The News
Hurricane Helene has killed at least 150 people and left hundreds more unaccounted for as it cuts a 500-mile path of destruction across six US states.
The storm has also likely caused more than $30 billion in economic damage, analysts predict, with long-term consequences for the US and global economy. Spruce Pine, a small North Carolina town in the path of the storm, is the country’s sole source of high-purity quartz, needed for semiconductor manufacturing. Suppliers told NPR their operations had been badly disrupted. The storm also has huge consequences for the US insurance sector, which is increasingly affected by changing weather patterns driven by climate change.
US President Joe Biden said he plans to visit storm-ravaged North Carolina on Wednesday, as the devastation becomes a flashpoint in the presidential race: Republican candidate Donald Trump criticized the administration’s handling of the crisis and falsely claimed that Georgia’s governor had been unable to reach Biden — a claim denied by the governor and angrily dismissed as “lying” by Biden.