Thousands Feared Dead in North Carolina Alone After Helene Hits

More than two weeks after Hurricane Helene first hit American soil, residents in North Carolina are not only still counting their dead, but they’re also still finding them, and the morgues are overrun, so family backyards are becoming graveyards.

One North Carolina official quoted by the Spectator, said, “According to folks on the ground — fire, medical, law enforcement officials — they’re way underreporting the numbers. All the morgues are full and they’ve hauled a ton [of bodies] to Greensboro. People are starting to bury them in their yards because they have no place to put them.”

North Carolinians burying their dead in back yards as morgues overflow: report | The Post Millennial– thepostmillennial.com
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“According to folks on the ground — fire, medical, law enforcement officials — they’re way underreporting the numbers.”

North Carolinians have been forced to bury their dead in their back yards as the death tolls have continued to rise. Americans in impacted areas are having trouble finding spaces in morgues for their deceased loved ones. Across six different states, the number of deaths has risen to at least 227, with about half of those victims being in North Carolina.

According to the Spectator, North Carolina families have become so desperate in search of a place to bury their dead that they have often done so in their yards. “It’s so much worse than they’re saying,” said one person in Ashville. “I think there’s a massive cover-up.”

North Carolina officials as well as federal officials have confirmed that the death toll has been largely undercounted so far in North Carolina, partially due to the fact that so many bodies have not yet been recovered. There are also piles of deceased people who have yet to be identified that are being transported around the state to find a gravesite.

“According to folks on the ground — fire, medical, law enforcement officials — they’re way underreporting the numbers. All the morgues are full and they’ve hauled a ton [of bodies] to Greensboro,” one North Carolina official said. “People are starting to bury them in their yards because they have no place to put them.”

Locals have grown angry at the seemingly lax response from state as well as federal authorities, many taking aim at General Major Todd Hunt, the director over the North Carlina National Guard. According to the outlet, personnel from the National Guard were not deployed until the Sunday after the storm. Around 5,500 National Guard troops had been deployed to the area and only 500 of those were from North Carolina.

“That’s why you saw the Florida National Guard and other units out there — and why private citizens stepped in, even as state and federal officials tried to shut down their efforts,” a source told the Spectator.

Conservatives have slammed the Biden-Harris administration for their response to the hurricane. When the hurricane made landfall, Biden was at his beach house in Delaware and Kamala Harris was campaigning in the western US. Harris has also faced backlash for pre-taping a podcast the Tuesday after the impact from the hurricane.