ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida late Thursday, Sept. 26, as a Category 4 storm before leaving widespread damage and dozens of deaths across six states. Many of those deaths came in North Carolina, including 61 in Buncombe County. That number is expected to increase as search and rescue crews reach further into devasted areas of Western North Carolina.

On Tuesday, National Urban Search and Rescue Team member Scott Dean described the area as “miles and miles of complete devastation.” He said the first priority is search and rescue.

“We have local fire, local police going out and doing surveys, as much as they can to the areas that they can get into that are not devastated through road closures because of water removing the roads or moving the bridges,” Dean said.

He said 19 federal urban search and rescue teams are working in North Carolina.

“We are working on getting to those that are impacted, that they can’t get out,” Dean said. “I will tell you it’s complete devastation out there, and we are working really hard to get to everybody so that we can get them some closure and get their families so that they can make the phone calls to let them know that they are safe.”

Destruction has hampered search and rescue efforts.

“We’re dealing with a lot of major issues from bridge closures to no power, no water, just complete infrastructure failure, and I will tell you the local governments, the state government, the national government are all working really hard to get to everybody that they can help,” Dean said.

“This is the time when neighbors need to help their neighbors. This is where as a country we become united and we help one another and we help our brothers and sisters down the street because we cannot do this alone. Don’t rely just on first responders to help you. Everybody needs to work together for a better outcome on this one.”

Buncombe County Manager Avril Pinder said infrastructure is also causing delays in notifying next of kin of the storm victims who have been identified.

She said Buncombe County Sheriff Quentin Miller is working hard to identify the victims and reach out to the next of kin.

“That has been our challenge, quite honestly. No cell service. No way to reach out to next of kin,” Pinder said. “We have a confirmed body count, but we don’t have identifications on everyone or next of kin, and that is the holdup.”