Hurricane Helene Death Toll Surpasses 200; Effects Likely to Linger For Years

At least 202 people across six states have died in the wake of Hurricane Helene. It barreled across the US Southeast late last week. By midday Thursday, more than 900,000 homes remained without power. Rescuers are still working to find people. But they continue to struggle with impassable roads and spotty communication.

"We’re in day seven, and we’re still finding people in areas isolated by downed power lines and lack of phone service," Avril Pinder told ABC News. Pinder is a county manager. She oversees Asheville, North Carolina. Asheville saw entire neighborhoods underwater. At least 61 deaths have been reported there so far. Many more are still missing. 

The immediate cost of Helene is still being calculated. But the long-term effects on human life may be just as heavy, a new study suggests.

“Watching what’s happened here makes you think that this is going to be a decade of hardship on tap,” Solomon Hsiang told The Associated Press. He is a climate economist. He co-wrote the study.

Hsiang’s team looked at post-hurricane death rates in US states between 1930 and 2015. They found an uptick in deaths in affected regions. It stretched over 15 years. Stress from the storms, damage to hospital facilities, and economic hardship impacted people long after hurricanes. Hsiang estimates that storms contributed to 3.6 million to 5.2 million deaths over the 85 years studied. That's far more than what officials initially thought.

The study was published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Reflect: How do natural disasters, like storms or hurricanes, affect the way people live in both the short term and long term?

Photo of an impassable road courtesy of the National Geographic.