Helene: Dozens dead as hurricane triggers life-threatening flooding and knocks out power to millions in southeast

CNN
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Helene continues its wrath across the Southeast after 49 people died across multiple states, communities were flattened and many were left stranded in flood waters after the historic storm emerged Thursday night as a monstrous Category 4 hurricane with raging winds of 140 miles per hour made landfall in the Big Bend region of Florida. Here's the latest:

• Deaths in 5 states: Storm-related deaths were reported in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and Virginia. State officials say at least 19 people have died in South Carolina, including two firefighters who died in Saluda County and two residents who died from fallen trees in Anderson County. According to a spokesman for Governor Brian Kemp, at least 15 people have died in Georgia, two of them from a tornado in the Alamo. Florida officials reported eight deaths, including several drownings in Pinellas County, near Tampa. Six additional deaths were reported in North Carolina: They include a car crash on a storm-slick road that killed a 4-year-old girl in Claremont and a fallen tree that killed one person in her home in Charlotte. And in Craig County, Virginia, one person died in a storm-related tree fall and building collapse, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said Friday.

• Storm rescue operations underway: Nearly 4,000 National Guardsmen conducted rescue operations in 21 counties across Florida, the Defense Department said Friday. North Carolina has activated 358 Guardsmen, while Georgia has more than 300 and Alabama has 43, said Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh. In addition, the Biden administration has mobilized more than 1,500 federal employees to support communities affected by Helene, Vice President Kamala Harris said Friday.

• Severe flooding in North Carolina: Helene “is one of the worst storms in modern history for parts of North Carolina,” Gov. Roy Cooper said. Western parts of the state were hit by heavy rains and strong winds bordering on hurricane force, causing life-threatening flash floods, numerous landslides and power outages. More than 100 people were rescued from the flood, the governor said. More than 2 feet of rain fell across the state's mountainous region from Wednesday morning through Friday morning, with Busick recording a total of 29.58 inches of rain in just 48 hours. In the hardest-hit city of Asheville, a citywide curfew is in effect until 7:30 a.m. Saturday, according to the city government. About 20 miles southwest of Asheville, overwhelming, torrential rains caused Lake Lure Dam to “imminently fail,” according to the National Weather Service.

• The threat is not over yet: The remnants of Helene will continue to bring rain and gusty winds hundreds of miles east. More than a foot of rain was recorded in several states, with at least 14 separate flash flood emergencies declared for about 1.1 million people in the southern Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina and adjacent parts of Tennessee, South Carolina and Virginia. In addition to the rainfall, wind gusts of 30 to 50 mph continued to blow across the Ohio and Tennessee Valley regions Friday evening, and more than 35 million people were under wind warnings through Saturday.

• More than 3 million people without electricity: Helene's remnants continued to disrupt power across several states in the eastern U.S. Saturday morning, leaving about 3,429,137 customers in the dark in South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, Florida and Ohio, according to PowerOutage.us.

• Helene disrupts travel and delivery services: Helene has caused numerous disruptions to travel and delivery services. Several Amtrak trains arriving or departing in Florida and Georgia have been canceled, the company said. Delivery services were also affected, as UPS announced that it had suspended shipping to Florida, North Carolina and Georgia due to the storm. FedEx has also suspended or limited service in five states. The water flooded countless roads across the region, making them impassable. In North Carolina, 290 roads have been closed across the state, and Gov. Roy Cooper said the state Department of Transportation is closing even more roads as severe flooding, landslides and washed-out roads pose a serious threat to public safety.

• Dozens rescued from Tennessee hospital roof: More than 50 people stranded on the roof of Unicoi County Hospital in Erwin, Tennessee, were rescued after rapidly rising waters from Helene made evacuation impossible Friday morning, Ballad Health said.

• Helene is now a post-tropical cyclone: According to the National Hurricane Center, Helene – the strongest hurricane ever to hit Florida's Big Bend region – is now a post-tropical cyclone with winds of 35 miles per hour. This means that Helene no longer has an organized transport center and loses its hurricane-like features. However, this change in designation does not make much difference to the overall danger for Helene in the future, as Helene will continue to trigger heavy, flooding rains and gusty winds. Keith Turi, acting director of response and recovery at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, warned residents of the dangers that remain even after Helene's death. “There are a number of reasons why people believe the dangers will diminish as the storm passes. That’s not necessarily true,” Turi told CNN. “There are a lot of dangers in these floods, things you can see and sometimes things you can't see, that go beneath the surface and that's why you really need to stay away from these floods. Make sure you get to a safe place.”

Communities in Florida and Georgia were destroyed

Helene has cut a massive path of destruction through Florida, Georgia and the southeastern United States, snapping trees and power lines and destroying hundreds of homes. With millions left without essentials such as power and no shelter from the devastating storm, rescue workers scrambled to save people trapped in rubble or underwater.

In Cedar Key, Florida, the devastation was so widespread that it was not safe enough to allow residents or volunteers to return to the small community off the Florida coast, city officials said Friday. The city doesn't have sewage or electricity, “so there's really not much to feed the people here,” said Cedar Key Mayor Sue Colson.

Scores of historic buildings and new homes were decimated, while streets were blocked by downed wires and “extremely dangerous” debris, the mayor said. “It’s just a multi-layered mess,” Colson said.

Another small, close-knit Florida community, Keaton Beach, is picking up the pieces of its life left behind by the devastation of Helene.

“If you look at Keaton Beach, I think almost every home was destroyed, or the vast majority, and some completely wiped out. “That's because there was such a massive tidal surge there,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday, adding that the storm surge could have been as high as 20 feet.

The city's Beach Bums gas station was three days away from celebrating the fifth anniversary of its opening when it collapsed, said owner Jared Hunt, who spent the morning helping residents search for personal items and the remains recover.

A Keaton Beach resident stood with his wife in front of the rubble of their former home, wondering where he could go next.

“Man, I just lost my house. I have nowhere else to go,” Eric Church told CNN. “My house is in a heap here. It was sitting right there. Only pillars in the ground remain. I had a wife and two dogs with me. What should I do?”

Church's wife, Erin Peelar, said the couple had just purchased the home and were expecting some water to come from the hurricane, not for the home to “disappear.”

“The house has been there for 75 years and that's the only reason we bought it six months ago, believing it would be here for another 75 years,” Peelar said.

At the end of the day, however, Peelar said the family was lucky.

“Luckily we didn’t stay because no one would have survived that. There were six, seven, eight houses in front of us – they’re all gone,” she said.

In the ocean off Sanibel Island, Florida, during the hurricane, U.S. Coast Guard swimmer Ted Hudson rescued a man and his dog from their houseboat as dangerous waves threatened their lives.

Footage of the dramatic rescue captured by Hudson's helmet camera shows Hudson being lifted from a helicopter and struggling to stay still in 60 mph winds until he goes into the water. He then swims through terrible waves to reach the stranded man and his dog. They enter the water and swim toward Hudson, who helps them as they are flown into the helicopter.

“I think my adrenaline kicked in and I just wanted to get going,” Hudson told CNN. “It was a dangerous situation and I tried to get out of there as quickly as possible.”

DeSantis said he believes Hurricane Helene caused more damage in 2023 than Hurricane Idalia, which was then the strongest hurricane in more than 125 years to make landfall in Florida's Big Bend region.

According to the National Hurricane Center, Hurricane Helene made landfall Thursday evening near Perry, Florida, as a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 140 mph and stronger gusts. In comparison, Hurricane Idalia made landfall in August 2023 as a Category 3 hurricane with sustained winds of 125 miles per hour.

Over in Georgia, several people were trapped after Helene severely damaged at least 115 buildings in the southern Lowndes County city of Valdosta, Gov. Brian Kemp said Friday.

“The damage to our community is significant and appears much worse than Hurricane Idalia,” Lowndes County Emergency Management said on its Facebook page.