Grim video shows casket floating in Hurricane Helene floodwaters as hundreds remain missing and residents say true scale of disaster is ‘worse than Katrina’

A coffin was seen being pulled around in powerful flooding caused by Hurricane Helene in Tennessee.

The gruesome clip shows a coffin being thrown around muddy floodwaters in Erwin, before it was later found in the rubble during a clean-up.

Karren Tipton captured the footage of the coffin and later was part of the crew that recovered it, she said. Fox.

It is unclear where the coffin came from or whether there was a body inside. DailyMail.com has contacted Tipton for more information.

CNN has reported that the storm killed at least 137 people in the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Virginia, and the death toll is expected to rise.

Rescue workers are still continuing their efforts to connect with hundreds of people cut off by washed-out roads and broken communications lines.

On social media, families and friends are sharing images of missing loved ones with groups dedicated to finding those still missing since the storm.

A high concentration of those posting on the page have shared photos of people in Asheville, North Carolina, which was decimated by the weather.

Heather Harper shared a photo of her missing cousin Jack Bundrick and his girlfriend and said she was looking for information on the whereabouts of the two.

Harper wasn’t alone: ​​Suzanne Hamrick shared a photo of her aunt Caroline Clementson and her partner Dave Prophet.

Hamrick said there had been a misunderstanding in her family that led them to believe the elderly couple had been found.

Dominique Nolan posted photos of her 7-year-old son Connor Borgese who lives with his father in Arden, North Carolina.

Nolan said, “I’m his mother and I live in Rochester, NY. I haven’t had any contact with him or his father since Friday.

“If anyone knows how that area is doing or anything, please. I’m so far away and all I have is the news that makes me more and more afraid for my son. Please.’

Daniela Stokes shared a photo of her daughter Katie, from Asheville, and said she couldn’t reach her. She asked if anyone in the area would watch her.

Locals in North Carolina and Tennessee have it too since then built their own online spreadsheet to help track down those who have been found.

As of Tuesday morning, 1,650 names had been entered, of which 479 people had been marked as found. There remain another 1,171 people still marked as missing.

John Templeton, 46, was among those evacuated from Asheville with his family on Saturday.

Templeton had previously left his home in Houston during Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and also worked in Hurricane Katrina relief in 2005.

He told Reuters: “I’m quite familiar with disaster areas and this is worse than I’ve ever seen.”

As Templeton exited the only accessible road out of Asheville, he passed a convoy of National Guard vehicles and water trucks coming the other way.

“It was a tight feeling in the pit of my stomach because I knew that everyone who was still there simply had no idea what the suffering and misery to come would be like,” he said.

While photojournalist Billy Bowling, who captured drone footage of the devastation, reported: “Helene’s human impact in WNC will rival Hurricane Katrina based on the hell I’ve seen in the last 48 hours.”

In North Carolina, the state coordinated 92 search and rescue teams from 20 states and the U.S. government, according to Governor Roy Cooper.

On Monday, aid workers delivered a million gallons of water, 600,000 meals and hundreds of pallets of supplies, he said.

About 300 roads were closed and more than 7,000 people have registered for assistance from the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency in the state, officials said.

Since Tuesday, at least 40 people have been reported dead in and around the city of Asheville, a tourist area known for its art galleries, breweries and outdoor activities.

Mayor Esther Manheimer told NewsNation that the once booming city was at a “point of desperation.”

“The roads have been washed away, the bridges have been washed away and on top of that our communications have been wiped out,” she said.

“Most people have poor cell phone service at best, and the hard-to-reach areas have nothing. We are still in crisis mode. This is a very serious situation.”

According to Manheimer, about 600 people are still missing in Asheville and President Biden will fly over the city on Wednesday to survey the damage.

Images of the destruction caused by the hurricane reveal a wasteland of splintered homes, crushed cargo containers, mud-covered highways and collapsed communications lines.

Asheville and many surrounding mountain towns are built in valleys, making them especially vulnerable to devastating rain and flooding.

Moreover, the ground was already saturated before Helene arrived, said Christiaan Patterson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

“By the time Helene came into the Carolinas, we already had rain, on top of more rain,” Patterson said.

Helene tore into Florida’s Gulf Coast as a Category 4 hurricane on Thursday before quickly moving into Georgia.

It left a trail of destruction as it tore apart homes, tore up roads and severed communications lines.

Damage estimates ranged from $15 billion to more than $100 billion, insurers and forecasters said this weekend, as water systems, communications and critical transportation routes were hit.

Property damage and lost economic output will become more apparent as officials assess the destruction.