Authorities across a wide swathe of the southeastern United States faced the daunting task on Saturday of cleaning up 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 by late on Friday, and officials feared still more bodies would be discovered across several states.
Heavy Rains Continue
Helene, downgraded late on Friday to a post-tropical cyclone, continued to produce heavy rains across several states, sparking life-threatening flooding that threatened to inundate entire towns.
In Florida’s Pinellas County near Tampa, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said he had never seen destruction like that which Helene wrought. “I would just describe it, having spent the last few hours out there, as a war zone,” Gualtieri told a press conference.
At least 3.5 million customers remained without power across five states, with authorities warning it could be several days before services were fully restored.
Scientists say climate change contributes to fueling stronger, more destructive hurricanes.
Heavy Winds
Before moving north through Georgia and into Tennessee and the Carolinas, Helene hit Florida’s Big Bend region as a powerful Category 4 hurricane on Thursday night, packing 140 mph (225 kph) winds. It left behind a chaotic landscape of overturned boats in harbours, felled trees, submerged cars and flooded streets.
Police and firefighters carried out thousands of water rescues throughout the affected states on Friday.
More than 50 people were rescued from the roof of a hospital in Unicoi County, Tennessee, about 120 miles (200 km) northeast of Knoxville, state officials said, after floodwaters swamped the rural community.
Emergency Evacuation
Rising waters from 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 conducting rescues.
Elsewhere in Tennessee, Rob Mathis, the mayor of Cocke County, ordered the evacuation of downtown Newport because of a potential failure at the nearby Walters dam.
In western North Carolina, Rutherford County emergency officials warned residents near the Lake Lure Dam that it might fail, although they said late on Friday that failure did not appear imminent.
In nearby Buncombe County, landslides forced interstates 40 and 26 to close, the county said on X.
Waking To Disaster
The extent of the damage in Florida began emerging after daybreak on Friday.
In coastal Steinhatchee, 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 grounded in front yards.
The city of Tampa posted on X that emergency personnel had completed 78 water rescues of residents and that many roads were impassable because of flooding. The Pasco County sheriff’s office rescued more than 65 people.
Officials had pleaded with residents in Helene’s path to heed evacuation orders, with National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan describing the storm surge as “unsurvivable.”
(with inputs from Reuters)
