PERRY, Fla. (AP) — Powerful rain brings heavy rain hurricane helen It began with a storm that killed at least 56 people and caused widespread destruction across the southeastern United States, leaving millions without power and leaving people stranded without shelter and awaiting rescue on Saturday.
“I’ve never seen as many people homeless as I do right now,” said Janalea England, who lives in Steinhatchee, Florida, a small river town along the rural Big Bend, and runs her commercial fish market. He said this while turning the site into a rainstorm donation site. For friends and neighbors. Many of them were unable to insure their homes.
helen blown to the shore It became a Category 4 hurricane in Florida’s Big Bend region late Thursday, with winds of 140 mph (225 kph).
From there it quickly moved through Georgia, and Gov. Brian Kemp said Saturday that it looked like a bomb had gone off, seeing destroyed homes and debris-covered highways from above. A weakened Helen then flooded the Carolinas and Tennessee with torrential rains, sending streams and rivers on both sides and straining dams.
western north carolina Landslides and flooding closed and isolated Interstate 40 and other roads. All of these closures delayed the start of East Tennessee State University football’s game against The Citadel, as the Buccaneers had to drive 16 hours to Charleston, South Carolina.
There have been hundreds of water rescues, but none as dramatic as this one in rural Unicoi County, East Tennessee. Dozens of patients and staff He was removed by helicopter from the roof of the hospital on Friday. Rescue efforts continued the next day in Buncombe County, North Carolina, where parts of Asheville were submerged under water.
“To say we were caught off guard by this would be an understatement,” said County Sheriff Quentin Miller.
There, a stream flooded and flooded Janetta Barfield’s car, reaching up to her knees before police were able to rescue her.
“It happened so suddenly that I felt like my life was in danger, because nothing like that had ever happened before,” said Barfield, a traveling nurse.
There have also been deaths in the county, but Emergency Services Director Van Taylor-Jones said he was not ready to provide details, in part because a downed cell phone tower prevented contacting next of kin. He said it has not been done.
Relatives appealed for help on Facebook. Among those waiting for news was Francine Kavanaugh. Her sister told her she was going to check on the guests at the vacation home because a storm was starting to hit Asheville. Kavanaugh, who lives in Atlanta, has not been heard from since then.
“I think people are completely stuck,” she says.
The storm is currently only a tropical storm and is expected to remain over the Tennessee Valley Saturday and Sunday, according to the National Hurricane Center.
‘catastrophic’ flood
The worst flooding in North Carolina in 100 years drew search and rescue teams from 19 states and the federal government, with Gov. Roy Cooper calling it “devastating.” One community, Spruce Pine, received more than 2 feet (0.6 meters) of rain from Tuesday to Saturday.
Atlanta also received 11.12 inches (28.24 centimeters) of rain in 48 hours, the heaviest amount of rain in two days for the city since record-keeping began in 1878.
President Joe Biden on Saturday called Helen’s plight “overwhelming” and pledged to send aid.
Helen is the deadliest tropical storm in South Carolina since Hurricane Hugo, which made landfall just north of Charleston in 1989 and killed 35 people. Deaths have also been reported in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.
Moody’s Analytics predicted property damage would be between $15 billion and $26 billion. AccuWeather’s preliminary estimates put the total damage and economic losses caused by Helen in the United States between $95 billion and $110 billion.
Climate change is worsening the conditions for such storms to form, and rising ocean temperatures can quickly intensify them, sometimes turning them into powerful cyclones within hours.
Evacuation and dam overflow
Evacuations began before the storm hit, followed by the lake. overflowing damThese include the lakes that form the North Carolina lakes featured in the movie “Dirty Dancing.” Helicopters were used to rescue some people from flooded homes.
Erin Fisher and her husband, who teach whitewater stand-up paddleboarding on Tennessee’s Nolichucky River, had to move their camper three times to prepare for rising waters.
And in Newport, Tennessee, Jonah Walk waited so long to be evacuated that a boat had to come to his rescue. “It’s definitely a scary moment,” Wark said.
After inspecting the damage from a helicopter, Congresswoman Diana Hershberger said, “Who would have thought that a hurricane would cause so much damage to East Tennessee?”
Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said the 11 confirmed deaths in Florida included nine people who drowned in their homes in the mandatory evacuation zone on the Gulf Coast of Pinellas County, where St. Petersburg is located.
None of the victims were from Taylor County, where the storm made landfall. that landed near the mouth of the Aucilla River, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) northwest of it; Hurricane Idalia hits Last year was about the same ferocity.
“Even with our best efforts, if we were told we were going to get 15 to 18 feet of storm surge, there would have been multiple deaths,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Saturday.
Taylor County is located in Florida’s Big Bend and hasn’t been hit by a hurricane in years. But after Idalia and two other storms in just over a year, the region is starting to feel like a hurricane superhighway.
“It’s making everyone aware of the reality of the disaster,” said John Berg, 76, of Steinhatchee, a small fishing town that is a weekend getaway.
Timmy Futch of Horseshoe Beach stayed put for the hurricane until he drove to higher ground when water reached his home. Many of the houses in the town that his grandfather helped find were reduced to piles of lumber.
“We watched our town fall apart,” Fucci said.
aftermath
Cars lined up before sunrise Saturday amid widespread power outages in Perry, Florida, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) north.
“We’re taking it one day at a time,” said Sierra Rand, who lost everything in her refrigerator and arrived at the scene with her sons, ages 5 and 10, and their grandmother.
Thousands of utility workers arrived in Florida ahead of the hurricane, and by Saturday they had restored power to more than 1.9 million homes and businesses. But hundreds of thousands of people in Georgia and Georgia remain without power.
Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency Director Chris Stallings said crews are focused on clearing routes to hospitals and ensuring supplies reach affected communities.
Helen was the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts this year’s season will be above normal. Due to record-breaking sea temperatures.
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Payne reported from Perry and Hollingsworth reported from Kansas City, Missouri. Associated Press journalist Seth Borenstein in New York; Travis Lawler of Nashville, Tennessee; Jeff Amy of Atlanta; Susan Haig of Hartford, Conn.; and Frieda Frisaro in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, contributed.
