PERRY, Fla. — PERRY, Fla. (AP) — Hurricane Helene caused dozens of deaths and billions of dollars in destruction across much of the southeastern U.S. as it tore through it, leaving more than 3 million customers heading into the weekend without any power and a constant threat of flooding for some.
Helene blown ashore in the Big Bend region of Florida as a Category 4 hurricane late Thursday with winds of 140 mph (225 km per hour) and then moved rapidly through Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee, uprooting trees, splintering homes and sending creeks and rivers over their banks and dams came under pressure.
Western North Carolina was largely cut off due to landslides and flooding that forced the closure of Interstate 40 and other roads. There were hundreds of water rescues, none as dramatic as in rural Unicoi County in East Tennessee, where dozens of patients and staff were plucked 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 remain over the Tennessee Valley on Saturday and Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said. Several flood and flash flood warnings remained in effect across parts of the southern and central Appalachians, while high wind warnings also covered parts of Tennessee and Ohio.
At least 44 people killed in the storm included three firefighters, a woman and her one-month-old twins, and an 89-year-old woman whose home was struck by a falling tree. According to an Associated Press count, the deaths occurred in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.
In North Carolina, a lake from the movie ‘Dirty Dancing’ crossed a dam and surrounding neighborhoods were evacuated, although there were no immediate concerns that it would fail. People were also evacuated from Newport, Tennessee, a city of about 7,000, over concerns about a dam nearby, although officials later said the structure had not failed.
Tornadoes struck some areas, including one in Nash County, North Carolina, seriously injuring four people.
Atlanta received a record 28.24 inches of rain in 48 hours, the most the city has seen in a two-day period since records began being kept in 1878, Georgia’s Office of the State Climatologist said on the social platform X. were so heavily flooded that only car roofs were above the water.
Moody’s Analytics expects between $15 billion and $26 billion in property damage.
Climate change has exacerbated the conditions that allow such storms to thrive, rapidly intensifying in warming waters and sometimes turning into powerful cyclones within hours.
Florida’s Big Bend is a part of the state where salt marshes and pine forests stretch to the horizon, and the apartment complexes and shopping centers that have carved out so 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 her housekeeper salary.
That is, until Helene dragged her house away.
On Friday afternoon, Hartway wandered her street near Ezell Beach, looking for where the storm may have cordoned off her home.
‘It’s gone. I don’t know where it is. I can’t find it,” she said of her home.
Born and raised in rural Taylor County, Hartway said there is nowhere in the world she would rather be, even after Helene. But she has seen wealthier out-of-state residents buy second homes here. She wonders how many of them will sell out – and what will happen to locals who have nowhere else to go.
‘There are so many people here, they have nowhere to go now. This was all they had,” she said.
The community has taken direct hits from three hurricanes since August 2023.
All five 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 eventually had to hide in their attics to escape the rising waters. He said the death toll could rise as crews go door to door in flooded areas.
More deaths were reported in Georgia and the Carolinas, including two South Carolina firefighters and a Georgia firefighter who died when trees struck their trucks. Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin reported at least one death in his state.
When the water rose to knee height in Kera O’Neil’s home in Hudson, Florida, she knew it was time to escape.
“There’s a moment when you think, ‘If this water gets above the level of the stove, we’re not going to have much room to breathe,’” she said, recalling how she and her sister waded through chest-deep water. with one cat in a plastic carrier bag and another in a cardboard box.
President Joe Biden said he was praying for survivors, and the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency headed to the area. The agency deployed more than 1,500 workers, and they helped with 400 rescues late Friday morning.
Officials urged people trapped to call rescue services and not enter floodwaters, warning they could be dangerous due to live wires, sewage, sharp objects and other debris.
In Georgia, an electric utility group warned of “catastrophic” damage to utility infrastructure, damaging more than 100 high-voltage transmission lines. And officials in South Carolina, where more than 40% of customers were without power, said crews had to pick their way through the rubble to determine what was still standing in some places.
The hurricane made landfall near the mouth of the Aucilla River, about 20 miles northwest of where Hurricane Idalia has struck last year with almost the same ferocity. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said damage from Helene appears to be greater than the combined effects of Idalia and Hurricane Debby in August.
The devastation extended far beyond Florida.
A mudslide in the Appalachians washed away part of a highway along the North Carolina-Tennessee state line.
Another slide hit homes in North Carolina and residents had to wait more than four hours to be rescued, said Ryan Cole, deputy director of Buncombe County Emergency Services. His 911 center received more than 3,300 calls in eight hours on Friday.
“This is something we will be dealing with for many days and weeks to come,” Cole said.
Forecasters 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 help.
Helene was the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began on June 1. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted an above-average season this year due to record warm ocean temperatures.
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Payne reported from Tallahassee, Florida, and Hollingsworth reported from Kansas City, Missouri. Associated Press journalists Seth Borenstein in New York; Jeff Amy in Atlanta; Russ Bynum in Valdosta, Georgia; Danica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Andrea Rodríguez in Havana; Mark Stevenson and María Verza in Mexico City; and Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, contributed.
