92 unaccounted for in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene, ‘dangerous flow of misinformation’ ongoing: Governor

Ninety-two people remain unaccounted for in hard-hit North Carolina in the wake of the “catastrophic disaster” left behind by Hurricane Helene, Gov. Roy Cooper said Tuesday.

The number will continue to fluctuate as new reports come in and other reports are resolved, Cooper said.

Ninety-five people in North Carolina have died in the storm, officials said. The overall death toll across the Southeast has surpassed 230.

This comes as North Carolina continues to face “a persistent and dangerous flow of misinformation” about recovery efforts, the governor said.

“When people assert that help is not coming to western North Carolina — which is completely untrue, which is a lie — the people who are actually on the ground helping feel demoralized,” Cooper said.

“If you’re participating in spreading this stuff, stop it,” Cooper said. “Whatever your aim is, the people you are really hurting are those in western North Carolina who need help. The safety of our government and volunteer response workers, including FEMA, remains a top priority.”

The governor said he’s directed the state’s Department of Public Safety to “coordinate law enforcement assistance for FEMA and other responders who need it to help assure their safety and security, so people can keep getting the help that they desperately need.”

This weekend, a Bostic, North Carolina, man armed with a handgun and rifle was arrested for allegedly threatening to harm workers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the state, authorities said.

Cooper said FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell made the decision to stop canvassing in certain areas “for a short time over the weekend.”

“We don’t want those kinds of things to happen,” he said. “We don’t know how many people are not going to apply for FEMA because they have heard misinformation about FEMA taking their property or other wild accusations that are out there.”

Criswell said, “Over the weekend, out of an abundance of caution, we made operational changes to keep FEMA personnel safe, but none of the changes we made impacted ongoing search and rescue or other life safety operations.”

“It’s heartbreaking to see words or acts of hatred toward anyone, let alone federal responders who are here to help people in this critical time,” Criswell said.

“We are not going anywhere,” she said. “Misinformation will not deter us from our mission.”

Chris Kavanaugh, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia and chair of the U.S. Attorney’s Terrorism and National Security Subcommittee, said in a statement to ABC News that he’s seeing an uptick in threats against FEMA workers.

“We are investigating these threats and we will seek to hold anyone accountable who seeks to threaten or intimidate FEMA workers,” he said.

And when North Carolinians head to the polls for the start of early in-person voting on Thursday, all but four of the state’s over 400 early voting sites will be open, despite extensive damage from Helene, North Carolina State Board of Elections Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell said.

The four early voting sites no longer in operation are all in hard-hit Buncombe County, which plans to operate 10 sites instead of the 14 originally planned, she said.

In the 25 counties with the biggest impacts from the storm, Brinson Bell acknowledged voting “may look a little different” at polling places that lack electricity or plumbing, and she said the state is still working to determine how many sites will be operable by Election Day.

Brinson Bell said she expects a majority of North Carolinians to cast their ballots through in-person early voting, similar to past election years when more than 60% of voters used early in-person voting.

Brinson Bell rebuffed misinformation that recovery efforts have been partisan, noting the bipartisan state election board unanimously adopted recent election measures.

“We have heard accusations that we are partisanly handling this situation, and that’s simply not true,” Brinson Bell said.

She also flagged increased “vitriol” directed to election workers over social media and condemned any threats to election officials.

“When you do that, you are threatening someone — your former English teacher, your former scoutmaster, your basketball coach, the person who you pass in the grocery store,” Brinson Bell said. “Focus on casting your ballot and ensuring that your fellow citizens get out to vote … and stop with the threats and the rhetoric, because these are people who are just doing their job to serve you so that you can cast your ballot.”

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