(CBS, KYMA/KECY) – Deanne Criswell, FEMA Administrator, spoke with Robert Costa on Face the Nation Sunday on Hurricane Helene recovery efforts. Cleanup is underway after powerful Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc across the U.S. Southeast, killing at least 63 people across multiple states, left hundreds stranded without shelter and more than 2.5 million customers without power from Florida to Ohio. The storm crashed ashore in Florida’s Big Bend area on Thursday night as a dangerous Category 4 storm. Despite weakening to a post-tropical cyclone, Helene was still causing “catastrophic, historic” flooding in the southern Appalachians late Friday night, the National Hurricane Center said. Helene was expected to hover over the Tennessee Valley on Sunday, the hurricane center said. High wind warnings also covered parts of Tennessee and Ohio. When asked what she could share about the latest death toll from Hurricane Helene, Criswell said Florida Governor Ron DeSantis “accounted for 11 deaths” in the state, and said she refer to the states for the specific numbers as “they’re the ones that are tracking this.” However, Criswell said FEMA is receiving reports of multiple deaths across five states, which includes Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee, as they have been hit the hardest by Hurricane Helene. During the interview, Costa and Criswell talked about climate change, with the former asking the latter how she can conceptualize Hurricane Helene in the broader question of climate change, to which Criswell said: “This storm took a while to develop, but once it did, it developed and intensified very rapidly, and that’s because of the warm waters in the Gulf and so it’s creating more storms that are reaching this major category level than we’ve seen in the past. It’s also creating greater amounts of storm surge in the coastal areas. It’s creating […]