With at least 215 killed, Helene is already the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. since Katrina 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.

At least 61 people have died in hard-hit Buncombe County, North Carolina, which encompasses Asheville, county officials said. Hundreds of thousands of customers in the South are still without power nearly one week after Hurricane Helene made landfall.

Hurricane Helene's death toll surpassed 200 on Thursday as rescue crews searched for survivors, one week after the major storm made landfall in Florida and brought flooding rains across the U.S. Southeast.