The North Carolina county around Asheville counted the number of deaths in Helene as high as 30, the sheriff said

RALEIGH, NC – North Carolina County, where Asheville is located, has overcounted the number of deaths caused by Helene by as many as 30, according to a statement Tuesday from the sheriff’s office and state data, making the death toll from the historic storm significant decreased.

Buncombe County officials, who previously reported 72 deaths, now project a state figure of 42 deaths for the county.

The figure for the county dates back to an Oct. 3 news release in which county officials reported that “72 lives were lost as a result of Hurricane Helene,” a repeat of a number quoted by Sheriff Quentin Miller at an earlier media briefing. But state officials, relying on assessments by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Raleigh, have consistently reported a lower figure than that for the county. The number for Buncombe County included in the state count stands at 42 as of at least Oct. 10.

On Tuesday, the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office acknowledged in a statement that the number of deaths in the county was lower than the number it had reported. The statement, attributed to Public Information Officer Christina Esmay, cited factors ranging from updated causes of death to communications problems after the storm knocked out cell service and electricity in multiple mountain areas.

“In the early aftermath of Hurricane Helene, all deaths were classified as storm-related and occurring in Buncombe County. However, as the days progressed, BCSO was able to determine who had died as a result of the hurricane, who was in fact from Buncombe County, and who had died from other causes,” the statement said. “Combined with the lack of consistent communication due to widespread outages, the Buncombe County fatality count initially provided to Sheriff Miller has decreased.

The sheriff’s office did not provide additional information on how they arrived at their count, and spokesman Matt Marshall said any other questions about how deaths were investigated and counted should be sent to state officials. In response to a request to interview the sheriff, Marshall said he would investigate his availability.

The Office of Chief Medical Examiner in Raleigh normally reviews weather-related deaths and makes a ruling on the cause before reporting numbers to state officials, a process it has used for years in previous storms. But in the post-Helene chaos, a number of counties reported fatalities independently of the state. The number of deaths in the state gradually increased through Tuesday, but the increase has slowed as bodies have been examined.

State Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Kelly Haight Connor told the Citizen-Times in Asheville on Monday that all storm-related deaths in the mountains have been investigated and accounted for, but she could not rule out the possibility that the number could increase. .

Haight Connor did not immediately respond to several follow-up questions from The Associated Press on Tuesday.

The state reported 96 deaths from Helene statewide on Tuesday. Another county, Henderson, had previously reported two more deaths than the state, but said Tuesday it agrees with the state’s numbers.

The AP had counted at least 246 total deaths in multiple states from Helene through Monday, including 128 in North Carolina, based on data from the state and counties including Henderson and Buncombe. With Buncombe County’s revelation that the number was inflated, the AP adopted the state total of 96, bringing the news organization’s multi-state tally to 214.