FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell tells PEOPLE Helene was “a unique storm,” that brought “different types of threats” to different areas across the U.S. South

More than 150 deaths have been confirmed in the days since Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida as a Category 4 storm, including dozens in flood-stricken North Carolina. “Communities were wiped off the map,

Hurricane Helene has laid waste to the southeastern United States. Its sheer wind force and deadly floods left behind a path of destruction stretching over 500 miles from Florida to the Southern Appalachians.