Março 23, 2025

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Hurricane Helene’s path of devastation spreads across Southeast. #hotnews.pt

Hurricane Helene’s path of devastation spreads across Southeast. #hotnews.pt

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The death toll from Hurricane Helene has continued to rise since the massive storm slammed into Florida’s Big Bend region Thursday and churned its way through the country’s southeast.

At least 52 people across Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia have died as of Saturday afternoon. More deaths are expected as emergency crews reach more inaccessible areas in the coming days.

Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida late Thursday near the mouth of the Aucilla River in the Big Bend area, bringing a nightmare storm surge just 20 miles from where similarly sized Hurricane Idalia came ashore last year around this time and caused widespread damage.

Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters in Cedar Key on Friday afternoon that the damage he saw from Helene was more extensive than that from Idalia and that the surge in Taylor County “may be the most surge we’ve had.”

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Parts of the Big Bend near Keaton Beach, Steinhatchee and Horseshoe Beach recorded water levels more than 15 feet above ground level, according to the Storm Surge Unit of the National Hurricane Center.

“I can tell you, that is way worse than Idalia,” DeSantis said of the damage he saw in Keaton Beach and Steinhatchee.

Between Wednesday morning and Friday morning, preliminary rainfall totals were as high as nearly 16 inches in Sumatra, north of Apalachicola, and as high as nearly 30 inches in Busick, North Carolina, according to information from the NWS Weather Prediction Center.

Across Florida, Helene has left about 828,000 homes and businesses without power as of Friday afternoon and at least 4 million without power across the U.S. The full extent of the destruction will continue to unfold as people step out of their homes and rescue missions head into the hardest-hit areas.

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Some Florida communities have been battered three times in only one year: First by Idalia, then, more recently, Debby, and now Helene. Many residents were likely still recovering from the destruction of the last two storms.

“When you have a major hurricane, it’s not something that’s done in six weeks,”  DeSantis said. “To have something even bigger than those two storms cause a lot of damage, it is a sense of trauma for the community. I think there’s a demoralization.”

In Pinellas County on Friday afternoon, DeSantis thanked the first responders who worked through the night to help and rescue people.

“There were a lot of people working in the dead of night to answer calls, distress calls, in this community and in other communities around the state. And I think we all should be very thankful to have folks, whether it’s a police officer, sheriff’s deputy, whether it’s National Guard, whether it’s Florida Fish and Wildlife, Florida Highway Patrol, all these folks who they’ve got families they’ve got to worry about at home too,” DeSantis said.

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More than 1,000 people were rescued throughout Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco counties, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

That damage extended hundreds of miles northward to northeast Tennessee, where a “dangerous rescue situation” by helicopter unfolded after 54 people were moved to the roof of the Unicoi County Hospital as water rapidly flooded the facility. All staff and patients were rescued and no one was left at the hospital as of late Friday afternoon, Ballad Health said.

Helene was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone late Friday afternoon, about 50 miles south-southeast of Louisville, Kentucky. All watches and warnings have been discontinued. The biggest threat Helene continued to pose Friday was flooding due to heavy rain, which was still ongoing Friday evening in parts of the southern Appalachians and the Tennessee Valley.

Flash flooding and landslides in parts of the southern Appalachians were expected to continue through Friday evening, with conditions gradually improving into Saturday, the National Hurricane Center said in its 5 p.m. forecast.

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The storm is expected to stall over the Tennessee Valley on Friday night and through the weekend as it continues to weaken, potentially causing flooding in Ohio and surrounding areas.

The massive storm strengthened from a Category 2 into a Category 4 hurricane in a matter of hours Thursday and maximum sustained winds reached 140 mph when it made landfall, the National Hurricane Center said.

“Most of what the hurricane hit was basically trees and uninhabited. If all that was inhabited, I mean, you would see so much more damage,” DeSantis said.

This satellite image shows Hurricane Helene's eye wall approaching landfall in Florida at 10 p.m. ET on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (NOAA/GOES-East/TNS)
This satellite image shows Hurricane Helene’s eye wall approaching landfall in Florida at 10 p.m. on Thursday. (NOAA/GOES-East/TNS)

Helene had one of the largest wind fields of any storm to hit the southeast U.S. in years, according to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach, who said that since 1988, only three Gulf hurricanes were bigger than Helene’s predicted size: 2017’s Irma, 2005’s Wilma and 1995’s Opal.

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The first 24 hours after the storm in Florida will be dedicated to search and rescue, Kevin Guthrie, director for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said at Friday morning’s news conference. The next 48 hours will turn into “search, secure and stabilize” any life-threatening hazards across the region.

For residents, now begins the drudgery of clean-up and documentation. Officials advised residents to document as much as they could in the first 24 hours to try to get federal aid and insurance reimbursements, taking close-up and distant pictures.

“The best way to combat a bureaucrat down the road, just make sure you do the documentation in the first 24 hours,” Guthrie said.

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Charles Webb and his wife Dana Webb stand in front of their rental home in which this tree came crashing down during Hurricane Helene in Steinhatchee, Fla., Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)

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Florida’s Gulf Coast

Deaths in Florida included one person who was hit by a falling sign in Tampa’s Ybor City neighborhood and another who was killed when a tree fell onto a home in Dixie County.

All five who died in one Florida county were in neighborhoods where residents had been told to evacuate, said Bob Gualtieri, the sheriff in Pinellas County in the St. Petersburg area. He said some who stayed because they didn’t believe the warnings had to hide in their attics to escape the rising water.

“We tried to launch boats, we tried to use high-water vehicles and we just met with too many obstacles,” Gualtieri said. He said the death toll could rise as emergency crews go door-to-door in the flooded areas.

Reports from the devastated areas poured out on Friday. Video on social media sites showed sheets of rain coming down in Perry, near where Helene made landfall just before midnight, and siding being torn off buildings.

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Perry recorded the highest peak wind gust in the entire state, at 99 mph, according to the NWS Weather Prediction Center data.

Taylor County in particular has faced the brunt of three storms in the last year. All hurricanes made landfall within about 30 miles of each other in Florida’s Big Bend.

“It’s like it never stops,” said Stephen Tucker, a parishioner who has lived there all 51 years of his life. “Why Taylor County?”

Officials in Taylor County, which has a population of about 22,000, offered a very dire warning on Facebook for anyone who didn’t evacuate ahead of landfall Thursday: “Please write your name, birthday, and important information on your arm or leg in a PERMANENT MARKER so that you can be identified and family notified.”

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In Steinhatchee in Taylor County, resident Charles Webb did take the Taylor County Sheriff’s advice and used a blue Sharpie to write his name and birthdate on his arm, in case the worst happened and anyone needed to identify him after the storm.

His wife Dana Webb said they spent the hours in the bathtub praying to survive the night.

“Would we do it again?” Charles Webb said. “No.”

But they plan to stay.

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“We’re going to figure out what we’re going to do next,” he said. “I don’t plan on leaving Steinhatchee. This is where we decided to raise a family.”

‘It’s gone’: In tiny Gulf Coast community, Helene wiped out homes and businesses

In Citrus County, some 120 miles south of Perry, first responders were out in boats early Friday to rescue people trapped by the flooding.

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In Tampa, some areas could be reached only by boat.

Tropical Storm Joyce and Hurricane Isaac to weaken, potential system could enter Gulf of Mexico

Georgia, Carolinas, Tennessee

Kemp said at least 11 people in Georgia were killed and dozens are still trapped in homes damaged by Helene. At least six others died in Florida and the Carolinas, although there are reports of an additional six deaths in South Carolina.

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Among people who have died in Georgia are a 27-year-old mother and her two 1-month-old twins, who were killed when trees fell on their house in Thomson, just west of Augusta, said McDuffie County Coroner Paul Johnson.

The coroner said an 89-year-old woman was killed when trees fell on her house elsewhere in the same county.

In Wheeler County, Georgia, two people died during an apparent tornado, according to a local sheriff. And officials confirmed that two others were killed when trees fell on their homes in Anderson County, South Carolina, and Charlotte, North Carolina.

In southwestern Virginia, one person died after a tree fell and a building collapsed in Craig County, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said.

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The death toll from Hurricane Helene in South Carolina is 19 people, with many of the deaths happening from falling trees as the storm moved through early Friday, authorities said. In Saluda County, two firefighters were killed when a tree fell on their truck while they were answering a call, the Highway Patrol said.

Helene is the deadliest tropical storm in South Carolina since Hurricane Hugo killed 35 people when it came ashore just north of Charleston in 1989.

The National Weather Service said northern Georgia, the Carolinas and eastern Tennessee were likely to see historic levels of flooding from Helene’s rains.

Atlanta received a record 11.12 inches of rain in 48 hours, the most the city has seen in a two-day period since record keeping began in 1878, Georgia’s Office of the State Climatologist said on the social platform X.

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A mudslide in the Appalachian Mountains washed out a section of an interstate at the North Carolina-Tennessee state line. Meanwhile, occupants of homes hit by another mudslide in North Carolina had to wait more than four hours to be rescued, said Ryan Cole, the emergency services assistant director in Buncombe County. His 911 center received more than 3,300 calls in eight hours Friday.

In North Carolina, forecasters warned of flooding that could be worse than anything seen in the past century. Evacuations were underway and around 300 roads were closed statewide. The Connecticut Army National Guard sent a helicopter to help.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Joyce formed on Friday, joining the newly formed Hurricane Isaac in the open Atlantic; neither pose a threat to land.

Sun Sentinel staff writer David Schutz and Orlando Sentinel staff writers Jeffrey Schweers and Steven Lemongello contributed to this report, which was supplemented by information from the Associated Press.

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This is a developing story, so check back for updates. Click here to have breaking news alerts sent directly to your inbox.  

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