The US Southeast faces a daunting cleanup task from Helene; Death toll rises By Reuters

By Rich McKay, Joseph Ax and Andrew Hay

ATLANTA (Reuters) – Authorities across a wide swath of the southeastern United States faced the daunting task of cleaning up on Saturday from Hurricane Helene, one of the most powerful to hit the country, as the death toll continued to rise .

At least 43 deaths were reported late Friday, and officials feared more bodies would be discovered in several states.

Helene, downgraded late Friday to a post-tropical cyclone, continued to produce heavy rains in several states, causing life-threatening flooding that threatened to create dam failures that could inundate entire cities.

In Florida’s Pinellas County, near Tampa, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said he had never seen destruction like Helene caused. “I would just describe it, after spending the last few hours there, as a war zone,” Gualtieri told a news conference.

At least 3.5 million customers were without power in five states, with authorities warning it could be days before services are fully restored.

Scientists say climate change is helping fuel stronger and more destructive hurricanes.

Before moving north through Georgia and into Tennessee and the Carolinas, Helene hit Florida’s Big Bend region as a powerful Category 4 hurricane late Thursday with winds of 140 mph (225 km/h). It left behind a chaotic landscape of overturned boats in harbors, felled trees, submerged cars and flooded streets.

Police and firefighters performed thousands of water rescues across the affected states on Friday.

More than 50 people have been rescued from the roof of a hospital in Unicoi County, Tenn., about 120 miles (200 km) northeast of Knoxville, state officials said, after flooding inundated the rural community.

Rising waters in the Nolichucky River prevented ambulances and emergency vehicles from evacuating patients and others there, the Unicoi County Emergency Management Agency said on social media. Emergency crews in boats and helicopters were carrying out rescues.

Elsewhere in Tennessee, Cocke County Mayor Rob Mathis ordered the evacuation of downtown Newport because of a potential failure at the nearby Walters Dam.

In western North Carolina, emergency officials in Rutherford County warned residents near the Lake Lure dam that it could fail, though they said late Friday that the failure did not appear imminent.

In nearby Buncombe County, landslides forced highways 40 and 26 to close, the county said on X.

AWAKENING TO DISASTER

The extent of the damage in Florida began to emerge after daylight on Friday.

On the Steinhatchee coast, a storm surge — a wall of seawater pushed ashore by winds — of eight to 10 feet (2.4-3 meters) moved mobile homes, the National Weather Service said on X. In Treasure Island, a barrier island community in Pinellas County, boats were stranded in front yards.

The city of Tampa posted on X that emergency personnel completed 78 water rescues of residents and that many roads were impassable due to flooding. The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office rescued more than 65 people.

Officials asked residents in Helene’s path to follow evacuation orders, with National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan describing storm surges as “unsurvivable.”

Pinellas County Sheriff Gualtieri said the conditions prevented first responders from responding to several emergency calls. On Friday, county authorities found at least five dead people.

Two others died in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis said. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s office reported 15 deaths from the storms in that state, while North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said there were two deaths there.

At least 19 people died during the storm in South Carolina, the Post and Courier in Charleston reported, citing local officials.