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00:00is the U.S. Homeland Security chief is warning that up to 600 people may have lost their lives
00:06in the devastating hurricane that swept across the southeast of the United States.
00:10At least 119 people are known to have died across six states. Two million people are still without
00:17electricity and hundreds of roads remain closed, hampering efforts to deliver badly needed
00:23supplies. Well, as emergency responders race to try to reach those who are still missing,
00:28President Joe Biden said federal help would continue for the victims of the storm
00:32for as long as it took. Let's hear from the U.S. Homeland Security chief.
00:38The current data we have is that it looks like there could be as many as 600 lost lives,
00:46but we don't have any confirmation of that. We know there are 600 who are either lost or
00:52unaccounted for. Well, for more, let's cross live now to our Washington correspondent
00:57Fraser Jackson. Fraser, firstly, if this is confirmed, it's potentially a staggering
01:03death toll following this hurricane in the U.S. What is the latest? What have you been hearing?
01:10Yeah, well, we couldn't know that currently. At least over 100, well over 100 people have
01:15lost their lives from this storm and hurricane which slammed into the Big Bend area of Florida
01:20before making its way through the southeast of the United States. We heard that from the
01:25Homeland Security advisor, Liz Sherwood-Randall, who said that there are about 600 people
01:30unaccounted for. And of course, that then raises the question of how many of those
01:35will likely have died in the storm and in this hurricane. But it must be said with the caveat
01:40that that 600 doesn't mean that they are all dead. It just means that there are 600 who are
01:43currently unaccounted for and their whereabouts are currently unknown. She was keen to point that
01:48out. Well, this storm, Helene, smashed into the Big Bend area of Florida in the Panhandle
01:55late on Thursday evening as a Category 4 storm. It rapidly came up from a Category 3 just at about
02:0112 hours before it made landfall, before it then swept across the southeastern portion of the
02:06United States, hitting Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, even parts of Virginia as well.
02:11The storm surges that we're expecting obviously devastated a lot of the houses in that area of
02:16Florida. But further north, a separate weather system that was moving through the area then
02:21dumped a lot of water as well, which resulted in about 75 centimeters worth of water being
02:27dropped in parts of North Carolina, triggering flash floods and mudslides as well, which has
02:32absolutely devastated communities in the western parts of the state there. We know that Joe Biden
02:37currently at the moment is receiving an update in the Oval Office from Liz Sherwood Randall,
02:43as well as the governor for North Carolina, Roy Cooper, and also the FEMA Administrator
02:49Deanne Criswell. FEMA, of course, being the disaster relief agency that has overseen all
02:53these efforts. We will know more about that once we have a word from Joe Biden in the aftermath of
02:59that, just in about 45 or so minutes time. And Fraser, millions of homes still without
03:05electricity, hundreds of roads closed. What more do we know about what's actually happening in
03:10terms of the dozens of search and rescue operations still ongoing across those states?
03:16Well, there's now a massive search and rescue efforts taking place. We know from the federal
03:22level that they pre-positioned a lot of assets in the region, especially they were worried about
03:28big population centers like Tallahassee in Florida, which could have seen many, many more
03:34people killed by such strong winds and strong storm surges as well. So a lot of those assets
03:40were put into place in advance and we know that some of those assets are still being used and
03:45some of them are still yet to be used. Governor Kemp from Georgia spoke to Joe Biden and said
03:50that currently he doesn't need anything else, but they're working their way through the inventory of
03:54items that were given to them by the federal government in conjunction with local and state
04:00authorities and services as well. We also know that the Department of Defense has given a lot
04:06of helicopters to the rescue efforts to try to get food, medicine and supplies into those areas
04:11that have been cut off by either the storm or the floods and mudslides that it triggered. A lot of
04:18roads and bridges have been washed away, people cut off and isolated with many of them now in the
04:23dark as well, over two million people without power in that area. The National Guard has also
04:28been triggered. Just in North Carolina alone, there are eight different states whose National
04:32Guards are operating in that area. So it is a massive mammoth effort and the rescue efforts
04:37continue. Fraser, thank you so much for that. That is our correspondent in Washington, Fraser Jackson.