Sam Perkins spent Saturday trudging through dangerous terrain to check on his parents, whose home was hit hard by Hurricane Helene.

President Joe Biden is planning to survey the devastation in the mountains of Western North Carolina on Wednesday, where exhausted emergency workers continue to work around-the-clock to clear roads, restore power and cellphone service,

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.