Hurricane Helene toll could hit 600: US homeland security chief

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00:00is the U.S. Homeland Security chief is warning that up to 600 people may have lost their lives

00:06in the devastating hurricane that swept across the southeast of the United States.

00:10At least 119 people are known to have died across six states. Two million people are still without

00:17electricity and hundreds of roads remain closed, hampering efforts to deliver badly needed

00:23supplies. Well, as emergency responders race to try to reach those who are still missing,

00:28President Joe Biden said federal help would continue for the victims of the storm

00:32for as long as it took. Let's hear from the U.S. Homeland Security chief.

00:38The current data we have is that it looks like there could be as many as 600 lost lives,

00:46but we don't have any confirmation of that. We know there are 600 who are either lost or

00:52unaccounted for. Well, for more, let's cross live now to our Washington correspondent

00:57Fraser Jackson. Fraser, firstly, if this is confirmed, it's potentially a staggering

01:03death toll following this hurricane in the U.S. What is the latest? What have you been hearing?

01:10Yeah, well, we couldn't know that currently. At least over 100, well over 100 people have

01:15lost their lives from this storm and hurricane which slammed into the Big Bend area of Florida

01:20before making its way through the southeast of the United States. We heard that from the

01:25Homeland Security advisor, Liz Sherwood-Randall, who said that there are about 600 people

01:30unaccounted for. And of course, that then raises the question of how many of those

01:35will likely have died in the storm and in this hurricane. But it must be said with the caveat

01:40that that 600 doesn't mean that they are all dead. It just means that there are 600 who are

01:43currently unaccounted for and their whereabouts are currently unknown. She was keen to point that

01:48out. Well, this storm, Helene, smashed into the Big Bend area of Florida in the Panhandle

01:55late on Thursday evening as a Category 4 storm. It rapidly came up from a Category 3 just at about

02:0112 hours before it made landfall, before it then swept across the southeastern portion of the

02:06United States, hitting Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, even parts of Virginia as well.

02:11The storm surges that we're expecting obviously devastated a lot of the houses in that area of

02:16Florida. But further north, a separate weather system that was moving through the area then

02:21dumped a lot of water as well, which resulted in about 75 centimeters worth of water being

02:27dropped in parts of North Carolina, triggering flash floods and mudslides as well, which has

02:32absolutely devastated communities in the western parts of the state there. We know that Joe Biden

02:37currently at the moment is receiving an update in the Oval Office from Liz Sherwood Randall,

02:43as well as the governor for North Carolina, Roy Cooper, and also the FEMA Administrator

02:49Deanne Criswell. FEMA, of course, being the disaster relief agency that has overseen all

02:53these efforts. We will know more about that once we have a word from Joe Biden in the aftermath of

02:59that, just in about 45 or so minutes time. And Fraser, millions of homes still without

03:05electricity, hundreds of roads closed. What more do we know about what's actually happening in

03:10terms of the dozens of search and rescue operations still ongoing across those states?

03:16Well, there's now a massive search and rescue efforts taking place. We know from the federal

03:22level that they pre-positioned a lot of assets in the region, especially they were worried about

03:28big population centers like Tallahassee in Florida, which could have seen many, many more

03:34people killed by such strong winds and strong storm surges as well. So a lot of those assets

03:40were put into place in advance and we know that some of those assets are still being used and

03:45some of them are still yet to be used. Governor Kemp from Georgia spoke to Joe Biden and said

03:50that currently he doesn't need anything else, but they're working their way through the inventory of

03:54items that were given to them by the federal government in conjunction with local and state

04:00authorities and services as well. We also know that the Department of Defense has given a lot

04:06of helicopters to the rescue efforts to try to get food, medicine and supplies into those areas

04:11that have been cut off by either the storm or the floods and mudslides that it triggered. A lot of

04:18roads and bridges have been washed away, people cut off and isolated with many of them now in the

04:23dark as well, over two million people without power in that area. The National Guard has also

04:28been triggered. Just in North Carolina alone, there are eight different states whose National

04:32Guards are operating in that area. So it is a massive mammoth effort and the rescue efforts

04:37continue. Fraser, thank you so much for that. That is our correspondent in Washington, Fraser Jackson.

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