A crisis erupted in western North Carolina as officials rushed to deliver more water, food and other supplies to flood-hit areas that were left without power and cellular services on Monday, three days after Hurricane Helen struck the southeastern United States. The death toll from the storm reached triple digits.

Desperate residents isolated by washed-out roads and a lack of electricity and cellular service in western North Carolina lined up for fresh water on Monday, days after Hurricane Helen struck the southeastern United States, killing more than 100 people.

Government officials and relief groups are working to bring essential supplies by air and truck to Asheville, the hardest-hit tourist hub, and surrounding mountain towns.

At least 107 people were killed in six states as the death toll rose Monday and a clearer picture emerged of the devastation stretching from Florida’s Gulf Coast to Virginia’s Appalachian Mountains. The North Carolina county that includes Asheville reported at least 35 deaths. The death toll in Georgia was raised on Monday from 17 to 25.

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper expected the death toll to rise as rescuers and other emergency workers reach areas isolated by collapsed roads, weak infrastructure and widespread flooding.

Asheville’s water system was severely damaged, forcing residents to carry buckets to a creek to get the water needed to flush toilets. They carefully watched their steps as a wall of water tore away all the trees and land, leaving only mud.

Neighbors shared food and water and comforted each other. “This is the blessing so far in this,” Somerville-Johnston said outside her home, which has been without power since Friday.

I planned to treat the neighborhood to venison stew from the weak refrigerator before it spoiled. “Just bring your bowl and spoon,” she said.

Others waited in line for more than a block at Mountain Valley Water, a water vendor, to fill milk jugs and any other containers they could find.

Derek Farmer, who brought three gallon-sized containers of apple juice, said he had been prepared for the storm but was now stressed after three days without water. “I didn’t know how bad it would get,” Farmer said.

Officials have warned that rebuilding after the widespread loss of homes and property will be long and difficult. The storm turned life upside down across the southeast, with deaths also reported in Florida, South Carolina and Virginia.

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Federal Emergency Management Agency officials said Monday that hundreds of roads were closed in western North Carolina and shelters were housing more than 1,000 people.

Cooper appealed to area residents to avoid traveling for their safety and to keep roads clear of emergency vehicles. More than 50 search teams are spread across the region searching for stranded people.

One rescue effort involved rescuing 41 people north of Asheville. Todd Hunt, commanding general of the North Carolina National Guard, said teams found people through 911 calls and social media messages.

Video showed a mass of debris, including overturned pontoon boats and scattered wooden docks, covering the surface of Lake Lure, a scenic area nestled between mountains outside Asheville.

2:51
Hurricane Helen: Drone video shows path of destruction in Florida’s Big Bend area

President Joe Biden said Monday that the federal government will be with survivors and others in the Southeast affected by Hurricane Helen “as long as it takes.” He is expected to ask Congress for additional disaster assistance funds and plans to travel to North Carolina later this week when his presence will not be diverted from life-saving search and rescue missions.

Helen came ashore late Thursday in Florida’s Big Bend area as a Category 4 hurricane, with winds of 140 mph (225 kph). Weak Hurricane Helen quickly moved through Georgia, then drenched the Carolinas and Tennessee with torrential rains that flooded waterways.

Dozens of people gathered on high ground in Asheville on Monday, where they found one of the city’s hottest commodities — a cell signal — and texted friends and loved ones a simple message: “I’m OK.”

“Is this the third or fourth day?” asked Colin Burnett. “It was all a blur.”

The storm unleashed the worst flooding in a century in North Carolina. One community, Spruce Pine, received more than 2 feet (61 cm) of rain from Tuesday through Saturday.

1:58
Hurricane Helen leaves a arduous clean-up operation after the deadly storm

Jessica Dry-Turner, of Texas, begged for someone to rescue her family members who were stranded on the roof of their Asheville home amid rising floodwaters. “They are seeing 18-wheelers and cars floating by,” Turner wrote in an urgent Facebook post on Friday.

But in a follow-up message on Saturday, Turner said help did not arrive in time to save her parents, both in their 70s, and her 6-year-old nephew. The roof collapsed and they all drowned.

“I cannot express in words the sadness, heartbreak and devastation that my sisters and I are experiencing,” she wrote.

The state was trying to send clean water to Asheville, but mudslides that closed Interstate 40 and other highways were hampering those efforts. The county sheriff said law enforcement was planning to send officers to places where there was still water, food or gas because of reports of fights and threats of violence.

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell toured south Georgia on Sunday and is scheduled to be in North Carolina on Monday.

“It’s still very much an active search and rescue mission” in western North Carolina, Creswell said. “We know that there are many communities isolated by mountainous geography, where damage to roads and bridges has isolated certain areas.

Along Florida’s Gulf Coast, several feet of water inundated the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, forcing workers to move two manatees and a sea turtle. James Powell, the aquarium’s executive director, said all the animals were safe, but much of the aquarium’s vital equipment was damaged or destroyed.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said the storm “did not spare anyone.” Most people in and around Augusta, a city of about 200,000 near the South Carolina border, were still without power Monday, and Kemp and other officials tried to reassure residents that they felt their misery.

2:08
Hurricane Helen leaves a trail of devastation across the southeastern United States

With at least 25 people dead in South Carolina, Helen was the deadliest tropical cyclone to hit the state since Hurricane Hugo made landfall north of Charleston in 1989, killing 35 people.

Climate change has worsened the conditions that allow such storms to flourish, intensifying quickly in warm waters, and turning into powerful hurricanes sometimes within hours.

The US National Hurricane Center said Tropical Storm Kirk formed on Monday in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and was expected to become a “large and powerful hurricane” by Tuesday or Wednesday night.

The storm is located about 700 miles (1,125 kilometers) west of the Cabo Verde Islands with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (70 kilometers per hour).

There were no coastal warnings or advisories in effect, and the storm system did not pose a threat to land.

Whittle reported from Portland, Maine and Payne from Perry, Florida. Haya Panjwani in Washington, Kate Brumback in Atlanta and Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, contributed.