Two months ago, Hurricane Helene devastated the North Carolina mountains and claimed at least 103 lives, but governmental organizations have declined to publicly identify any victims.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) which oversees the state’s Medical Examiner’s office, so far has declined to release information about Helene fatalities beyond a statistical count and a list that indicates the county of death, the person's age, and brief information about how they died (such as being involved in a landslide or drowning).
BPR sent DHHS a records request on Oct. 23 asking for a copy of investigative reports from the North Carolina Medical Examiner's Office relevant to victims identified as Hurricane Helene fatalities.
Under state law, the text of autopsy reports and content of the Medical Examiner’s investigative records are subject to public disclosure.
In response to BPR’s latest request, DHHS declined to provide any names of storm victims.
“The list of names of people who died due to Hurricane Helene is not complete at this time and investigations are still underway. We will have the names to provide in the next couple of months,” the statement said. “We also want to protect the privacy of the families and loved ones of storm victims as they navigate this extremely difficult time.”
Buncombe County spokesperson Lillian Govus said the county does not have the list of the deceased.
“The county does not have a list of names,” she said. “We do not maintain that list.”
In Western North Carolina, 94 victims were officially reported as having been killed in or having lived in the region when Helene struck. In addition, there are nine other cases in other parts of the state, where officials say a victim died as a result of Helene.
Of the total 103 people confirmed in the death toll, more than 80% of victims were found and included in North Carolina's official fatality report within less than two weeks of Helene striking the mountains, according to BPR's analysis of publicly available data.
County officials in Western North Carolina have deferred to state officials on the release of names since early days after the storm.
Govus repeated the deferral response in Wednesday’s news briefing with reporters, where local leaders provide updates on disaster recovery.
“The office of the state Medical Examiner would be the appropriate authority to contact for the names of those who lost their lives in this storm,” Govus said.
“Because it is related to the storm and because we had the medical officers set up an outpost here to manage that, it would not be appropriate, just like it wouldn't be appropriate for the county to talk about operations the state highway patrol manages. We must defer to the appropriate agency in that case,” she said.
The Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office has also declined to release any information about the deceased, deferring to DHHS.
In late October, a spokesperson for DHHS confirmed that no state office directed the Sheriff's office not to give information to media regarding the fatalities.
