After Hurricane Helene swept through North Carolina, Buncombe County officials have revised their death toll count, reducing it by as many as 30 deaths. Previously reported at 72, the county is now deferring to a state tally of 42 deaths for the county.
The discrepancy in numbers was attributed to factors such as updated causes of death and communication challenges following the storm, which caused widespread outages in the region. The Buncombe County Sheriff's office acknowledged the error in a statement, clarifying that not all deaths initially classified as storm-related were in fact from Buncombe County.
