No, 600 bodies weren’t discovered in North Carolina because of Hurricane Helene

Misinformation about everything from weather control to the Federal Emergency Management Agency followed in Hurricane Helene’s aftermath.

The storm was surely deadly. But a recent claim about the death toll in North Carolina lacks evidence.

In a Nov. 30 Facebook post’s video, a man discusses  hurricane recovery in North Carolina. 

"You have 126,000 houses wiped from planet earth here in North Carolina, there’s no way the body count is 250," he says. 

A woman on screen later claims, "There was 600 body bags that was filled the first day so their numbers was way off."

Featured Fact-check

Threads posts

stated on November 19, 2024 in a Threads post

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hospitalized with “serious health issue.”

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

North Carolina officials estimate that Hurricane Helene damaged more than 120,000 homes in the state, WRAL News reported Dec. 6. 

But according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, as of Dec. 11, "there are 103 verified storm-related fatalities in North Carolina." 

Brian Haines, a North Carolina Department of Public Safety spokesperson, told USA Today his agency has no evidence to support the claim of 600 bodies discovered in North Carolina after the storm.

The death toll has varied since the hurricane because of corrected overcounts and newly recorded storm-related deaths but we found nothing credible to corroborate the claim that 600 bodies were discovered on the first day of recovery efforts, or since. 

We rate this post False.