At least 52 dead, millions without power after Helene’s deadly march through the southeastern US

PERRY, September 28: Hurricane Helene caused at least 52 deaths and billions of dollars in damage as it moved across large parts of the southeastern United States. More than 3 million customers were without power over the weekend, posing an ongoing threat of flooding for some.
Helene blew ashore late Thursday in Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 145 mph (225 km/h), then moved quickly through Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee, uprooting trees, splintering homes and sending streams and rivers overflowing Bank dams burden.
Western North Carolina was largely cut off due to landslides and flooding that forced the closure of Interstate 40 and other roads. The video shows parts of Asheville underwater.
Francine Cavanaugh said she has been completely unable to reach her sister, son or friends in the Asheville area.
“My sister checked in with me yesterday morning to find out how I was doing in Atlanta,” she said Saturday. “The storm just hit her in Asheville and she said it sounded really scary outside.”
Cavanaugh said her sister had no idea how bad the storm would be there. She told Cavanaugh that she was heading out to check on guests at a vacation cabin, “and that’s the last I heard from her.” I have texted everyone I know with no response. All calls go straight to voicemail.”
She saw a video of a grocery store near the cabins that was completely flooded.
“I think people are just completely stuck wherever they are, with no cell service, no power.”
There have been hundreds of water rescues, none more dramatic than in rural Unicoi County in East Tennessee, where dozens of patients and staff were rescued by helicopter from the roof of a hospital surrounded by water from a flooded river.
The storm, now a post-tropical cyclone, was expected to hover over the Tennessee Valley Saturday and Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said. Multiple flood and flash flood warnings remained in effect in parts of southern and central Appalachia, while high wind warnings also covered parts of Tennessee and Ohio.
At least 48 people died in the storm; Among them were three firefighters, a woman and her one-month-old twins, and an 89-year-old woman whose house was hit by a falling tree. The deaths occurred in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, according to an Associated Press tally.
In the affluent Tampa enclave of Davis Islands, where top athletes such as Derek Jeter and Tom Brady have lived, residents continued Saturday to clean up storm surge left behind by Helene.
The neighborhoods that border downtown Tampa and are home to about 5,000 people have never experienced a storm surge like Friday’s. No one died, but houses, businesses and apartments were flooded.
“I don’t think anyone expected this,” Faith Pilafas told the Tampa Bay Times. “We’ve gotten used to talking a lot about big storms and we never like feeling the effects of them. For all the people who didn’t leave the island, I feel like they all just expected it to be a normal, disappointing storm. And wow, were we surprised?”
Evacuations and record rainfall
Authorities asked residents to evacuate and many did so, but some stayed behind.
In North Carolina, a lake featured in the film “Dirty Dancing” overtopped a dam and surrounding neighborhoods were evacuated, although there were no immediate concerns of failure. People were also evacuated from Newport, Tennessee, a town of about 7,000 people, amid concerns about a nearby dam, although officials later said the structure had not failed.
Tornadoes struck some areas, including one in Nash County, North Carolina, critically injuring four people.
A record 11.12 inches (28.24 centimeters) of rain fell in Atlanta in 48 hours, the most in a two-day period since records began in 1878, Georgia’s Office of the State Climatologist said on the social platform X with. Some parts of the city were so badly flooded that only car roofs were sticking out of the water.
Moody’s Analytics expects property damage to range from $15 billion to $26 billion.
Climate change has exacerbated the conditions that allow such storms to thrive. They intensify quickly in the warmer waters, sometimes turning into strong cyclones within a few hours.
The Big Bend region was hit hard
Florida’s Big Bend is a part of the state where salt marshes and pine forests stretch to the horizon and where the residential developments and shopping centers that have dotted much of the state’s coastline are largely absent.
It’s a place where Susan Sauls Hartway and her four-year-old Chihuahua mix, Lucy, could afford to live within walking distance of the beach on their housekeeper salary.
At least until her house was carried away by Helene.
On Friday afternoon, Hartway strolled down her street near Ezell Beach, looking for the spot where the storm might have struck her home.
“It’s gone. I don’t know where it is. I can’t find it,” she said of her house.
Since August 2023, the community has been directly impacted by three hurricanes.
All five people who died in a Florida county were in neighborhoods where residents were ordered to evacuate, said Bob Gualtieri, the sheriff in Pinellas County in the St. Petersburg area. Some who stayed ended up having to hide in their attics to avoid the rising water. He said the death toll could rise as crews go door-to-door in flooded areas.
Additional deaths were reported in Georgia and the Carolinas, including two South Carolina firefighters and a Georgia firefighter who died when trees crashed into their trucks. Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin reported at least one death in his state.
Power outage and infrastructure damage
President Joe Biden said he was praying for survivors, and the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency traveled to the area. The agency deployed more than 1,500 personnel and assisted in 400 rescues as of late Friday morning.
Officials urged those trapped to call rescuers and not step into floodwaters, warning that live wires, sewage, sharp objects and other debris could pose a danger to them.
In Georgia, a utility warned of “catastrophic” damage to utility infrastructure, with more than 100 power lines damaged. And officials in South Carolina, where more than 40 percent of customers were without power, said crews had to pick their way through rubble to find what was left in some places.
The hurricane made landfall near the mouth of the Aucilla River, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) northwest of where Hurricane Idalia struck last year with almost the same ferocity. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the damage from Helene appears to be greater than the combined impacts of Idalia and Hurricane Debby in August.
The destruction reached far beyond Florida.
Historic flooding expected
A mudslide in the Appalachian Mountains has washed out part of a highway at the North Carolina-Tennessee state line.
Another slide rocked homes in North Carolina and left residents waiting more than four hours to be rescued, said Ryan Cole, deputy director of Buncombe County Emergency Services. His emergency call center received more than 3,300 calls within eight hours on Friday.
“This is something we will be dealing with for many days and weeks to come,” Cole said.
Meteorologists warned of flooding in North Carolina that could be worse than anything seen in the past century. The Connecticut Army National Guard sent a helicopter to assist.
Helene was the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted an above-average season this year due to record-warm ocean temperatures. (AP)