replace the poles on the street.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — The death toll after Hurricane Helene left a trail of destruction across the U.S. Southeast has reached at least 133. A crisis is unfolding in the mountains of western North Carolina, where water, food and other supplies are being airlifted into places cut off by mudslides and washed-out roads. Officials worry the death toll will rise further as searchers reach isolated areas. Nearly three dozen people have died in the county that includes the tourism hub of Asheville. The city’s water system has been severely damaged. Forecasters are keeping a close eye on Tropical Storm Kirk, which is expected to become a powerful Atlantic hurricane this week.

Hurricane Helene was big, strong and fast, making it a near-perfect storm to bring widespread death and destruction to the American South. The fast-moving Category 4 storm killed at least 64 people and potentially left thousands homeless throughout the southeastern United States as it hammered its way north. Florida, Georgia and both Carolinas all suffered multiple deaths. In Florida, most drownings were caused by storm surge. In Georgia and South Carolina, falling trees were the primary killers. In North Carolina, massive flooding has cutoff Asheville and the surrounding communities.