ATLANTA >> Authorities across the southeastern United States faced the daunting task today of cleaning up from Hurricane Helene, one of the most powerful and perhaps costliest to hit the country, as the death toll continued to rise.
At least 47 deaths were reported as of today, and officials feared still more bodies would be discovered across several states.
At least 47 deaths were reported as of today, and officials feared still more bodies would be discovered across several states.
Damage estimates across the storm’s rampage range between $95 billion and $110 billion, potentially making this one of the most expensive storms in modern U.S. history, said chief meteorologist Jonathan Porter of AccuWeather, a commercial forecasting company.
Downgraded late on Friday to a post-tropical cyclone, the remnants of Helene continued to produce heavy rains across several states, sparking massive flooding that threatened to cause dam failures that could inundate entire towns.
“The devastation we’re witnessing in Hurricane Helene’s wake has been overwhelming,” President Joe Biden said today. “Jill and I continue to pray for all of those who have lost loved ones and for everyone impacted by this storm.”At least 3 million customers remained without power this afternoon across five states, with authorities warning it could be several days before services were fully restored. The worst outages were in South Carolina with more than 1 million homes and businesses without power, and Georgia with 750,000 without power.
Some of the worst rains hit western North Carolina, which saw almost 30 inches fall on Mount Mitchell in Yancey County, the NWS’s Weather Prediction Center reported.
Atlanta was hit with 13 inches of rain, and in South Georgia farmers were assessing the damages to the state’s $1 billion cotton crop and $400 million pecan crop now in harvest season.
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 winds. It left behind a chaotic landscape of overturned boats in harbors, felled trees, submerged cars and flooded streets.
Police and firefighters carried out thousands of water rescues throughout the affected states on Friday.
Over 50 people were rescued from the roof of a hospital in Unicoi County, Tennessee, about 120 miles northeast of Knoxville, state officials said, after flood waters swamped the rural community.
The National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings overnight for a swath of eastern Tennessee covering 100,000 residents, warning them to seek higher ground. The Nolichucky Dam in Tennessee’s Greene County was on the brink of failure today, officials reported, adding that a breach could occur at any time.
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