Hurricane Helene leaves dozens dead and millions without power

Helene came ashore in Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 4 hurricane late Thursday with winds of 140 mph (225 km/h), then moved quickly through Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee, uprooting trees, destroying homes and sending streams and rivers over their banks and straining levees.

Western North Carolina was essentially at a standstill due to mudslides and flooding that forced the closure of Interstate 40 and other roads. The video shows sections of Asheville underwater.

Francine Cavanaugh said she has not been able to contact her sister, son or friends in the Asheville area.

“My sister came with me yesterday morning to find out how I was doing in Atlanta,” she said Saturday. “The storm was just hitting 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 she was going 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 phone calls go straight to voicemail.”

She saw the video of a grocery store near the cabins that was completely flooded.

“I think people are completely stranded, wherever they are, no cell service, no electricity.”

There were 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 that was surrounded by water from a flooded river.

The storm, now a post-tropical cyclone, was expected to drift over the Tennessee Valley on Saturday and Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said. Several flood and flash flood warnings remained in effect for parts of the southern and central Appalachians, while high wind warnings also covered parts of Tennessee and Ohio.

At least 48 people died in the storm; they included three firefighters, a woman and her 1-month-old twins, and an 89-year-old woman whose home was hit by a falling tree. According to a count from the Associated Press, the deaths occurred in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.

In Tampa’s affluent enclave of Davis Islands, home to star athletes like Derek Jeter and Tom Brady, residents continued to clean up Saturday from the storm surge left by Helene.

The neighborhoods that are right next to downtown Tampa and home to about 5,000 people have never seen a storm surge like Friday. No one died, but homes, businesses and apartments were flooded.

“I don’t think anybody expected it,” Faith Pilafas told the Tampa Bay Times. “We’re kind of used to talking a lot about big storms, and we’ve never liked to feel the effects of them. So for all the people who didn’t leave the island, I feel like everyone expected it to be a normal, anticlimactic storm. And wow, were we surprised.”

Record evacuations and rainfall

Authorities warned residents to evacuate, and many did, but some were left behind.

In North Carolina, a lake featured in the movie “Dirty Dancing” breached a dam and surrounding neighborhoods were evacuated, though there were no immediate concerns that it would fail. People were also evacuated from Newport, Tenn., a town of about 7,000, amid concerns about a nearby dam, though officials later said the structure had not failed.

Tornadoes hit some areas, including one in Nash County, North Carolina, seriously injuring four people.

Atlanta received a record 11.12 inches (28.24 centimeters) of rain in 48 hours, the most the city has seen in a two-day period since records began in 1878, the National Weather Service Bureau said State of Georgia on social platform X. Some neighborhoods were so heavily flooded that only the roofs of cars could be seen pushing above the water.

Moody’s Analytics said it expected $15 billion to $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.

The Big Bend region 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 condominiums and strip malls that carved up so much of the state’s coastlines are largely absent.

It’s a place where Susan Sauls Hartway and her 4-year-old Chihuahua mingle, Lucy could afford to live within walking distance of the beach on her maid’s salary.

At least, until her house was taken away by Helene.

On Friday afternoon, Hartway walked her street near Ezell Beach, looking for where the storm might have washed away her house.

“It’s gone. I don’t know where it is. I can’t find it,” she said of her home.

The community has taken direct hits from three hurricanes since August 2023.

All five who died in one Florida county were in neighborhoods where residents were told to evacuate, said Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri in the St. Petersburg area. Some who remained ended up having to hide in bridges to escape the rising water. He said the death toll could rise as crews go door-to-door in flooded areas.

Several deaths were reported in Georgia and the Carolinas, including two South Carolina firefighters and one Georgia firefighter who died when trees hit their trucks. Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin reported at least one death in his state.

Power loss and infrastructure damage

President Joe Biden said he was praying for survivors, and the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency headed to the area. The agency has deployed more than 1,500 workers and they have assisted in 400 rescues by Friday morning.

Officials urged people who were trapped to call rescuers and stay out of floodwaters, warning that they could be dangerous because of live wires, sewage, sharp objects and other debris.

In Georgia, an electric utility group warned of “catastrophic” damage to utility infrastructure, with more than 100 high-voltage transmission 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 the rubble just to determine what was left standing 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 nearly the same ferocity. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the damage from Helene appears to be greater than the combined effects of Idalia and Hurricane Debby in August.

The destruction extended far beyond Florida.

Historic flooding is expected

A mudslide in the Appalachian Mountains washed away part of an interstate highway at the North Carolina-Tennessee state line.

Another slide hit homes in North Carolina, and occupants had to wait more than four hours to be rescued, said Ryan Cole, assistant director of emergency services for Buncombe County. Its 911 center received more than 3,300 calls in eight hours Friday.

“This is something we will be dealing with for many days and weeks to come,” Cole said.

Forecasters warned that the flooding in North Carolina could be worse than anything seen in the last century. The Connecticut Army National Guard dispatched a helicopter to assist.

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.