PERRY, Fla. (AP) — Hurricane Helene caused dozens of deaths and billions of dollars of destruction across a wide swath of the southeastern U.S. as it raced through, and more than 3 million customers went into the weekend without any power and for some a continued threat of floods.
Helene blew ashore in Florida's Big Bend region as a Category 4 hurricane late Thursday packing winds of 140 mph (225 kph) and then quickly moved through Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee, uprooting trees, splintering homes and sending creeks and rivers over their banks and straining dams.
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PERRY, Fla. (AP) — Hurricane Helene caused dozens of deaths and billions of dollars of destruction across a wide swath of the southeastern U.S. as it raced through, and more than 3 million customers went into the weekend without any power and for some a continued threat of floods.
Hailey Morgan, right, surveys the damage to their flooded home after returning with her children, Aria Skye Hall, 7, left, and Kyle Ross, 7, in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in Crystal River, Fla. Morgan stayed with her grandmother and her children in Hernando, Fla., as the storm made landfall. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
Destruction to the Faraway Inn Cottages and Motel is seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, in Cedar Key, Fla., Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A caravan of Army vehicles make their way through a street flooded by the passing of Hurricane John, in Acapulco, Mexico, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Bernardino Hernandez)
An airboat transports residents rescued from floodwaters in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024 in Crystal River, Fla. (Luis Santana/Tampa Bay Times via AP)
Leslie Sturmer, a University of Florida employee, and John Rittenhouse, general manager of the Cedar Key Water and Sewer District, both residents, talk in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, in Cedar Key, Fla., Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Foundations and steps to buildings that were destroyed by the storm surge from Hurricane Helene are seen along the shoreline in the aftermath of the storm, in Cedar Key, Fla., Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Stephen Smith)
A damaged 100-year-old home is seen after an Oak tree landed on it after Hurricane Helene moved through the area, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in Valdosta, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Thomas Chaves, left, and Vinny Almeida walk through floodwaters from Hurricane Helene in an attempt to reach Chaves's mother's house in the Shore Acres neighborhood Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Carlson)
This photo provided by Venice Police Department rescue crews assist residents after conducting door-to-door wellness checks, in coastal areas that were flooded by Hurricane Helene on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024 in Venice, Fla . (Venice Police Department via AP)
Residents work together to push a vehicle stuck on a street flooded by the passing of Hurricane John, in Acapulco, Mexico, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Bernardino Hernandez)
Capt. BJ Johnston, a law enforcement officer from the Florida Fish Wildlife and Conservation Commission surveys destruction from a high water buggy in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, in Cedar Key, Fla., Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A dog wades through floodwaters near collapsed homes in Dekle Beach on the coast of rural Taylor County, Fla., Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Kate Payne)
This satellite image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration taken at 6:11pm ET shows Hurricane Helene, which weakened into a post-tropical cyclone, over the United States on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (NOAA via AP)
A Citrus County Firefigher carries 11-year- old, Michael Cribbins, while conducting rescues from floodwaters in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024 in Crystal River, Fla. (Luis Santana/Tampa Bay Times via AP)
MJ Hodges, left, and her mother Jill Rice look at the damage caused to their store from the floodwaters of Hurricane Helene on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in Gulfport, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Carlson)
Dustin Holmes, rear, his girlfriend Hailey Morgan, and her children Aria Skye Hall, 7, left, and Kyle Ross, 4, right, arrive to their flooded home in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in Crystal River, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
This photo provided by U.S. Coast Guard District Seven (USCGSoutheast) shows a man and his dog being rescued after his sailboat became disabled during Hurricane Helene approximately 25 miles off Sanibel Island, Fla., on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (U.S. Coast Guard District Seven via AP)
Dustin Holmes, second from right, holds hands with his girlfriend, Hailey Morgan, while returning to their flooded home with her children Aria Skye Hall, 7, right, and Kyle Ross, 4, in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in Crystal River, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
Destruction to the Faraway Inn Cottages and Motel is seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, in Cedar Key, Fla., Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Stephen Smith)
Jill Rice looks over the damage to her store caused by flooding from Hurricane Helene on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in Gulfport, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Carlson)
Western North Carolina was essentially cut off because or landslides and flooding that forced the closure of Interstate 40 and other roads. There were hundreds of water rescues, none more dramatic than in rural Unicoi County in East 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 hover over the Tennessee Valley on Saturday and Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said. Several flood and flash flood warnings remained in effect in parts of the southern and central Appalachians, while high wind warnings also covered parts of Tennessee and Ohio.
Among the at least 44 people killed in the storm were three firefighters, a woman and her 1-month-old twins, and an 89-year-old woman whose house was struck by a falling tree. According to an Associated Press tally, the deaths occurred in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.
In North Carolina, a lake featured in the movie “Dirty Dancing” overtopped a dam and surrounding neighborhoods were evacuated, although there were no immediate concerns it would fail. People also were evacuated from Newport, Tennessee, a city of about 7,000 people, amid concerns about a dam near there, although officials later said the structure had not failed.
Tornadoes hit some areas, including one in Nash County, North Carolina, that critically injured 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 record keeping began in 1878, Georgia’s Office of the State Climatologist said on the social platform X. Some neighborhoods were so badly flooded that only car roofs could be seen poking above the water.
Moody’s Analytics said it expects $15 billion to $26 billion in property damage.
Climate change has exacerbated conditions that allow such storms to thrive, rapidly intensifying in warming waters and turning into powerful cyclones sometimes in a matter of hours.
Florida's Big Bend is a part of the state where salt marshes and pine flatwoods stretch into the horizon, and where the condo developments and strip malls that have 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 mix Lucy could afford to live within walking distance of the beach on her salary as a housekeeper.
At least, until her house was carried away by Helene.
Friday afternoon, Hartway wandered around her street near Ezell Beach, searching for where the storm may have deposited her home.
“It’s gone. I don’t know where it’s at. I can’t find it,” she said of her house.
Born and raised in rural Taylor County, Hartway said there is nowhere in the world she would rather be, even after Helene. But she’s watched as wealthier residents from out of state have bought up second homes here. She wonders how many of them will sell out — and what will happen to the locals who have nowhere else to go.
“There’s so many people down here, they don’t have any place to go now. This was all they had,” she said.
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 Bob Gualtieri, the sheriff in Pinellas County in the St. Petersburg area. Some who stayed ended up having to hide in their attics to escape the rising water. He said the death toll could rise as crews go door-to-door in flooded areas.
More deaths were reported in Georgia and the Carolinas, including two South Carolina firefighters and a Georgia firefighter who died when trees struck their trucks. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin reported at least one death in his state.
When the water hit knee-level in Kera O’Neil’s home in Hudson, Florida, she knew it was time to escape.
“There’s a moment where you are thinking, ‘If this water rises above the level of the stove, we are not going to have not much room to breathe,’” she said, recalling how she and her sister waded through chest-deep water with one cat in a plastic carrier and another in a cardboard box.
President Joe Biden said he was praying for survivors, and the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency headed to the area. The agency deployed more than 1,500 workers, and they helped with 400 rescues by late Friday morning.
Officials urged people who were trapped to call for rescuers and not tread floodwaters, warning they can be dangerous due to live wires, sewage, sharp objects and other debris.
In Georgia, an electrical 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% of customers were without power, said crews had to cut their way through debris just to determine what was still standing in some places.
The hurricane came ashore near the mouth of the Aucilla River, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) northwest of where Hurricane Idalia hit last year at 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.
A mudslide in the Appalachian Mountains washed out 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, the emergency services assistant director in Buncombe County. His 911 center received more than 3,300 calls in eight hours Friday.
“This is something that we’re going to be dealing with for many days and weeks to come,” Cole said.
Forecasters warned of flooding in North Carolina that could be worse than anything seen in the past century. The Connecticut Army National Guard sent a helicopter to help.
Helene was the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted an above-average season this year because of record-warm ocean temperatures.
Payne reported from Tallahassee, Florida, and Hollingsworth reported from Kansas City, Missouri. Associated Press journalists Seth Borenstein in New York; Jeff Amy in Atlanta; Russ Bynum in Valdosta, Georgia; Danica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Andrea Rodríguez in Havana; Mark Stevenson and María Verza in Mexico City; and Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, contributed.
Torrential rain from Hurricane Helene has caused lake levels to rise on Lake James, resulting in flooded docks and gazebos, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024 in Morganton, N.C. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)
Hailey Morgan, right, surveys the damage to their flooded home after returning with her children, Aria Skye Hall, 7, left, and Kyle Ross, 7, in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in Crystal River, Fla. Morgan stayed with her grandmother and her children in Hernando, Fla., as the storm made landfall. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
Destruction to the Faraway Inn Cottages and Motel is seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, in Cedar Key, Fla., Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A caravan of Army vehicles make their way through a street flooded by the passing of Hurricane John, in Acapulco, Mexico, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Bernardino Hernandez)
An airboat transports residents rescued from floodwaters in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024 in Crystal River, Fla. (Luis Santana/Tampa Bay Times via AP)
Leslie Sturmer, a University of Florida employee, and John Rittenhouse, general manager of the Cedar Key Water and Sewer District, both residents, talk in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, in Cedar Key, Fla., Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Foundations and steps to buildings that were destroyed by the storm surge from Hurricane Helene are seen along the shoreline in the aftermath of the storm, in Cedar Key, Fla., Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Stephen Smith)
A damaged 100-year-old home is seen after an Oak tree landed on it after Hurricane Helene moved through the area, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in Valdosta, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Thomas Chaves, left, and Vinny Almeida walk through floodwaters from Hurricane Helene in an attempt to reach Chaves's mother's house in the Shore Acres neighborhood Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Carlson)
This photo provided by Venice Police Department rescue crews assist residents after conducting door-to-door wellness checks, in coastal areas that were flooded by Hurricane Helene on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024 in Venice, Fla . (Venice Police Department via AP)
Residents work together to push a vehicle stuck on a street flooded by the passing of Hurricane John, in Acapulco, Mexico, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Bernardino Hernandez)
Capt. BJ Johnston, a law enforcement officer from the Florida Fish Wildlife and Conservation Commission surveys destruction from a high water buggy in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, in Cedar Key, Fla., Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A dog wades through floodwaters near collapsed homes in Dekle Beach on the coast of rural Taylor County, Fla., Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Kate Payne)
This satellite image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration taken at 6:11pm ET shows Hurricane Helene, which weakened into a post-tropical cyclone, over the United States on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (NOAA via AP)
A Citrus County Firefigher carries 11-year- old, Michael Cribbins, while conducting rescues from floodwaters in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024 in Crystal River, Fla. (Luis Santana/Tampa Bay Times via AP)
MJ Hodges, left, and her mother Jill Rice look at the damage caused to their store from the floodwaters of Hurricane Helene on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in Gulfport, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Carlson)
Dustin Holmes, rear, his girlfriend Hailey Morgan, and her children Aria Skye Hall, 7, left, and Kyle Ross, 4, right, arrive to their flooded home in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in Crystal River, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
This photo provided by U.S. Coast Guard District Seven (USCGSoutheast) shows a man and his dog being rescued after his sailboat became disabled during Hurricane Helene approximately 25 miles off Sanibel Island, Fla., on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (U.S. Coast Guard District Seven via AP)
Dustin Holmes, second from right, holds hands with his girlfriend, Hailey Morgan, while returning to their flooded home with her children Aria Skye Hall, 7, right, and Kyle Ross, 4, in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in Crystal River, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
Destruction to the Faraway Inn Cottages and Motel is seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, in Cedar Key, Fla., Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Stephen Smith)
Jill Rice looks over the damage to her store caused by flooding from Hurricane Helene on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in Gulfport, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Carlson)
