At least 5 North Carolinians died due to lack of basic necessities during Hurricane Helene, state says
North Carolina officials are still investigating the circumstances of 34 deaths and are searching for 92 people.
On Sept. 27, Hurricane Helene ravaged western North Carolina, leaving many in the Asheville region without housing, let alone food, water and medical supplies.
In the nearly three weeks since, search and rescue teams have been working to identify victims and track down missing people.
On Tuesday, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper announced 92 people remained unaccounted for— a figure that reporters had long been seeking, but state officials struggled to track down as they worked to cross-reference lists from local responders and close the loop on a flurry of calls to 2-1-1 hotlines without follow-ups when missing people were discovered.
Kody Kinsley, secretary of the state Department of Health and Human Services, said the state had confirmed 95 fatalities, a statewide death toll lower than what many news outlets have widely reported.
I asked Cooper’s administration to follow-up to explain why the state’s official death count was lower than widely reported figures in the triple digits and how many of those deaths were a direct result of weather versus a lack of basic necessities.
On Wednesday, the state Department of Health and Human Services provided information about its processes and shared a breakdown of the causes, locations and circumstances of all the Helene-related deaths.
State officials attributed the difference in reported deaths to Buncombe County officials.
“We do not have any information about how Buncombe County was determining fatality numbers for the death totals they were reporting for their county,” NCDHHS said in a statement. “We understand that Buncombe County decided to stop their independent reporting as of last week and are relying on the state to report storm-related deaths.”
Of the 95 reported deaths, at least five people died due to a lack of basic necessities (such as food/water/medication). They include:
A 63-year-old female reported in Buncombe County on Sept. 28 as having a pre-existing health condition that deteriorated due to the storm and was unable to return to her baseline condition before dying
A 72-year-old female reported in Haywood County on Sept. 29 as dying due to a lack of basic necessities
An 84-year-old female recovered and reported in Buncombe County on Sept. 29 as dying due to a lack of basic necessities
A 72-year-old female recovered and reported in Buncombe County on Sept. 29 as dying due to a lack of basic necessities
A 78 year-old-male reported in Buncombe County on Oct. 2 after missing medical treatments due to the storm
Of the remaining 90 deaths, 34 are still being investigated.
Individuals who died are being tracked and cared for at either Asheville or the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Raleigh, with the more complex cases sent to Raleigh for closer examination.
“There are complex storm-related deaths in which the exact circumstances are not immediately known,” NCDHHS said. “These complex cases are initially classified as ‘Unkown’ and currently total 34. A team of trained forensic pathologists are working each case to determine the exact cause of death; when done, those deaths will be reclassified and added to the appropriate category.”
Of the 56 remaining deaths, 20 people died by drowning, 11 by landslide, 11 by blunt force injuries, six by wind/tree trauma, four by motor vehicle drownings, three by motor vehicle crashes (including hydroplane cases) and one due to environmental exposure (dying from hypothermia).
State health officials also provided a death count by county, with a plurality coming from Buncombe, which includes the city of Asheville:
Buncombe: 42
Yancey: 11
Henderson: 7
Haywood: 5
Avery: 4
Madison: 4
Rutherford: 3
Cleveland: 2
Macon: 2
Mecklenburg: 2
Mitchell: 2
Watauga: 2
Ashe: 1
Burke: 1
Catawba: 1
Gaston: 1
McDowell: 1
Polk: 1
Rowan: 1
Wake: 1*
Yadkin: 1
*Note: Wake County isn’t in western North Carolina. A 90-year-old female was reported dead on Oct. 12 in Wake County after being displaced from Buncombe County due to the storm, falling into temporary housing and passing away.
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