More than 100 days after Helene, state releases its long-awaited list of storm deaths, but Watchdog finds inconsistencies

by SALLY KESTIN

The state health agency finally released a list of storm-related fatalities this week, more than three months after Tropical Storm Helene, but it includes a woman who died of breast cancer and other inconsistencies that conflict with the agency’s own records.

For months, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) denied public records requests from Asheville Watchdog and other media outlets for information about the deceased. Death certificates, autopsy reports and related documents are public records in North Carolina, but agency spokesmen said officials were waiting until the death investigations were complete.

On Jan. 6, DHHS sent a list to the media, but it contained names only — no ages, circumstances or causes of death, or even a county where each person lived or died.

And the numbers did not initially match up with the agency’s own webpage for storm-related fatalities, a source DHHS has consistently cited as the official record-keeper of Helene victims.

The department did not respond by deadline to questions about the list or the apparent discrepancies.

The list released Jan. 6 contains 104 names, but the agency’s storm fatality webpage has said for weeks that 103 people died statewide. After The Watchdog asked about the difference, the state changed the webpage to 104 total deaths.

The webpage also says 43 people died in Buncombe, but as The Watchdog documented in its series “The Lives We Lost,” just 41 death certificates citing Helene as a cause have been filed in the county.

Those 41 people are on the state’s list, along with one other woman from Buncombe.

That woman died at a nursing home on Sept. 27, the day of the storm, but the cause of death was metastatic breast cancer with no mention of Helene, according to her death certificate. It describes the manner of death as “natural.” The Watchdog is not identifying the woman because her family could not be reached.

DHHS did not respond to a question about why her name was on the list.

The Watchdog has provided the only full accounting of the deaths in Buncombe, which suffered the most fatalities of any county. Reporters identified the deceased by combing through more than 850 death certificates, opening each PDF one at a time, to find those attributed to the storm and tracking down relatives and friends.

“The Lives We Lost” profiled each of the 41 people for whom death certificates have been filed in Buncombe. You can read the 10-part series here.

Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Sally Kestin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter. Email skestin@avlwatchdog.org. The Watchdog’s reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.