(The Center Square) – More than 12,000 customers remained without power on a Tuesday morning with temperatures barely above freezing in the North Carolina mountains on the third week since Hurricane Helene’s remnants crushed the region.
The nation’s fourth deadliest storm in the last three-quarters of a century killed 42 in Buncombe County, where overnight temperatures at Asheville Regional Airport dipped to the mid-30s. The state Health Department on Monday said 95 have died related to the storm.
According to poweroutage.us at 8:30 a.m., the county had 3,331 without power. There were 4,136 in neighboring Yancey County; 3,530 in Mitchell; 242 in Madison; and 114 in Avery.
Helene came ashore in the Big Bend of Florida on Sept. 26 as a Category 4 hurricane. It moved swiftly through Georgia and dissipated over the Appalachian Mountains and Tennessee, dumping more than 30 inches of rain into multiple locations.
The terrain created violent rushes of water and mud through a number of communities. The Swannanoa River crested at Biltmore Village at 26.1 feet, breaking the record of 20.7 feet set in the Great Flood of 1916. Flood stage is 10 feet. At the French Broad River in Asheville, flood stage is 9.5 feet, the Great Flood set the record of 23 feet, and Helene topped it at 24.67 feet.