Hurricane Helene death toll rises to 166, hundreds more still missing | Hurricane Helene

At least 166 people have died from Hurricane Helene, many are still missing, and more than a million people remained without power as rescue and recovery efforts continued after the devastating storm.

Hundreds of people went missing earlier this week in Buncombe County, home to Asheville, and 85 people were missing in Tennessee, CNN reported.

Joe Biden will travel to both North and South Carolina on Wednesday to assess storm damage. Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Georgia to do the same. Donald Trump traveled to Georgia earlier this week.

As of 7:30 a.m. ET, nearly 1.3 million people in several southeastern states were without power, according to the website poweroutage.us, which tracks outages. That total includes more than 373,000 people in Georgia, nearly 494,000 in South Carolina and more than 347,000 in North Carolina. More than 40,000 people were still without power in Florida and Virginia, and another 10,000 people in West Virginia.

Several areas affected by the storm are also struggling to find drinking water. According to the Washington Post, around 100,000 people in Asheville, North Carolina were without running water. The Post reported that residents boil water and wash themselves and dishes in streams. As CNN reported, Fema delivered a cargo plane with food, water and supplies on Tuesday.

Residents in Augusta, Georgia, have also been without running water for three days and several are under boil water advisories.

Biden and some lawmakers from affected states, including Rick Scott, a Republican from Florida, suggested earlier this week that he would ask Congress, which is in recess, to pass additional disaster relief funding. But that seems unlikely.

An emergency funding measure passed by Congress earlier this month allows Fema to use $20 billion in disaster relief funds more quickly. However, about $6 billion of those funds were intended to go toward relief from previous disasters, including floods in Vermont and wildfires in Hawaii, according to Roll Call.

“Congress has previously provided the resources it needs for the response, so we will ensure those resources are allocated appropriately,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, said Tuesday.