Tens of thousands of residents, most in western North Carolina, remained without running water. According to a USA TODAY Network analysis, the number of confirmed deaths in the region crossed the 200 threshold Thursday when North Carolina officials said the state's tally had risen to 97,

Hurricane Helene’s death toll has reached 200 and could rise higher still, as searchers make their way toward the hardest to reach places in the mountains of western North Carolina, where the storm washed out roads and knocked out electricity,