Residents describe how the storm "destroyed everything in its path" and wiped out entire communities in the state.

The highest death toll was in North Carolina, where flooding wiped out whole communities. Residents there and across vast areas of the Southeast were without water, power, phone and internet communication.

Western North Carolina residents faced a "post-apocalyptic" landscape on Monday in the wake of hurricane Helene, with hundreds of people still missing and residents struggling amid flooded roads and a lack of basic services.