After Helene, relatives are looking for the hundreds of people who are still missing

Turbo Tetterton learned Sunday evening that people outside her storm-ravaged neighborhood in Asheville, North Carolina, were reporting her missing after Hurricane Helene was unable to reach her following the devastating path through her mountain community.

“I just went online and saw that a lot of people were searching for me, which is heartwarming given all this heartache,” Tetterton told NPR.

Tetterton and several of her neighbors in Asheville used Wi-Fi from a hotspot trailer provided by county officials to help residents get back online. Some contacted friends and family for the first time in days. Others reported their jobs or tried to apply for federal aid.

Tetterton logged in and was greeted with messages like, “Hey, have you heard from this person? Hey, I haven't heard from this person. Are they okay? Do they have electricity? Does she have water? Are you alive?” she said through tears.

County officials hope that as more people come to trouble spots like this trailer, they will reconnect with their loved ones and be removed from the long list of people missing after Helene.

Devastating flooding left widespread destruction in western North Carolina, and at least 600 people remain missing in Buncombe County alone. Search and rescue teams are still searching for people in the county's remote mountain towns. In Tennessee, officials said about 100 people were still missing as of Monday afternoon.

As of Tuesday, the storm had killed more than 150 people in six states, according to the Associated Press.

Among the missing are employees of a plastics factory in Erwin, Tennessee. Following heavy rains on Friday, Impact Plastics laid off employees after the parking lot flooded and the plant lost power. Some media reports allege that these employees were threatened with termination if they left the building or for other reasons did not understand that they were allowed to leave the building. Impact Plastics denies that a threat was made and says a bilingual employee explained the situation to workers.

Relatives of some Latino workers told NBC that flooding quickly surrounded the plant, trapping them and sweeping away employees. Several employees are missing or confirmed dead. Impact Plastics said in a news release that it called for help and that a National Guard helicopter rescued five workers. The company said it was “devastated by the tragic loss of great employees.”

As rescue teams continue to search for missing people, family members are taking to social media to spread the word. A community-provided list of nearly 2,000 names of missing people was created. Since Helene's hit, many names have gone from “missing” to “found”. Family and friends are using a public Facebook page to post photos and details of their missing loved ones from eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina.

For North Carolina:

  • To report a missing person, individuals should call 211 or 1-888-892-1162 if calling from outside the state, according to Blue Ridge Public Radio North Carolina.
  • For additional resources on reporting missing people, visit the Blue Ridge Public Radio website.

For Tennessee:

  • The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has established a hotline for the public to report a missing person: 1-800-TBI-FIND. Further information can be found here.

Additional Resources:

NPR's Jennifer Ludden contributed to this report.

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