Six months after Hurricane Helene destroyed communities across the Southeast, five people remain missing in North Carolina after the storm, according to officials.

The cleanup from Hurricane Helene is still ongoing, six months after it slammed into several Southeastern states, causing at least $78 billion in damages and leaving thousands homeless. The Category 4 storm brought 140 mph winds,

Southeastern states from Florida to Tennessee are still cleaning up the devastation from Hurricane Helene, six months after the storm made landfall in Florida.

ROANOKE, Va. – Helene was a Category 4 major hurricane with maximum winds of 140 mph. However, this storm illustrated how damaging a hurricane of this strength can be while impacting multiple states both during and after its tropical life.

The National Hurricane Center released the Tropical Cyclone Report for hurricane Helene on Wednesday. Helene is responsible for at least 248 direct and indirect deaths in the United States.

The storm damaged about 20 percent of western North Carolina’s child-care centers. Early childhood education is often neglected in disaster recovery plans and efforts.

That what the National Hurricane Center (NHC) is saying in their 2024 Tropical Cyclone Report on Hurricane Helene, which was released on Wednesday.