Race continues to find Helene survivors as the death toll from the storm rises

The search for survivors continued Tuesday amid the devastation Hurricane Helenein which at least 162 people were killed and homes destroyed across the southeast.

Many people also remain missing especially in North Carolinawhere hundreds of roads remain inaccessible and communications are disrupted. On Monday evening, President Biden told reporters at the White House that there were reports that 600 people were missing.

“God willing, they are alive, but there is no way to contact them,” Mr. Biden said.

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said that search and rescue personnel have been deployed to the affected areas and that efforts are being made to introduce satellite communications. CBS News previously reported that more than 3,300 personnel from across the federal government were deployed to support response efforts in the states Helene passed through. The storm is expected to be one of the costliest in U.S. history.

As of Tuesday evening, CBS News has confirmed at least 77 storm-related deaths in North Carolina, 36 in South Carolina, 25 in Georgia, 14 in Florida, eight in Tennessee and two in Virginia.

The effects of Hurricane Helene

Hurricane Helene made landfall in the Big Bend region of Florida on Thursday with winds of 140 mph and a storm surge of 15 feet in some areas. Parts of the Gulf Coast have been decimated. Officials estimate that 90% of the homes in Keaton Beach, Florida, have simply disappeared after massive storm surges and strong winds hit the coastal area.

“It's complete devastation and very heartbreaking because we were a family,” said Becky Jarvis, whose husband built his home there 40 years ago. Now it's torn to pieces. “It’s very sad.”

After hitting Florida, the storm blew north through Georgia. Gov. Brian Kemp said Saturday that it “looked like a bomb went off,” with splintered homes and rubble-covered highways visible from the air.

The storm then brought torrential rains to the Carolinas and Tennessee, stressing dams and flooding waterways. In rural North Carolina, the Busick area received over 31 inches of rain in just two days.

“This is an unprecedented tragedy that requires an unprecedented response,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said at a news conference Sunday.

Cooper added that more deaths are expected as rescuers reach remote areas.

Search and rescue operations are underway amid the devastation

In the small town of Burnsville, North Carolina, CBS News watched as a National Guard helicopter crew rescued a stranded woman, the first of seven people the crew rescued on Tuesday.

Nearly 60 miles south, in Hendersonville, National Guard troops were sent on another mission, where they located three survivors who were visibly relieved and grateful to see the helicopter land.

“Grateful to be alive, grateful that everyone is OK and trusting that everyone will get through this,” one rescued woman told CBS News.

The North Carolina National Guard is also delivering food and water to people who have waited days for help.

“We are working together to open additional critical routes to advance supplies while repairing roads, utilities and communications,” Cooper said Tuesday.

Criswell said it remains “a very active search and rescue mission” in western North Carolina.

“We know that there are many communities that are cut off simply because of the geography” of the mountains in the region, she said on Sunday.

said Ryan Cole, assistant director of emergency medical services the flooding in Buncombe Countywhich includes the city of Asheville, was “biblical.”

“We had a biblical flood here, and it was extremely significant,” Cole told the Citizen-Times.

County Manager Avril Pinder told the local publication that the storm “is likely Buncombe County's Hurricane Katrina.”

In Swannanoa, North Carolina, more than 380,000 people are without power and the region's lack of cell phone service has left many cut off from the outside world. At the height of the flooding, the water reached over the roofs of many houses.

“This is devastation, devastation, the worst thing I've ever seen, and I'm 80 years old,” Pat Harris, who has lived in the small town for more than six decades, told “CBS Mornings” on Tuesday.

With highways and roads impassable, food, water and other essential supplies have been delivered to the community by air. The North Carolina Department of Transportation said all roads in the western part of the state should be considered closed to non-emergency traffic.