By Holly Yan and Steve Almasy, CNN (CNN) — The magnitude of devastation wrought by Helene intensifies by the hour as search crews discover more bodies and floodwaters slowly recede, revealing more neighborhoods obliterated by the storm. The death toll across six states soared to 119 Monday, days after Helene made landfall in Florida as a monstrous Category 4 hurricane. Almost 2 million customers still don’t have power. And countless families have no idea whether their loved ones survived, as Helene’s rampage shredded communication infrastructure. Most of North Carolina’s 47 deaths happened far inland, in Buncombe County, where 35 people were killed, the sheriff said Monday. The county includes Asheville, the scenic mountain city now engulfed by murky brown floodwater. As the water slowly retreats, “We are seeing just piles of people’s houses that were destroyed. Buildings that were destroyed. Cars overturned,” Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer said Monday. “The power lines look like spaghetti. It’s hard to describe the chaos that it looks like. It really feels like a post-apocalyptic scene.” Many shellshocked survivors can’t even begin the arduous task of rebuilding because they don’t have basic necessities such as clean drinking water, food, cell phone communications and electricity. Three tractor-trailers full of water arrived in Buncombe County Monday morning, County Manager Avril Pinder said. But it is only enough to supply each resident with one day’s worth of water. Compounding the tragedy, some roads and bridges needed to transport aid or to reach trapped victims are now impassable or no longer exist. “We are cut off from highway access from 3 of the 4 major highways into Asheville,” the mayor said. “Some resources are having to be flown in. … I can’t even think about a time frame for how long it’s going to take to recover from this storm.” Why the death toll will likely keep rising Hundreds of people are reported missing, though it’s not clear how many succumbed to the storm and how many survived but lack communications access. “We know that death toll will rise,” Asheville’s mayor said. “We’ve heard accounts of people seeing houses floating down the river with people in them.” In addition to the 47 people killed in North Carolina, Helene also killed at least 30 victims in South Carolina, 25 in Georgia, 11 in Florida, four in Tennessee and two in Virginia. “Devastation does not even begin to describe how we feel,” Buncombe County Sheriff Quentin Miller said Monday. One of his deputies was among three North Carolina sheriff’s deputies killed by Helene. Officials implored residents to avoid traveling to hard-hit areas so emergency responders can reach those in need. “Consider the roads closed in western North Carolina,” Gov. Roy Cooper told CNN Monday. “We do not need sightseers coming in to observe the damage. We ask you not to come in unless you are on a specific mission to help with rescue.” ‘Not enough resources to reach everyone’ While images from western North Carolina look catastrophic, “things are even more devastating in person,” Marion resident Krista Cortright said. She and her boyfriend typically drive 25 minutes to get to his grandmother’s house in Black Mountain. But on Sunday, they drove 2 1/2 hours to deliver supplies to his diabetic grandmother. While visiting his grandmother, they noticed her neighbor’s driveway had vanished. So Cortright and her boyfriend gave them food and water, too. “There’s not enough resources to reach everyone,” Cortright said. “My heart is broken for our people here.” Asheville’s mayor said she’s looking forward to the governor’s visit Monday. The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Deanne Criswell, will also visit the area Monday. But help can’t come quickly enough. “We need emergency relief right now,” Manheimer said. “We need everything from food (and) water to port-a-potties to baby formula.” ‘Not expecting power for a really long time’ Four days after Helene ripped through northern Florida all the way up to Virginia, about 1.9 million power customers still had no electricity in the region, according to PowerOutage.us. But the number of people without electricity is far higher, since each power customer could be a household or business. In Weaverville, a town just north of Asheville, all the power lines have been destroyed, local middle school teacher Ben Sharp told CNN. “We’re not expecting power for a really long time,” Sharp said. “I don’t think anyone expected this to happen because we don’t have stuff like this in Asheville.” Asheville’s mayor acknowledged she doesn’t know how long it will take to restore electricity. “This is an unprecedented, catastrophic event,” Manheimer said. “So we cannot yet estimate how long it will take to restore power to everyone.” President Joe Biden will visit some of the hardest-hit areas later this week, “as soon as it will not disrupt emergency response operations,” the White House said Sunday evening. The president has approved disaster relief and has been in contact with the governors where the damage was most severe. Survivors share resources – even oxygen In Asheville, strangers have stepped up to deliver water, diapers and other supplies to neighbors in need – including a family with a five-day-old infant. Helene’s destruction “is the most devastating thing I’ve ever seen in our whole city,” said Michelle Coleman, executive director of the Asheville Dream Center. “Our prayer is that people are just not losing hope because our community is coming together. Asheville is a strong community,” Coleman said. Gary O’Dell, a disabled Vietnam War veteran, epitomized that generosity by sharing his oxygen tank with a neighbor. “You don’t realize, oxygen is very important,” said O’Dell, who suffers from lung cancer. But he didn’t hesitate to give up some of his vital supply. “My next-door neighbor ran out of oxygen,” O’Dell said. “He’s in worse shape than I am.” More rain could impede recovery efforts Helene dumped “staggering” amounts of rain, including 12 to 14 inches in South Carolina, 12 to 16 inches in Florida and 12 to 14 inches in Georgia, said Ken Graham, the director of the National Weather Service. Much of the area affected by Helene could see showers Monday. Most of the showers are expected to be light but any new rainfall could exacerbate flooding and hamper aid and recovery efforts. About 90 river gauges across Helene’s path are still at some sort of flood stage, with around 20 gauges at moderate or major flood stage. It will take days for some river gauges to drop below flood stage, regardless of rainfall. Some river gauges downstream of the heaviest rainfall are still set to peak later this week and even into this weekend. Then, after all the rain and flooding subside, the cities ravaged by Helene can start rebuilding. But with “hundreds of roads destroyed” and “communities that are wiped off the map,” Cooper said, “we have to make sure that we … are smart about rebuilding, doing it in a more resilient way.” CNN’s Andy Rose, Robert Shackelford, Sarah Dewberry, Alisha Ebrahimji, Rafael Romo, Jade Gordon, Raja Razek, Ashley R. Williams, DJ Judd, Sunlen Serfaty, Eric Levenson, Isabel Rosales, Taylor Galgano, Sara Smart, Conor Powell, Caroll Alvarado, Caroline Jaime, Artemis Moshtaghian and Paradise Afshar contributed to this report. The-CNN-Wire & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

Photo: Brandon Bell/Getty Images via CNN Newsource New York (CNN) — Time is running out to avoid a work stoppage at ports along the entire East and Gulf Coasts in what could become the most disruptive strike to the US economy in decades. Members of the International Longshoremen’s Association are set to go on strike at 12:01 am ET Tuesday at three dozen facilities spread across 14 port authorities. There are few signs that a deal could be reached by the deadline set by the ILA and the United States Maritime Alliance, which uses the acronym USMX. The maritime alliance represents the major shipping lines, all of which are foreign owned; as well as terminal operators and port authorities. The strike, which would be the first at these ports since 1977, could stop the flow of a wide variety of goods over the docks of almost all the cargo ports from Maine to Texas. This includes everything from bananas to European beer, wine and liquor, along with furniture, clothing, household goods and European autos, as well as parts needed to keep US factories operating and American workers in those plants on the job. It also could stop US exports now flowing through those ports, hurting sales for American companies. Depending on the length of the strike, there could be shortages of consumer and industrial goods, which could then lead to price hikes. It would mark a setback to the economy, which has shown signs of recovery from pandemic-induced supply chain disruptions that resulted in a spike in inflation. While the union says there are about 50,000 members covered by the contract, the USMX puts the number of port jobs closer to 25,000, with not enough jobs for all the workers in the union to work every day. What could be in short supply The ports involved include the Port of New York and New Jersey, the nation’s third-largest port by volume of cargo handled. But it also includes ports with other specialties. Port Wilmington in Delaware describes itself as the nation’s leading banana port, bringing in a large share of America’s favourite fruit. According to the American Farm Bureau, 1.2 million metric tons of bananas go through the ports that could be on strike next week, representing about one quarter of the nation’s bananas. Other perishable items, such as cherries, also move through the ports, as do a large percentage of imported wine, beer and hard liquor. Raw materials used by US food producers, such as cocoa and sugar, also move through the ports. And many non-perishable goods, such as furniture and appliances, also move through the ports. Retailers have been rushing in recent months to get the imported products they expect to sell during the holiday season delivered to them before the October 1 strike deadline. The Port of Baltimore, which was briefly shut down in March after the collapse of the Key Bridge, handles the nation’s largest volume of auto imports. A one-week strike would cost the US economy about $2.1 billion according to an estimate Monday from the Anderson Economic Group, a Michigan research firm with expertise in estimating the cost of strikes and other disruptions. Most of that would be a $1.5 billion loss in value of some of the goods that wouldn’t be delivered on time, such as perishable goods. Transportation companies, including ship lines and ports, would lose $400 million, while striking workers and those who might be temporarily laid off, would lose $200 million in wages. Losses would start to accelerate the longer the strike continued said Patrick Anderson, the President of AEG, “a strike lasting longer than a week will begin to impact retailers and manufacturers as supply chain movement grinds to a halt.” But he said estimates of $1 billion a day in losses are exaggerated, especially considering the preparations many shippers had made in advance of the strike deadline. To hit those numbers “you’d have to sink the ships.” “A strike at the port delays trade, but does not destroy it,” he said. The union has pledged to continue to handling military cargo even during a strike and said passenger ships won’t be affected. Oil tankers and ships carrying liquified natural gas usually go to other facilities that are not affected by the strike, as do bulk ships carrying things like grain. But almost all the other ports along the two coasts could be affected. What the two sides want The USMX claims the union is refusing to negotiate in good faith and says the two sides have not met in person since June. “We remain prepared to bargain at any time, but both sides must come to the table if we are going to reach a deal, and there is no indication that the ILA is interested in negotiating at this time,” the management group said last week in a statement, The USMX has offered upwards of 40% in wage increases over the six-year contract, according to a person with knowledge of negotiations. The ILA is not publicly discussing its demands but it is reportedly asking for annual pay hikes that would result in raises totaling 77% through the life of the contract, with top pay climbing from $39 an hour to $69. The union says it has continued to talk with the USMX, just not in face-to-face negotiations. It said management knows what it is demanding in order to get a deal done and that any strike will be management’s fault, not the union’s. It said its demands are reasonable given the level of profits in the shipping industry. “My ILA members are not going to accept these insulting offers that are a joke considering the work my ILA longshore workers perform, and the billion dollar profits the companies make off the backs of their labor,” Harold Daggett, the ILA’s International President and chief negotiator, said in a recent statement. Shipping rates soared during and immediately after the pandemic, as supply chains snarled and demand surged. Industry profits topped $400 billion from 2020–2023, which is believed to be more than the industry had previously made in total since containerisation started in 1957, according to analyst John McCown. The Biden administration, which is eager to avoid a strike, was in touch with both sides over the weekend urging them to reach an agreement, according to White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson. Her statement seemed to suggest it was putting more pressure on USMX to move towards the union’s demand. “This weekend, senior officials have been in touch with USMX representatives urging them to come to a fair agreement fairly and quickly – one that reflects the success of the companies,” she said. “Senior officials have also been in touch with the ILA to deliver the same message.” Business watch and worry Stuck on the sidelines and watching with great concern are businesses that depend on the movement of goods. More than 200 business groups sent a letter to the White House last week asking the Biden administration to step in to prevent a strike, saying the country relies on moving both imports and exports through these ports. “The last thing the supply chain, companies and employees… need is a strike or other disruptions because of an ongoing labour negotiation,” read the letter. The letter does not explicitly spell out what action needs to be taken, but it implies President Joe Biden should exercise powers under what is known as the Taft-Hartley Act, which became law in 1947. President George W. Bush applied the act in 2002 to halt an 11-day lockout of union members at West Coast ports. Acting Labour Secretary Julie Su, Transportation Secretary Peter Buttigieg and Lael Brainard, Director of the National Economic Council, met with representatives of the USMX to push for the management group to work towards a deal to avoid the strike. The ILA was also invited to that meeting but declined to attend, a source with knowledge told CNN. Union leadership had publicly stated it did not want any federal mediators or Labor Department officials trying to broker a new contract. But Biden said he is not weighing tapping the Taft-Hartley Act. “No,” Biden told reporters Sunday. “Because it’s collective bargaining, and I don’t believe in Taft-Hartley.”

The Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training has confimed it has received a copy of a petition by teachers from the Alexandra School regarding the removal of two students. In a statement released this afternoon, the Ministry says it remains committed to the safety and security of all staff. It however notes the school’s Principal and Board of Management must be given the opportunity to follow due process in addressing the matter, and it is confident they will make decisions in the best interest of the safety of the entire school. The Ministry says it stands ready to offer support.