The death toll from Hurricane Helene topped 200 and nearly 1 million residents across four states remained without power Thursday as the enormous scale of the damage wrought by last week's storm became clearer.

BLACK MOUNTAIN, N.C. — Hurricane Helene's death toll reached 200 on Thursday and could rise higher still, as searchers made their way toward the hardest to reach places in the mountains of western North Carolina, where the storm washed out roads and knocked out electricity, water and cellular service.