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Missing Tennessee woman found dead in Avery County after Helene flooding
The woman’s body was found on Oct. 23, nearly a month after she was reported missing from the Buck Hill Campground.
AVERY COUNTY, N.C. — A Tennessee woman who was reported missing from an Avery County campground during Hurricane Helene was found dead nearly a month after the storm, officials said.
The Avery County Sheriff’s Office was conducting a search operation along the North Toe River on Oct. 23 when they found a woman’s body near the Ingalls community, Sheriff Mike Henley said. The woman was identified as 70-year-old Charlene Caroline Wilber, of Telford, Tennessee. Wilber was reported missing from the Buck Hill Campground on Sept. 27 as a result of Helene’s flooding.
Wilber’s identity was confirmed through dental records, investigators said.
She was one of three people who were still missing and unaccounted for in Avery County after the storm. Henley said the official death toll in Avery County is now five, with two missing people.
Helene is now responsible for over 100 deaths statewide, according to new data from North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services. Nearly half of the deaths are in Buncombe County, where 43 people were killed. The county previously reported as many as 72 deaths before officials acknowledged some of the data was inaccurate.
The North Carolina county with the second-most deaths is Yancey County, according to the state. The county is reporting 10 deaths. Yancey County saw one of the highest rainfall totals at a staggering 31 inches in the town of Busick.
Across the Southeast, Helene accounts for more than 215 deaths, according to data tallied by the Associated Press.
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