Helene’s Death Toll Continues To Climb

October 3, 2024 5:46 pm

(AP) – Month-old twin boys are the youngest known victims of Hurricane Helene. The twins died alongside their mother when a large tree fell through the roof of their home in Thomson, Georgia, last week. The woman’s father, Obie Williams, said one of his sons went to check on the mother and her babies after the storm and found all three dead. Williams is devastated that he will never have the chance to meet his grandsons in person. The death toll from Helene reached 200 on Thursday. Other young victims include a 7-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy from nearby Washington County, Georgia.  Meanwhile, searchers are combing the remote mountains of North Carolina to locate the missing and those needing supplies nearly a week after Hurricane Helene barreled through the Southeast. The death toll has surpassed 200 and could rise higher still. Rescue crews and volunteers are just now trying to get to the hardest-to-reach places and finding mudslides, downed trees and washed out roads at every turn. Some are using canoes, horses and all-terrain vehicles to get past. Helene is now the deadliest storm to hit the U.S. mainland since Hurricane Katrina. President Joe Biden is touring the disaster zones in Georgia and Florida.