Well, the total is incorrect by a tremendous margin.
The number of dead is actually an irrelevant measure. The correct measure is the damage to infrastructure and homes. People in the affected areas foolishly built homes and even towns on the flood plain. The buildings are in many instances, just gone. In a similar manner, the Clinchfield railroad was built on the flood plain through the Nolichucky gorge. Miles and miles of trackage and several bridges are just gone. The damage to more rural roads and many many bridges is to large to effectively quantify.
Interstates I 40 from Knoxville to Asheville is closed and it might be a very long time before it is restored. Interstate 26 from Erwin Tennessee to Ashville NC was closed because of a bridge out. Traffic is now moving but there is a bottleneck at the destroyed bridge.
Having said all that, there is in fact severe damage and destruction that will require years to recover. Any attempt to quantify the widely dispersed destruction is a vain attempt to grasp such an extreme disaster
I disagree.
The number of dead is a vital part of the measure of a disaster...