New Jersey search and rescue joins in Helene search; death toll reaches 215

Oct. 4 (UPI) -- A FEMA search and rescue team from New Jersey has joined in the Hurricane Helene relief efforts in the South, traveling to North Carolina to aid victims this week as the death toll continued to climb.

New Jersey Task Force 1, a FEMA urban search and rescue team, traveled to Asheville, N.C. , one of the hardest hit areas to provide service.

"It's surreal," Kevin Morrissey, the program manager for New Jersey Task Force 1, told KYW-TV. "It's the truest definition of a flash flood that came down the mountains, brought up massive amounts of debris and dirt had, you know, strength that I've never seen before."

The storm's death toll reached 215 people Friday, with hundreds still missing or cut off from communications. Hurricane Helene slammed into the upper Florida Gulf Coast as a powerful Category 4 storm, but it has been its torrential rains that have caused historic flooding throughout the Southeast.

More than a million homes remain without power from the storm as the flooding wiped out roads and lifted homes and other structures off their foundations. Cellphone service continued to be spotty in many of the affected areas because of damaged cell towers.

"We lost just about everything we owned, and that includes vehicles," Joe Dancy told CNN on Thursday. "But we have the most important thing, our lives. And we are forever and always going to be thankful for that."