Damage and losses from Hurricane Helene could reach $110 billion

Heavy rains from powerful Helene left people stranded, homeless and waiting for rescue in the southeastern US. Cleanup continued Sunday after a storm that killed at least 64 people, caused widespread destruction in southeastern states and knocked out power to several million people.

As the sun rose over Florida’s Big Bend on Sunday after Hurricane Helene battered the region, many houses of worship were still dealing with power outages, damaged roofs and hurricane debris — and the knowledge that many of their congregations are enduring yet another blow from a devastating. storm.

More than 1,000 miles (1,610 kilometers) away in Texas, Jessica Drye Turner pleaded for someone to rescue her family members stranded on their rooftop in Asheville, NC, surrounded by rising waters. “They’re chasing 18-wheelers and floating cars,” Turner wrote in an urgent Facebook post Friday.

But in a follow-up message, which was widely shared on social media on Saturday, Turner said help did not arrive in time to save her parents, both in their 70s, and her grandson six years. The roof had collapsed and the three drowned.

“I cannot put into words the grief, pain and devastation my sisters and I are going through, nor can I imagine the pain before us,” she wrote.

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

From there, it moved quickly across Georgia, where Gov. Brian Kemp said Saturday that it “looks like a bomb went off” after seeing shattered homes and debris-covered highways from the air. A weakened Helene then drenched the Carolinas and Tennessee with torrential rains, sending streams and rivers over their banks and straining dams.

Western North Carolina was cut off by 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 eastern Tennessee, where dozens of patients and staff were plucked by helicopter from the roof of a hospital on Friday. And rescues continued into the next day in Buncombe County, North Carolina, where part of Asheville was under water.

The storm was expected to move across the Tennessee Valley Saturday and Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said.

It triggered the worst flooding in a century in North Carolina. One community, Spruce Pine, was drenched with more than 2 feet (0.6 meters) of rain Tuesday through Saturday.

In Florida’s Big Bend, some lost almost everything, leaving the storm without even a pair of shoes. With sanctuaries still dark in a county where, as of Sunday morning, 97 percent of customers were without power, some churches canceled regular services, while others like Faith Baptist Church in Perry opted to worship outside.

Standing water and tree debris still cover the grounds of Faith Baptist Church. The church appealed to parishioners to come “to pray for our community” in a message posted on the congregation’s Facebook page.

“There is still no electricity or water – so the bathrooms will be unavailable. We have chairs, or you can bring your own!” the post reads.

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

President Joe Biden said Saturday that Helene’s devastation was “overwhelming” and pledged to send aid. He also approved a disaster declaration for North Carolina, making federal funds available for those affected.

With at least 25 dead in South Carolina, Helene is the deadliest tropical cyclone for the state since Hurricane Hugo killed 35 people when it came ashore north of Charleston in 1989. Deaths were also reported in Florida , Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.

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

Evacuations began before the storm hit and continued as lakes overflowed 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 houses.

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

None of the victims were from Taylor County, 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 struck last year with nearly the same ferocity.

Taylor County is in Florida’s Big Bend, it has gone years without being hit directly by a hurricane. But after Idalia and two other storms in just over a year, the area is starting to feel like a hurricane highway.

“It brings everybody back to reality about what it is now with the disasters,” said John Berg, 76, a resident of Steinhatchee, a small fishing and weekend getaway town.

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.

Helene was the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began on June 1. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted an above average season this year due to record ocean temperatures.