Hurricane Helene death toll rises to 200

Hurricane Helene’s death toll has reached 200 after Georgia and North Carolina reported more deaths from the storm.

The death toll jumped from 189 to 200 after Georgia officials added eight to their tally and North Carolina added three.

Search and rescue operations continued on Thursday in the mountains of western North Carolina, which bore the worst of the storm.

It was the deadliest to hit the US mainland since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Electricity is being slowly restored, as the number of homes and businesses without power dipped below one million for the first time since last weekend, according to poweroutage.us.

Most of the outages are in the Carolinas and Georgia, where Helene struck after barrelling over Florida’s Gulf Coast as a Category 4 hurricane.

Deaths have been reported in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia, in addition to the Carolinas.

President Joe Biden flew over the devastation in North and South Carolina on Wednesday, getting a first-hand look at the destruction caused by the storm.

Speaking afterwards in Raleigh, North Carolina, he praised the Democratic governor of North Carolina and the Republican governor of South Carolina for their responses to the storm, saying that in the wake of disasters, “we put politics aside”.

That includes a commitment from the federal government to foot the bill for debris removal and emergency protective measures for six months.

The money will address the impacts of landslides and flooding and will cover costs of first responders, search and rescue teams, shelters, and mass feeding.

“We’re not leaving until you’re back on your feet completely,” Mr Biden said.

Vice President Kamala Harris travelled to neighbouring Georgia, where she said the President had approved a request to pick up the tab for similar emergency aid there for three months.

Mr Biden is traveling to disaster areas in Florida and Georgia on Thursday.