Helene updates: Over 120 dead across Southeast; North Carolina ravaged by storm (2024)

In the wake of Hurricane Helene, questions about government response emerge

Video posted by Instagram user Rachel Wilkes captured the exact moment a fast-moving mudslide hits houses in Boone, North Carolina.

Calling it the “biggest test we’ve ever faced,” Asheville, North Carolina, Mayor Esther Manheimer said she expects the road to recovery will be long and difficult.

Asheville has essentially been cut off from the world with washed-out roads, highways and bridges, and it is without power or cellphone service in many places, meaning residents are struggling to get the resources they need to survive day-to-day, she said.

The biggest need? Water.

“Our most pressing need after lifesaving measures is water. We have our water systems down,” Manheimer said.

She continued: “We need to be able to bring in drinking water. That started happening on a large scale today, and we’re going to need to continue that effort because we could see a loss of our water distribution system for possibly weeks.”

Asheville and surrounding Buncombe County were devastated by Hurricane Helene. Earlier today, county officials confirmed 40 deaths in the area.

After briefing President Joe Biden on the situation on the ground in his storm-ravaged state, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper tonight sought to reassure constituents that an army of help was on the job.

"This is an unprecedented response and an absolutely enormous coordinated effort by state, federal and local partners," he said on X.

Despite not having a coastline on the Gulf of Mexico, where Helene made landfall in Florida, North Carolina got the worst of the storm during its slow march north, with Helene flooding communities in the western part of the state and causing debilitating damage to Asheville's water infrastructure.

The death toll for the state tonight was 49, a vast majority from the Ashville region.

More than 386,000 utility customers remained without power tonight, and cellphone service was such a challenge that federal officials have brought 30 Starlink satellite receivers to the state to help residents reconnect, with 10 more on the way, Biden said at an evening briefing.

Cooper said power has been restored to 500,000 utility customers, Federal Emergency Management Agency personnel have distributed 1 million liters of water and 600,000 meals, and first responders and other personnel have come to help from 18 states.

"The scope of our challenge is unprecedented," he said, "but so, too, is our response."

About 400 female offenders have been moved from two correctional facilities in North Carolina because of lack of power and water, authorities said today.

The offenders were moved from the Correctional Center for Women in Swannanoa and the Black Mountain Substance Abuse Treatment Center for Women, the state Department of Adult Correction said.

About 360 minimum-custody offenders were moved to the Anson Correctional Institution in Polkton, and others were moved to the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women in Raleigh, officials said.

Forty-five offenders who were receiving in-patient treatmentat the Black Mountain treatment center were moved to the North Piedmont Confinement in Lexington, officials said.

Some of the victims ofHurricane Heleneare cut off from the outside world.

Beyond collapsed roads andbridges, many affected areas, especially in westernNorth Carolina, have experienced severe to total communications blackouts, as cell towers and internet services are down from the hurricane and subsequent flooding, power outages and landslides.

Edward Hinson, the chief marketing and sales officer at SkyLine/SkyBest, a small telecommunications company that provides TV and internet service to rural western North Carolina, said the damage to the communications infrastructure there is catastrophic.

“It’s hard to foresee what the next stages look like, because we’re still just assessing so much damage,” he told NBC News. “I don’t know how to articulate how bad the damage is.”

Read the full story here.

The death toll from Hurricane Helene rose to at least 125 today, according to a tally from NBC News.

The number continued to increase amid search efforts in flood-ravaged communities. The number of deaths included 49 in North Carolina, 29 in South Carolina, 25 in Georgia, 12 in Florida, eight in Tennessee and two in Virginia.

At a briefing tonight about federal help for response and recovery, Biden offered condolences to victims' families and expressed empathy for those whose loved ones are missing. "It’s almost equally as bad missing, not knowing whether your brother, sister, husband, wife, son, daughter are alive," he said.

He said thousands of federal personnel were in storm-ravaged states to assist with searches and rescues, debris removal, power restoration and reconnection of cellphone service.

Biden said that 30 Starlink receivers that facilitate cellphone service through satellites have been delivered to western North Carolina and 10 more were en route. Federal resources also helped North Carolina reopen 220 roads, he said.

"To the survivors, I want you to know the administration is going to be there, and we just talked about this, until we finish the job," Biden said.

Floodwaters from Hurricane Helene trapped workers at an eastern Tennessee plastics factory, with several family members learning today that their loved ones didn’t survive.

Some of the workers’ relatives got frantic video phone calls from their loved ones as the water swelled around Impact Plastics in Erwin, where some workers were swept away from the parking lot next to the Nolichucky River.

The families and friends had been posting desperate pleas on social media for help in finding their loved ones. Some showed up at a news conference carrying photos of the missing and pressed authorities to help find them.

Slowly, their postings were updated to say that their loved ones, several of them Latino, had died.

According to reports on social media, the workers were trapped outside the building, which was surrounded by fast-moving floodwater that kept them from leaving.

Read the full story here.

Reporting from Unicoi County, Tennessee

Desperate family members were waiting for word on more than 150 people still missing after flooding hit Tennessee. Some of the missing were in a plastics factory that was flooded.

Vice President Kamala Harris visited FEMA headquarters today to thank workers for their efforts after the hurricane.

“We will continue to do everything we can to help you recover and to help you rebuild no matter how long it takes,” she said.

Officials in North Carolina launched a website meant to ensure that residents affected by Hurricane Helene can cast their ballots in the general election.

The State Board of Elections launched a website, NCSBE.gov/Helene, to provide the latest information for voters after the hurricane, officials said in a statement.

State authorities are gathering information on damage to voting facilities and will evaluate the effect on absentee and in-person voting, officials said.

“When disasters strike elections, we use this mantra: ‘We do not stop an election; we figure out how to proceed,'" said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the State Board of Elections. "While we do not know exactly what is ahead, our guiding force between now and Election Day will be to do everything possible to ensure every eligible North Carolina voter can cast their ballot.”

Election officials are also working to provide printed materials to voters in the affected areas who may not have cellphone service or internet access.

In addition, at a meeting today, the state board passed a resolution allowing the 25 counties in the Helene federal disaster area to reschedule meetings required by law to consider absentee ballots, officials said.

Read the full story here.

Hard-hit western North Carolina faces an increased threat of potentially deadly snakebites.

“Snakes come out when there’s floods,” said Mary Martin, chief operating officer for Duke University Hospital in Durham, North Carolina. “That was not on my bingo card until the state called to say we need to pay attention to that.” State authorities, Martin said, asked that snake antivenom be sent to affected areas.

Like the rest of us, snakes try to get to higher ground when it floods.

“We have seen an increase in bites over the past few days. As weather lifts and people remove debris, there is increased risk,” said Dr. Charles Gerardo, chair of the department of emergency medicine at Duke University School of Medicine.

Snakes native to western North Carolina include the copperhead, said Duke’s Dr. Sean Bush, an emergency medicine physician.

“North Carolina, in particular, is the epicenter for snakebites,” Bush said. “The most snakebites in the entire nation occur here, and they’re almost exclusively copperheads.”

Reporting from San Diego

Three San Diego firefighters en route to help with storm recovery in North Carolina were injured in a vehicle crash in Texas, the city said yesterday.

Mayor Todd Gloria said on X that the three, part of a group of 48 Southern California personnel sent to North Carolina with U.S. Urban Search & Rescue California Task Force 8, were seriously injured.

After the crash on East Highway 20 near the Louisiana border at 2:45 a.m. yesterday, the three were hospitalized in Shreveport, the city said.

The hospital cited federal privacy laws and the city cited family requests for privacy, as both denied condition information for the three. They were in a Ford F-350 truck, and the cause of the crash is being investigated.

The White House said President Joe Biden will visit storm-ravaged North Carolina on Wednesday.

Asheville —and its county, Buncombe County — has been hit particularly hard. Earlier today, county officials confirmed 40 deaths in the area.

Biden said that in addition to an aerial tour of Asheville, he will have a briefing in Raleigh at the Emergency Operations Center.

He said he also plans to travel to Georgia and Florida.

Twenty-nine people have been confirmed dead in South Carolina, officials said today.

Gov. Henry McMaster announced the grim news.

“Unfortunately, we’ve now gone up to 29 deaths as of this morning related to the storm,” he said. “We ask you to keep those families and loved ones in our prayers.”

Restoring power to hundreds of thousands of customers remains a critical issue, McMaster said.

Late this afternoon, a power outage map of the state showed 687,995 customers without power.

Nearly 600 state National Guard members are helping with search and recovery efforts, as well as 228 people from South Carolina State Fire who are conducting welfare checks, officials said.

Forty people have been confirmed dead in Buncombe County, North Carolina, officials said today.

“It is with a very heavy heart that we announce we have confirmed40 storm-related fatalities,” County Manager Avril Pinder said at a news conference.

The county is home to Asheville, a popular tourist mountain town and center for the arts in the state that has been devastated by the hurricane.

Assistant City Manager Ben Woody said essential infrastructure in the city has been damaged, including its water system. "The damage to the Asheville water system is catastrophic — we have a severely damaged water system," he said.

A section of Interstate 40 near the North Carolina-Tennessee state line has collapsed into the Pigeon River.

The devastation caused by Hurricane Helene has led to three deaths in Tennessee, with more expected, a state official said today.

“We have more than 100 people that are confirmed missing that we’re working on now. I expect that numberwill grow,” said Patrick Sheehan, director of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.

“When we lose Tennesseans, when we lose friends, families and neighbors, that makes this disaster a tragic disaster. So our prayers go to the loved ones, the families and to the lost. ... As part of our trying to determine the scope of the humanitarian part of this crisis, we know that there are missing.”

In addition, Sheehan said, 59 people were rescued with the assistance of Virginia State Police, some of whom were stranded on rooftops to escape flooding.

The state’s infrastructure also took a catastrophic hit, Sheehan said, noting that hundreds of bridges were affected by flooding and that “scores of them are destroyed or have significant damage that renders them unusable.”

Video taken by Charlotte City Council members Tariq Bokharifrom the Lake Lure/Chimney Rock area of North Carolina shows what Bokhari calls "overwhelming" levels of destruction.

The death toll from Hurricane Helene has reached 116. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas joins Chris Jansing to discuss the impact of the massive storm on the country and how recovery efforts are going.

Clean drinking water is scarce in some parts of western North Carolina devastated by Helene.

Buncombe County Manager Avril Pinder said at a news conference today that although her team asked FEMA for water supplies ahead of the storm, the area received its first shipment of water today at 2:30 a.m. — three days after the storm hit.Asheville is the largest city in Buncombe County.

“We requested water even before the storm started,” Pinder said. “We felt that some people were going to be cut off because of how much rain was coming.”

The limited supply won’t be enough to meet the growing needs of thousands of residents. For many of those who do have water, boil orders are in effet.

A plastics factory in northeastern Tennessee acknowledged Monday that multiple employees are missing or dead, while denying social media claims that workers were told to stay at the facility while floodwaters surged.

"We are devastated by the tragic loss of great employees," Gerald O'Connor, founder of Impact Plastics, said in a news release. "Those who are missing or deceased, and their families are in our thoughts and prayers." The company is located in Erwin, Tennessee, in an industrial park alongside the Nolichucky River.

Impact Plastics added that "at no time were employees told that they would be fired if they left the facility." The message was also delivered by bilingual managers, the company said. "While most employees left immediately, some remained on or near the premises for unknown reasons."

Some cities and towns in North Carolina are still experiencing severe or complete broadband internet outages, a connectivity watchdog company said Monday.

Waynesville and Hendersonville were completely offline, according to data provided to NBC News by NetBlocks. Weaverville and Morganton had been fully disconnected and were only starting to come back.

Asheville was at about 10% connectivity, the NetBlocks analysis found.

The National Centers for Environmental Information, which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is working to account for all of its employees after its downtown Asheville, North Carolina, headquarters was hit by Helene, according to a statement from NOAA. The building won’t be fully operational until water service there is restored.

Finding their people is made more difficult without reliable phone and internet connections, the statement said. “Even those who are physically safe are generally without power, water or connectivity,” it said.

The NCEI’s website, ncei.noaa.gov, is down and has been since Friday. The data center for the site and its network service provider are both also down.

With President Biden saying he “may have to request” Congress come back to Washington before they are set to return in November to address disaster aid in the wake of Hurricane Helene,there is currently no expectation that Congress will need to return early to provide additional funding in the short term, multiple people familiar with the situation tell NBC News.

It is exceedingly rare for Congress to cut a recess short to address an emergency or disaster, andCongress is not set to return to Washington until Nov. 12.

While the expectation is that disaster funding will be depleted faster than normal thanks to Helene, Congress just passed a government funding bill that contained an anomaly which will allow them to front-load funding to meet the current needs, a spokesperson for the Senate Appropriations Committee said.

Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut are some of the states sending aid to North Carolina as the state slowly recovers from Helene's destruction.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro called the “destruction and loss of life” in the Southeast “devastating.” He announced today that he's deployed resources from the state's emergency management agency and National Guard to North Carolina. Pennsylvania’s Task Force One, an urban search and rescue team, is also on the ground in North Carolina.

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont sent a state National Guard aviation regiment to North Carolina. The unit arrived Friday and will stay for about a week.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced today that the state is sending a 30-member incident management team, comprising emergency response professionals, to Asheville. The team will conduct search and rescue, structural inspections and aid with communications and emergency response activities.

“New Yorkers lead by example and help our neighbors in times of despair,” Hochul said in a statement.“Our expert team and the equipment they will bring with them will help save lives and assess damage from Hurricane Helene. I thank these brave New Yorkers for answering the call and look forward to their safe return.”

New York on Sunday also deployed 17 soldiers from the Army National Guard and three heavy lift helicopters to North Carolina, as well as four generators to Macon, Georgia. Last Wednesday, New York also sent a team of 16 swift water rescue personnel, two canines and emergency response equipment to North Carolina.

Residents living near Asheville's River Arts District are surveying immense damage left by flooding triggered by Hurricane Helene.

Donna Fagersten, 66, had gone to a friend’s two-story condo to be safe from Hurricane Helene. But she went to retrieve her cat and didn’t make it back to her friend’s home, her son told NBC News on Sunday.

Fagersten is one of nine people identified by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office who were killed by Hurricane Helene in the county. She lived on one of Florida’s barrier islands, Indian Rocks Beach, where most of the deaths have occurred and many who were killed were older adults. The sheriff’s office said all the victims were in areas of a mandatory evacuation zone.

“I don’t even know if this is correct because I haven’t been down there to verify anything, but it seems like she decided to go check on her cat,” John Runner, Fagersten’s son, said. “Didn’t make it back.”

The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office said water entered her home and it appeared she had drowned. But Runner said his mother was found outside her condo in the parking lot and “she didn’t make it to the house.”

He said his mother’s friend survived the hurricane as did Dylan, her cat.

Several members of Tennessee's Unicoi County Latino community are among the dozens missing in the wake of Helene.

South Carolina's death toll has risen to 29, bringing the total storm death toll to 116, according to a count by NBC News.

So far, Florida has recorded 12 deaths; Georgia, 25; North Carolina, 44; Tennessee, four; and Virginia, two.

In Avery County, North Carolina, locals are searching for their loved ones, but making contact is difficult as roads are destroyed, communities are flooded and there's little internet and phone connectivity.

Jessica Meidinger is holding on to hope as she searches for her mother.

“Their house is like right off of Elk River, well it was,” Meidinger told NBC affiliate WCNC of Charlotte. “We heard at 11:30 in the morning on Friday that their house was swept away by the river.”

Her stepfather swam to the shore and reached safety, but her mother, Kim Ashby, is still unaccounted for.

“We’ve been able to piece things together from different accounts of neighbors out the area who have Starlink satellite,” Meidinger said. “It remains scary, but the more touchpoints you get, the more hope you get.”

Biden said in remarks at the White House that he's committed to traveling to affected areas as soon as possible but said he's been told that it would be "disruptive" right now.

The president said, however, that he expects to tour storm damage on Wednesday or Thursday. "It's not just a catastrophic storm. It’s a historic, history-making storm," Biden said.

Biden said that FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell will stay in Asheville, North Carolina, one of the most hard-hit places, for the "foreseeable future."

Asked if he will have to call Congress back into session to approve additional disaster aid, Biden said, "That is something I may have to request ... no decisions yet."

The president acknowledged that many people have been struggling with communicating with each other, saying there are reports of about 600 people unaccounted for because they can't be contacted. "God willing, they're alive," said Biden, who added that the federal government will be there for every survivor as long as it takes to recover.

Despite service restorations to more than 1 million customers since Saturday morning, 2.1 million are still without power in the wake of Helene, according to PowerOutage.us data.

There are 20 counties, mostly in Georgia, where 90% of customers lack power service, according to an NBC News analysis of the data.

The death toll from Hurricane Helene now stands at 112 across six states, according to a count by NBC News.

Twelve deaths were reported in Florida, where Helene first made landfall Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane. Georgia has reported 25 deaths; North Carolina, 44 deaths; South Carolina, 25 deaths; Tennessee, four deaths; and Virginia, two deaths.

The number is likely to increase as recovery and search efforts are underway.

Drone footage captured the flooding damage in Asheville, North Carolina, where county officials are saying dozens of people are dead after Hurricane Helene dropped record rainfall over the state.

Gov. Brian Kemp said the death toll in Georgia from Helene now stands at 25. Over the weekend he said it was 17.

"This storm literally spared no one," he said in a briefing Monday.

He briefly touched on some of the deaths, including a firefighter from Pierce County, who died when a tree fell on his vehicle, and a 27-year-old mother with her 1-month-old twin boys, all of whom were killed when a tree fell on their home in McDuffie County.

Several communities devastated by Helene in Washington County, Tennessee, are completely cut off by road, leaving airlifts as the only way out.

The Helene death toll in Buncombe County, North Carolina, which covers Asheville, rose to 35, officials said in a briefing Monday.

“Devastation does not even begin to describe how we feel, but my teams will be continuing to help in recovery," Sheriff Quentin E. Millersaid.

When asked about how the deaths happened, Miller said: “There’s no breakdown at this point as how these occurrences happen. You could imagine the devastation that’s there. So in some cases, we may not even be able to determine.” He noted the deaths weren’t concentrated in any particular area of the county.

Recovery efforts, including searches, are underway. Drew Reisinger, the Buncombe County register of deeds, said volunteers are asked to participate in a "bike brigade" to conduct low-risk door knocks to check on locals.

Two deputies were killed in significant flooding by Helene, the North Carolina Sheriff’s Association said in a statement Sunday.

“In the wake of this devastating storm, a deputy from the Macon County Sheriff’s Office and a deputy from the Madison County Sheriff’s Office were tragically killed in raging flood waters,” the association said.

The Macon County Sheriff’s Office said courthouse security officer Jim Lau died Friday.

The "TODAY" show's Al Roker tracks the latest forecast of scattered showers headed north with remnants of Hurricane Helene and the potential for more tropical trouble for the South.

Between four to five months' worth of rain fell over three days in parts of North Carolina and South Carolina as a result of Hurricane Helene, including a record 30 inches in one town, official figures show.

Busick, North Carolina, a remote town near Mount Mitchell State Park, received 30.78 inches of rain as a result of Helene — a record for the highest rainfall in the Appalachians from a tropical weather system. It beats the 27 inches that fell over the Virginian Appalachians in 1969.

The result has been severe and ongoing flooding that has caused problems across the region and devastated parts of western North Carolina.

At least 20 locations across western North Carolina had enough rain to reach the 1,000-year flood threshold, including Asheville.

What’s left of Helene continues to bring rain to parts of eastern North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia this morning. A flood watch remains in effect for eastern West Virginia through central Virginia.

The National Weather Service office of Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina, called Helene’s destruction “the worst event in our office’s history.”

The office wrote a sobering post on Facebook addressed to residents of the western Carolinas and northeast Georgia on Saturday. “As meteorologists, we always want to get the forecast right. This is one we wanted to get wrong,” it said.

“There are no words to express our sorrow at the loss of life and incredible impacts to property,” the post said. “We want everyone to know that our thoughts and our prayers are with the residents and first responders across the area as we go through this historic event together.”

Multiple states are grappling with the damage left in the wake of Helene’s path of destruction.

Homes from Florida's Gulf Coast up to North Carolina and Tennessee have been utterly destroyed, either ripped apart from hurricane-force winds or inundated by storm surge and flooding. Aerial footage of several communities shows whole neighborhoods underwater and entire towns submerged.

NBC's George Solis is in Asheville, North Carolina, where some communities are underwater and some areas are unreachable due to washed-out roads and slowly receding floods.

Locals told Solis they’ve never seen anything like Helene's destruction before.One man told him: "I don’t know if we can rebuild, or ever come back from this."

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Will Clark

Guad Venegas

Kayla McCormick

Will Clark, Guad Venegas and Kayla McCormick

Hurricane Helene left cars buried in coastal parts of Florida last week. To some, it looked more like a snowstorm than the result of a powerful cyclone.

Florida Army National Guard Capt.Gardner Lajoie, describing the stretch of coastline from Treasure Island to Sunset Beach neighborhood, said: "Absolute destruction … looks like a war zone here."

"I’m from the Northeast; it looks like a snowstorm. It blows my mind," he told NBC News. "If there’s another storm, Florida National Guard will be ready for it."

Officials in Buncombe County, North Carolina, which includes the devastated city of Asheville, said the area is still reeling from Helene’s impacts as many people remain unaccounted for.

"Right now our biggest concerns are getting food and water to people. We have very limited phone service, the towers are starting to come back on. We did put a temporary tower downtown for folks to get some phone access," Lillian Govus, the county's director of communications, said on NBC's "TODAY" this morning. "We don’t have running water and we don’t have a timeline for when we’ll have running water."

Houses have been washed away as well as roads, and part of the interstate, hampering recovery efforts.

“I went home last night for the first time since the storm hit and I live in Black Mountain, and to say it’s decimated would be an understatement,” she said. “Roads are so impassable … so we’re having to actually fly materials in, take other routes.”

She said the county has received thousands of reports of people unaccounted for, but a lot of those reports are due to the lack of phone connection and inability to text or call loved ones. So far there are 30 confirmed fatalities — a number expected to increase.

“Driving through the area where I live, homes are gone and that’s a big, big concern for us,” Govus said. “Where are those people?”

The mayor of Cocke County, Tennessee, Rob Mathis, said last night that two people died there as a result of severe flooding. That brings the total known deaths related to Helene to at least 90, according to a list maintained by NBC News.

There are no people missing and everyone is accounted for, Mathis said in a Facebook video. "That in itself is miraculous," he added. "And that's a testament to the hard work of our emergency responders."

Communities are still in crisis in the aftermath of Helene, but the economic impact will be around long after the floodwaters have receded.

The total cost of the damage and economic loss from the storm will be between $145 billion and $160 billion, according to an estimate from forecaster AccuWeather this morning.

Reporting from BOONE, North Carolina

Deadly Hurricane Helene left huge areas of Southeastern states devastated with communities cut off and scores of people unaccounted for. NBC News' Jay Gray reports from Boone, North Carolina, where the catastrophe has left residents stunned.

Both North Carolina and South Carolina have been reeling from the impact of Hurricane Helene, since it hit Thursday and left a trail of devastation, including widespread flooding, in its wake.

NBC affiliate WCNC of Charlotte, North Carolina, has partnered with the American Red Cross to gather donations to help those most in need — contributions can be made at this link. More than $7,000 has been raised so far.

WCNC has also partnered with Operation Airdrop, a voluntary group that distributes supplies after natural disasters. The group intends to send much-needed food, drink and practical goods to mountain communities, including via Asheville Regional Airport.

Searches are ongoing this morning for hundreds of missing people across Southeastern states, with at least 88 confirmed fatalities across six states, according to a list maintained by NBC News.

At least 30 people have died in a single county in Asheville, North Carolina, the site of disastrous flooding, Buncombe County Sheriff Quentin Miller said at a news conference yesterday.

Earlier in the day, some 1,000 people there were unaccounted for, although this dropped to below 600 by 4 p.m. ET, he said, with a new figure due this morning.

At least 153 people are missing and two have died due to severe weather flooding in northeast Tennessee, the state's emergency management agency said in a briefing last night. A new hotline has been established to report any missing person: 1-800-TBI-FIND (1-800-824-3463).

Up-to-date numbers are hard to obtain due to the size, speed and complexity of recovery efforts.

Vice President Kamala Harris is pausing campaigning to return to Washington and receive briefings on the federal response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene.

The Democratic presidential nominee is flying from Las Vegas and canceling a number of planned campaign stops, a White House spokesperson said this morning.

"Upon arrival, she will travel to FEMA Headquarters where she will be briefed on the ongoing impacts of Hurricane Helene and the Federal actions being taken to support emergency response and recovery," the spokesperson said.

Harris will also visit affected communities, "as soon as it is possible without disrupting emergency response operations."

There is no let-up in Helene's devastating impact on energy infrastructure: More than 2 million customers are without power this morning as of 3.30 a.m. ET, from Florida to Ohio, according PowerOutage.us.

South Carolina is the worst affected with 755,000 energy customers in the dark, followed by 582,000 in Georgia and 458,000 in North Carolina.

Ohio is the most northerly affected state, with 32,000 customers out of power.

Operations at a number of U.S. Postal Service facilities, including those tasked with delivering and accepting mail, are down around the country because of the weather.

Some states hit hard by Helene, such as North Carolina and Georgia, reported dozens of locations with suspended operations.

Customers check whether their state has any disruptions on the USPS website.

Reporting from ERWIN, Tennessee

In hard-hit eastern Tennessee, flooding swallowed up entire neighborhoods. Tonight dozens of people unaccounted for and their loved ones are desperate for any news. NBC News’ Priscilla Thompson reports.

GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump will visit hard-hit Valdosta, Georgia, today, his campaign said.

The former president will be briefed on the damage in the state, where at least 17 people have died in the storm. He will also assist with relief and deliver remarks, the campaign said.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp will be touring storm damage in Augusta and won't be present at Trump's stop, according to an aide for Kemp.

Both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have indicated they plan to travel to impacted areas once they can do so without disrupting emergency operations, according to White House officials.

The leftovers of once-Hurricane Helene combined with a mild rain front could dump additional rain on parts of the central Appalachians, federal forecasters said.

Between 1 to 2 inches of rain, with up to 5 inches in some areas, could fall from West Virginia into northwest Virginia and far western Maryland, according to the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center.

“There’s moisture on the east side of [the front] being funneled into the area, but also a localized feature causing a focus of rain,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Jeremy Geiger of the Baltimore/Washington office in Sterling, Virginia.

The rain is expected to move out of the already-saturated area after tomorrow or Wednesday.

Residents in Hendersonville, North Carolina, toured their neighborhood in kayaks after Hurricane Helene flooded the area. The storm is expected to dissipate, but heavy rain and flash flooding remain threats for parts of the Appalachians.