PERRY, Fla. — The Southeast on Sunday grappled with a rising death toll, a lack of vital supplies in isolated, flood-stricken areas and the widespread loss of homes and property while the devastating impact of Hurricane Helene became clearer.

Officials warned of a lengthy and difficult rebuild.

A North Carolina County that includes the mountain city of Asheville reported 30 people killed due to the storm, pushing the overall death toll to at least 84 people across five states. Deaths also were reported in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia.

Supplies were being airlifted to the region around Asheville.

Buncombe County Manager Avril Pinder pledged that she would have food and water into the city — which is known for its arts, culture and natural attractions — by Monday.

“We hear you. We need food and we need water,” Pinder said Sunday on a call with reporters. “My staff has been making every request possible to the state for support, and we’ve been working with every single organization that has reached out. What I promise you is that we are very close.”

Several million people were still without power Sunday.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper predicted the toll would rise as rescuers and other emergency workers reached areas isolated by collapsed roads, failing infrastructure and widespread flooding.

He implored residents in western North Carolina to avoid travel, both for their own safety and to keep roads clear for emergency vehicles.

More than 50 search teams spread throughout the region in search of stranded people.

One rescue effort involved saving 41 people north of Asheville. Another mission focused on saving an infant. The teams found people through 911 calls and social media messages, North Carolina National Guard Adjutant General Todd Hunt said.

Helene roared ashore late Thursday in Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 4 hurricane with 140 mph winds. A weakened Helene quickly moved through Georgia, then soaked the Carolinas and Tennessee with torrential rains that flooded creeks and rivers and strained dams.

There have been hundreds of water rescues.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster asked for patience as crews dealt with widespread snapped power poles.

“We want people to remain calm. Help is on the way, it is just going to take time,” McMaster told reporters outside the airport in Aiken County.

The storm unleashed the worst flooding in a century in North Carolina.

Jessica Drye Turner in Texas had begged for someone to rescue her family members stranded on their rooftop in Asheville amid rising floodwaters. “They are watching 18-wheelers and cars floating by,” Turner wrote in an urgent Facebook post Friday.

But in a follow-up message Saturday, Turner said help had not arrived in time to save her parents, both in their 70s, and her 6-year-old nephew. The roof collapsed and the three drowned.

“I cannot convey in words the sorrow, heartbreak and devastation my sisters and I are going through,” she wrote.

Western North Carolina was isolated by landslides and flooding.

The state was sending water supplies and other items toward Buncombe County and Asheville, but mudslides blocking Interstate 40 and other highways prevented supplies from making it. The county’s own water supplies were on the other side of the Swannanoa River, away from where most of the 270,000 people in Buncombe County live, officials said.

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said the federal disaster agency was engaged across six states, meeting the requests of governors and state-level responders. She noted the Appalachian regions across North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia presented particular concerns. Criswell toured south Georgia on Sunday and planned to be in North Carolina on Monday.

“It’s still very much an active search and rescue mission” in western North Carolina, Criswell said. “And we know that there’s many communities that are cut off just because of the geography” of the mountains, where damage to roads and bridges have cut off certain areas.

President Joe Biden on Saturday pledged federal government help for Helene’s “overwhelming” devastation. He also approved a disaster declaration for North Carolina, making federal funding available for affected individuals.

In Florida’s Big Bend, some lost nearly everything they own. With sanctuaries still darkened as of Sunday morning, some churches canceled regular services while others like Faith Baptist Church in Perry opted to worship outside.

Standing water and tree debris still covers the grounds of Faith Baptist Church. The church called on parishioners to come “pray for our community” in a message posted to the congregation’s Facebook page.

“We have power. We don’t have electricity,” Immaculate Conception Catholic Church parishioner Marie Ruttinger said. “Our God has power. That’s for sure.”

In Atlanta, 11.12 inches of rain fell over 48 hours, the most the city has seen over two days since record keeping began in 1878.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said Saturday that it looked “like a bomb went off” after viewing splintered homes and debris-covered highways from the air.