President Joe Biden has approved Virginia’s request for an emergency declaration, making federal assistance available to several Southwest Virginia counties after Hurricane Helene caused damage across the area.

At least 30 people have died in the area around Asheville, North Carolina. “Those communities no longer resemble what they were a week ago,” one official said.

Power was out for more than 2 million customers across the Southeast and southern Appalachia on Sunday. Residents in hard-hit western North Carolina and Georgia faced water outages.

(Fixes typographical error) (Reuters) -Southeastern U.S. states started a massive cleanup and recovery effort on Sunday after winds, rain and storm surges from Hurricane Helene snuffed out power, destroyed roads and bridges and caused catastrophic flooding from Florida to Virginia.