PENSACOLA, N.C. (AP) 鈥� The search for victims of dragged into its second week on Friday, as exhausted rescue crews and volunteers continued to work long days 鈥� navigating past washed out roads, downed power lines and mudslides 鈥� to reach the isolated and the missing.
鈥淲e know these are hard times, but please know we鈥檙e coming," Sheriff Quentin Miller of Buncombe County, North Carolina, said at a Thursday evening press briefing. 鈥淲e鈥檙e coming to get you. We鈥檙e coming to pick up our people.鈥�
With , Helene is already the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. since in 2005, and dozens or possibly hundreds of people are still unaccounted for. Roughly half the victims were in North Carolina, while dozens more were killed in South Carolina and Georgia.
In Buncombe County alone, 72 people had been confirmed dead as of Thursday evening, Miller said. Buncombe includes the tourist hub of Asheville, the region's most populous city. Still, the sheriff holds out hope that many of the missing are alive.
His message to them?
鈥淵our safety and well-being are our highest priority. And we will not rest until you are secure and that you are being cared for.鈥�
Rescuers face difficult terrain
Now more than a week since the storm roared onto , lack of phone service and electricity continues to hinder efforts to contact the missing. That means search crews must trudge through the mountains to learn whether residents are safe.
Along the Cane River in western North Carolina鈥檚 , the Pensacola Volunteer Fire Department had to cut their way through trees at the top of a valley on Thursday, nearly a week after a wall of water swept through.
Pensacola, which sits a few miles from Mount Mitchell, the highest point east of the Mississippi River, lost an untold number of people, said Mark Harrison, chief medical officer for the department.
"We鈥檙e starting to do recovery,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e got the most critical people out.鈥�
Near the Tennessee state line, crews were finally starting to reach side roads after clearing the main roads, but that brought a new set of challenges. The smaller roads wind through switchbacks and cross small bridges that can be tricky to navigate even in the best weather.
鈥淓verything is fine and then they come around a bend and the road is gone and it鈥檚 one big gully or the bridge is gone,鈥� said Charlie Wallin, a Watauga County commissioner. 鈥淲e can only get so far.鈥�
Every day there are new requests to check on someone who hasn鈥檛 been heard from yet, Wallin said. When the search will end is hard to tell.
鈥淵ou hope you鈥檙e getting closer, but it鈥檚 still hard to know,鈥� he said.
Power slowly coming back
Electricity is being slowly restored, and the number of homes and businesses dipped below 1 million on Thursday for the first time since last weekend, according to . Most of the outages are in the Carolinas and Georgia, where Helene struck after coming into Florida on Sept. 26 as a .
President Joe Biden in North and South Carolina on Wednesday. The administration announced a federal commitment to foot the bill for debris removal and emergency protective measures for six months in North Carolina and three months in Georgia. The money will address the impacts of landslides and flooding and cover costs of first responders, search and rescue teams, shelters and mass feeding.
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Contributing to this report were Associated Press journalists Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina; Darlene Superville in Keaton Beach, Florida; John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; Michael Kunzelman in College Park, Maryland; Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa; and Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City.
Jeff Amy, The Associated Press
