Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida as a Category 4 storm, later causing flooding and tornadoes in North Carolina​.

Western North Carolina has felt the worst of it, as extreme floods have washed away homes and buildings, damaged roads, and largely cut off power. Some residents have had to be evacuated from their houses via helicopter. North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said on Saturday that supplies were being airlifted to that part of the state.

"Then it filled up the valley with mud." It took him a full day to dig to the main road with a farm excavator. He found roads strewn with downed power lines, fallen limbs, thick mud, and debris.

The highest death toll was in North Carolina, where flooding wiped out whole communities. Residents there and across vast areas of the Southeast were without water, power, phone and internet communication.

On Sunday evening, North Carolina became the latest state to have a public health emergency declared after Hurricane Helene. Here's what that means.

Hurricane Helene ravaged western North Carolina over the weekend, leaving behind a trail of death and devastation.