Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
At Least 52 Dead and Millions Without Power After Helene's Deadly March Across the Southeast
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 1 week ago on
September 28, 2024

Hurricane Helene's devastating impact leaves Southeast reeling with widespread destruction, flooding, and power outages. (AP/Mike Carlson)

Share

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

PERRY, Fla. — Massive rains from powerful Hurricane Helene left people stranded, without shelter and awaiting rescue Saturday, as the cleanup began from a tempest that killed at least 52 people, caused widespread destruction across the U.S. Southeast and left millions without power.

“I’ve never seen so many people homeless as what I have right now,” said Janalea England, of Steinhatchee, Florida, a small river town along the state’s rural Big Bend, as she turned her commercial fish market into a storm donation site for friends and neighbors, many of whom couldn’t get insurance on their homes.

Helene blew ashore in Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 4 hurricane late Thursday with winds of 140 mph (225 kph).

Widespread Damage and Rescues Across Multiple States

From there, it quickly moved through Georgia, where Gov. Brian Kemp said Saturday that it “looks like a bomb went off” after viewing splintered homes and debris-covered highways from the air. Weakened, Helene then soaked the Carolinas and Tennessee with torrential rains, sending creeks and rivers over their banks and straining dams.

Western North Carolina was essentially cut off because of landslides and flooding that forced the closure of Interstate 40 and other roads.

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 plucked by helicopter from a hospital rooftop Friday. And the rescues continued into the following day in Buncombe County, North Carolina, where part of Asheville was under water.

“To say this caught us off guard would be an understatement,” said Quentin Miller, the county sheriff.

Record-Breaking Rainfall and Ongoing Challenges

While there have been deaths in the county, Emergency Services Director Van Taylor Jones said he wasn’t ready to report specifics, partially because downed cell towers hindered efforts to contact next of kin.

Among those waiting desperately for news was Francine Cavanaugh, whose sister told her she was going to check on guests at a vacation cabin as the storm began hitting Asheville. Cavanaugh, who lives in Atlanta, hasn’t been able to reach her since then.

“I think that people are just completely stuck,” she said.

The storm, now a post-tropical cyclone, was expected to hover over the Tennessee Valley on Saturday and Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said.

It unleashed the worst flooding in a century in North Carolina, where Gov. Roy Cooper described it as “catastrophic” as search and rescue teams from 19 states and the federal government came to help.

And in Atlanta, 11.12 inches (28.24 centimeters) of rain fell over 48 hours, the most the city has seen over two days since record keeping began in 1878.

President Joe Biden said Saturday that Helene’s devastation has been “overwhelming” and that his administration is committed to helping recovery in the huge swath of the Southeast impacted by the storm.

Helene is the deadliest tropical cyclone for South Carolina since Hurricane Hugo killed 35 people when it came ashore just north of Charleston in 1989. Deaths also have been reported in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.

Moody’s Analytics said it expects $15 billion to $26 billion in property damage. AccuWeather’s preliminary estimate of the total damage and economic loss from Helene in the U.S. is between $95 billion and $110 billion.

Climate change has exacerbated conditions that allow such storms to thrive, rapidly intensifying in warming waters and turning into powerful cyclones sometimes in a matter of hours.

Evacuations began before the storm hit and continued as lakes overtopped dams, including one in North Carolina that forms a lake featured in the movie “Dirty Dancing.” Helicopters were used to rescue some people from flooded homes.

Elin Fisher and her husband, who teach whitewater standup paddleboarding on the Nolichucky River in Tennessee, had to move their camper three times to stay ahead of rising waters.

And in Newport, Tennessee, Jonah Wark waited so long to evacuate that a boat had to come to the rescue. “Definitely a scary moment,” Wark said.

Among the 11 confirmed deaths in Florida were nine people who drowned in their homes in a mandatory evacuation area on the Gulf Coast in Pinellas County, where St. Petersburg is located, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said.

None of the victims were from Taylor County, which is where the storm made landfall. It came ashore near the mouth of the Aucilla River, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) northwest of where Hurricane Idalia hit last year at nearly the same ferocity.

“If you had told me there was going to be 15 feet to 18 feet of storm surge, even with the best efforts, I would have assumed we would have had multiple fatalities,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Saturday.

Taylor County is in Florida’s Big Bend, where salt marshes and pine flatwoods stretch into the horizon, and where the condo developments and strip malls that have carved up much of the state’s coastlines are largely absent.

The county went years without taking a direct hit from a hurricane. But after Idalia and two other storms in a little over a year, the area is beginning to feel like a hurricane superhighway.

“It’s bringing everybody to reality about what this is now with disasters,” said John Berg, 76, a resident of Steinhatchee, a small fishing town and weekend getaway.

Timmy Futch, of the Big Bend community of Horseshoe Beach, stayed put for the hurricane, only driving to high ground when the water reached his house.

“We watched our town get tore to pieces is what we done,” he said, noting that his grandfather helped found the place.

About 60 miles (100 kilometers) to the north, power was out for nearly everyone in Perry, Florida, and cars lined up before sunrise Saturday at a free food distribution site. Sierra Land said that while her home dodged major damage, no electricity means she lost everything in her fridge.

“We’re making it one day at a time,” Land said as she arrived at the Convoy of Hope distribution site with her 5- and 10-year-old sons and her grandmother.

Thousands of utility crew workers descended upon Florida in advance of the hurricane, and by Saturday power was restored to more than 1.9 million homes and businesses. But hundreds of thousands remain without electricity there and in Georgia.

Chris Stallings, director of the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency, said crews were focused on opening routes to hospitals and making sure supplies can be delivered to damaged communities.

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 because of record-warm ocean temperatures.

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

Russia Urges Citizens to Leave Israel as Tensions with Hezbollah Escalate

DON'T MISS

Taxpayers in 24 States Will Be Able to File Their Returns Directly With the IRS in 2025

DON'T MISS

California Collects Millions in Stolen Wages, but Can’t Find Many Workers to Pay Them

DON'T MISS

Sweet Lola on the Mend, Ready for a Forever Home

DON'T MISS

Houthis Vow Retaliation Against US for Yemen Airstrikes

DON'T MISS

Chavez-Quintero Debate: How Would You Rate City-County Cooperation?

DON'T MISS

Biden Talks Election, Economy and Middle East in Surprise News Briefing

DON'T MISS

Big Money Rolling in from Commercial Builders for Local School Bond Measure Campaigns

DON'T MISS

Behind the Scenes at Fresno Chaffee Zoo’s Sea Lion Cove: A Flipper-tastic Adventure

DON'T MISS

Clovis Daytime Burglary: 2 Suspects Arrested, 1 at Large

UP NEXT

Houthis Vow Retaliation Against US for Yemen Airstrikes

UP NEXT

Israeli Airstrikes Rock Southern Suburbs of Beirut and Cut Off a Key Crossing Into Syria

UP NEXT

Relatives Say a Whole Family Was Killed in Israel’s Deadliest West Bank Strike Since Oct. 7

UP NEXT

Oil Price Jumps After Biden Says ‘Discussing’ Israeli Strike on Iranian Facilities

UP NEXT

Netanyahu Ramps Up Military Action as Public Support Surges

UP NEXT

Why the World’s Biggest Powers Can’t Stop a Middle East War

UP NEXT

Israel Extends Evacuation Warnings in Lebanon, Signaling a Wider Offensive

UP NEXT

Israel Reports 8 Combat Deaths as Troops Battle Hezbollah in Lebanon and Fears of a Wider War Mount

UP NEXT

Middle East Latest: Fears of Wider War in Middle East Grow as Israel and Iran Trade Threats

UP NEXT

Hurricane Helene’s Death Toll Passes 150 as Crews Search for Survivors

Sweet Lola on the Mend, Ready for a Forever Home

19 hours ago

Houthis Vow Retaliation Against US for Yemen Airstrikes

1 day ago

Chavez-Quintero Debate: How Would You Rate City-County Cooperation?

1 day ago

Biden Talks Election, Economy and Middle East in Surprise News Briefing

1 day ago

Big Money Rolling in from Commercial Builders for Local School Bond Measure Campaigns

1 day ago

Behind the Scenes at Fresno Chaffee Zoo’s Sea Lion Cove: A Flipper-tastic Adventure

1 day ago

Clovis Daytime Burglary: 2 Suspects Arrested, 1 at Large

1 day ago

Trump Stalled California Wildfire Aid? Ex-Aide Reveals Political Motive

1 day ago

Costa Bill Opens Grants for Heavy Manufacturers to Start Using Hydrogen

1 day ago

Watch: Fresno County Supervisor District 3 Debate

1 day ago

Russia Urges Citizens to Leave Israel as Tensions with Hezbollah Escalate

Russia has advised its citizens to leave Israel amid rising tensions with Hezbollah and Iran, reports Newsweek. Moscow’s ambassador to...

16 hours ago

16 hours ago

Russia Urges Citizens to Leave Israel as Tensions with Hezbollah Escalate

19 hours ago

Taxpayers in 24 States Will Be Able to File Their Returns Directly With the IRS in 2025

19 hours ago

California Collects Millions in Stolen Wages, but Can’t Find Many Workers to Pay Them

19 hours ago

Sweet Lola on the Mend, Ready for a Forever Home

1 day ago

Houthis Vow Retaliation Against US for Yemen Airstrikes

Challenger Luis Chavez and incumbent supervisor Sal Quintero debate in Fresno, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024.
1 day ago

Chavez-Quintero Debate: How Would You Rate City-County Cooperation?

1 day ago

Biden Talks Election, Economy and Middle East in Surprise News Briefing

1 day ago

Big Money Rolling in from Commercial Builders for Local School Bond Measure Campaigns

MENU

CONNECT WITH US

Search

Send this to a friend