According to CBS, almost half of the deaths caused by Helene have been in North Carolina alone, where six months’ worth of rain fell.
The state’s mountainous areas suffered particularly heavy rain – as is typical in storm conditions – which resulted in homes and bridges being washed away.
One emergency official in Buncombe County – which includes the hard-hit city of Asheville – said the state had experienced “biblical devastation”.
A volunteer involved in relief efforts told the BBC on Tuesday they knew someone who had “lost everything” in Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and had moved to Asheville, only to be devastated again nearly two decades later.
“Looks like she’s wiped out again,” the volunteer said. “She has no drinking water. No gasoline. The food in her fridge has rotted.”
The extreme weather has also forced the closure of mines in Spruce Pine, a small town that is home to the world’s largest-known source of high-purity quartz.
In Tennessee, state authorities are investigating the operator of a plastics factory where 11 workers were swept away by rushing floodwaters on Friday. Five of the employees were rescued. Two have been confirmed dead and four more remain missing.
Impact Plastics told CBS in a statement it had monitored weather conditions around its Erwin plant in north-eastern Tennessee, and dismissed employees “when water began to cover the parking lot and the adjacent service road, and the plant lost power”.
But in interviews with local outlets, employees said they were allegedly told to continue work in the factory until it was too late for a safe exit.
Jacob Ingram, a mold changer at the factory, filmed himself and four others waiting for rescue as vehicles and debris were carried away by the muddy water surrounding him.
“I was working at impact when the storm hit yesterday,” Mr Ingram wrote in a post on Facebook, adding he and 11 others were trapped on the back of a semi-truck. “I’m lucky to be alive.”
